Conquest of Happiness- 1

Human Stupidity
Albert Einstein once mentioned: There are two things in this world which are infinite. One is the universe and the other, human stupidity. He qualified this statement by saying.' While I am not sure about the former, I am sure about the latter.' That is the influence of human stupidity on life. We have acquired tremendous growth in knowledge. We also have a rich heritage of knowledge base which provides answers to all problems of mankind provided we tap it and use it properly. We all want to be happy. But we don't want to exert and benefit from the rich fountain of knowledge to keep our lives rooted in happiness. In spite of such vast amount of knowledge being available we have closed our eyes to sift the relevant ones for lasting happiness. That is the achievement of man and his stupidity.

In an expanding universe with billions of planets, stars and galaxies, with galaxies flying at a speed exceeding 160000 miles per hour and one trying to swallow the other, man is suspended in space on a planet flying at a speed of 1600 miles per hour. He is only a speck of dust too insignificant to be noticed even by the largest of electron microscopes. He lives on the strength of his ignorance and does not seem to dilute the intensity of stupidity. He continues to live on the boosted ego creating problems for others and for him by misusing his gift of the human body with the mind and intellect.This stupidity is prevalent and manifested in every field of activity.

When we open the morning newspaper our eyes go through various types of news. Most of them are horrifying depicting murder, accidents, and crimes against women, war, robbery and the like. This unsettles the mind; the mind is loaded with disturbing thoughts and we feel unhappy over the events. Unplesant memories of these events haunt us for a few days at least and they are over taken by similar events and memories in subsequent weeks. This chain goes on and the continuity in the flow of unhappiness is maintained.