Quote of the Week...from Mohandas Gandhi

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
                                                                                                  ---Mohandas Gandhi

My most immediate reaction from this quote, which I picked up watching my Cox Cable TV's ambient music channel (943), has nothing to do with its content: the attribution is "Mohandas" Gandhi, the celebrated hero of India's independence movement and a pioneer in peaceful resistance.  I'd always used the name "Mahatma"...another of his quotes shown on the very same channel uses it as well...so which one is it?  After further investigation, it turns out that Mohandas was his original first name and that Mahatma, meaning "great soul", was later given him by a famous Indian poet.  Either usage is fine, but now I kind of like Mohandas more...

The second most immediate reaction I got is that Gandhi's words are about happiness and how to attain it...a very common theme in many famous quotes, especially among those that pop up on my television screen.  And they all seem to have one thing in common: seeking happiness in itself simply doesn't work...it always seems to be the result of focusing on something else.  And that "something else", in Gandhi's opinion, is to coordinate your thoughts, words, and actions to make them congruent and your life consequently one of integrity.  I can't say I disagree with this, and it is a pretty simple formula to reach that blissful state we all want to experience...but I also have to admit to having a long way to go before I reach that "harmony".  I try to think of fictional characters that embody Gandhi's quote and I immediately came up with two: Hassan, of Khaled Hosseini's book The Kite Runner (which I just finished reading), and Forrest Gump.  But I don't necessarily have to delve into fiction in order to find role models...there are a few folks I know who appear to be more or less in tune with their thoughts, words, and deeds...and yes, they seem to be happy as well...