Introduction- Every man wants
happiness.But it is doubtful whether everyone can make himself happy.
Common idea of happiness-The common idea of happiness is to enjoy the materialo comfots of life.A man is said to be happy when he gets the necessities of life-a good house to live in,good food, decent clothes, and other things that he requires for his comfortable living.So according to this standard happiness lies in enjoying the material comforts of life.
How our ancestors can claim to be happy-While thinking of our ancestors, we do not think of primitive men. These men were surely better than lower animals. They had no dwelling houses. They lived on fruit and flesh of animals. They were ignorant people. So when we speak of our ancestors, we mean those people who lived a few generation before us.These people lived a smiple life.They had few wants. They had few worries. They got plenty of good food. Everything was then cheap. They possessed sound health. They were generally god-fearing. They were contented people.Hence they lived happily. From this standpoint we think they were happy.
Our claim to be happy-Science progressed very little during the days of our ancestors. At present science has made a great progress.It has increased our material comforts which our ancestors could not dream of. We have good houses to live in. We have electricity. This has added to the comforts of men in many respects.If we have money enough, we have not to suffer any inconvenience. We get everything ready for our comfortable living. We have better means of transport-trains,steamers, motorcars and aeroplanes.We get medicine when we are ill.Medical science has greatly advanced.Many diseases are cured. These could not be cure in the long past.Education has spread much. Men are now more enlightened than their ancestors. So we think we are happier than our ancestors.
Conclusions-It is difficult to say whether our ancestors or we are happier.If material comforts of life are only cosidered,we seem to be happy. But happiness does not always depend on the enjoyment of the material comforts of life.In order to be happy we must have peace of mind also.But in modern times very few men have peace of mind. Along with material comforts we have created many wants. We have worries which destory the peace of mind.Our ancestors did not enjoy material comforts like us but they lived a simpley but peaceful life.They had few wants and worries of life. In this respect they seemed to be happier than we.But modern science has tried to make our life comfortable if we have money enough. Avoiding the worries of life as far as possible, we can make us happy.