Preface

I remember that day in August 2015. Rain was pouring in cats and dogs for the whole night and was not in the mood of stopping. The morning was as usual as every other working day morning and I was in the competition with the clock needles to avoid my late mark in the office.

I started my car and headed towards my office on usual time, but the time was not good for me that day. After driving for about ten minutes, my car stopped all of a sudden. I tried all the possible ways to start my car from inside the car. As it was raining heavily, I was reluctant to get outside. But the car horns from behind my car and the angry eye sights of passing by vehicle drivers compelled me to step out of the car to take it to the road side.

I was completely drenched within seconds after stepping out of the car. I started pushing my car to the road side with one hand while controlling the steering wheel with the other. It was a damn difficult job. Looking at my pitiful situation, a roadside vegetable seller came to help me and with his help I managed to park my car properly.

My mind was full of irritation by this time. I was so irritated with the situation that I forgot to thank that vegetable seller and stopped an auto.
I reached office late by half an hour and worked for the day with the wet clothes on my body for all those hours. I made lot of mistakes in my work that day, scolded my juniors for no reason, argued with an auto diver over the change on way back home.
My daughter was waiting for me to take her to play that evening. I didn’t pay any attention to her and she turned grouchy. I yelled at her. She got disappointed for some time and started playing on her own like a good daughter of a bad father. I didn’t appreciate my wife for making delicious new dish for the dinner. I just ate the dinner in complete silence and went to the bed.
How many hearts did I break that day with my one wrong reaction towards raised situation?

Instead what I would have done? When my car broke down, I would have understood that I can’t do anything about it that time. I would have called up to the office saying I will be late, would have parked the car to the road side with the help of that vegetable seller, would have thanked him with gratitude, would have offered some money to him as a reward for the efforts he took, would have returned home without over-reacting on the change, would have changed the wet clothes and would have reached office late, but happily in nice dry clothes.

This would have avoided all the unhappy consequences occurred in the evening.
Next day, when I gave a second thought over this day, I realized that I spoiled my own day with my wrong reaction to the raised situation that wasn’t in my control. It was my choice how to respond, rather than react, to the situation.
We often react to the situation or some other person. I we change our reaction into response, our lives will be happy as they were never before.

This book will guide you through the basics of ‘Happiness Sutra’ that will make you ready to learn and practice responding to the situations.