Whatever our understanding of the purpose of life, it surely cannot be divorced from the meaning it affords to our life and thereby contributes to our happiness. As with all other things, all our efforts, either directly or indirectly, are aimed at happiness, whether we seek it through pleasure or any other pursuits.
Unhappiness can be due to bodily, mental, intellectual, or moral deficiencies or maladjustments to life and its processes. Whatever the cause of unhappiness, what it does eventually is that it makes our mind restless to either get rid of the source of unhappiness or acquire the missing source of happiness. In either case, the mind quietens down when we so succeed. With the mind quietening down, peace and happiness prevail, whatever we take to be the source of that peace and happiness. Ultimately, if we want to be at peace and happy, our minds should be quiet.
When the mind is thinking of fulfilling a desire it cannot be quiet and will be full of thoughts in the form of plans and blueprints to fulfill that desire. When the mind is thus full of thoughts, we cannot experience peace and happiness. And, in such a situation, there are only two ways for the mind to become quiet – (1) Either fulfill the desire or (2) Realize that you are disturbing your mind by desiring something and thereby causing unhappiness for yourself and thus such understanding making you realize the problem that a desire, any desire, actually is.
Now, one may ask what is the problem in fulfilling one’s desires if we become happy thereby. But, the thing about fulfilling a desire is that the mind does not stay quiet for very long and starts to experience another desire, and thereby the cycle starts again.
Given the above scenario and if you understand such to be the case, use your own judgment as to how you will deal with that.
Know Thyself 