Heaven or Hell

I've always said and believed that people create their own Heaven or Hell on this earth through their own conducts. No one can have everything possible as it is entirely impossible! Satisfaction is a temporary state of mind that eventually evaporates, no matter how strong at the time. It is human nature to want more. Regardless of how much a person may have, the desire to gain some more never dies. There is absolutely no end to human desires on its on.

In a way, it's a good thing. It gives one motivation to set and achieve goals. It also pursues one to go after something in life ...but here comes the real problem. What goal to set and what path to choose to attain that goal?

Knowledge and education are the tools that are supposed to aid one make wise decisions. It is a beautiful and much desirable situation when personal satisfaction also brings satisfaction to the others in the society. A growth of such personal achievements helps a society grow in strength and harmony. On the other hand, when personal satisfaction is based on selfish motives, someone else in the society is bound to get hurt. In this scenario, a growth of such personal satisfaction will lead to unrest and resentment in the society.

We are living in an age where everyone is after personal gratification. There was a time when dwelling in self pleasures was considered highly vain. People used to shy away from admiring their own reflections in the mirrors in public. Not anymore! Now a days everyone is self obsessed taking selfies with their phones and cameras. Social media has open gates to new vanity struggles. There's a constant desire and competition to be appreciated and recognized. Jealousies are rising based on petty stuff such as number of likes or comments on posts. People are becoming friends in the cyber world without having a single clue about each other. Reality is giving way to pretension, leading to demise of moral codes and lack of satisfaction.

Abundance of knowledge, information and awareness have trapped everyone in a web of dissatisfaction. The plethora of information has opened wide doors to all sorts of knowledge, desired and undesired. There is a lot more freedom of thought and expression with less restrictions. Privacy is becoming an issue with a lot of personal information being exchanged on social networks.

So much exposure has given rise to personal comparisons. People are no longer contented in their own surroundings. There is an old saying in the east that living within the boundaries of one's own household brings peace of mind. Now a days, people get bored within their homes. It is as if they constantly want to live outside their homes. The reason is that unending pursuit of fun and leisure. There is a rat race of who is having how much fun and how! There can be no limit to these things. Actually fun looses its charm if it's constant as we observe in the case of celebrities who go after notorious ways to entertain themselves.

Earthly Heaven and Hell are states of mind in one's own hands. Life can be Heaven if internal peace is achieved through containing worldly desires. Relentlessly comparing and competing with others for worldly gains is only going to take away mental peace and make life a living hell. More than ever, now is the time for all of us to practice self restraints and learn self containment.