The Secret Of Happiness

"The Secret Of Happiness" by Dimitri Karalis

The Russian writer Leo Tolstoy on his morning walk once observed a Caucasian farmer ploughing his land and singing out loud, stopping to ask him curiously. "Fellow countryman he said, if you knew for certainty that you will die this evening what would you do for the rest of the day? Ah...I will continue plowing until twilight falls, he replied joyfully". Look at the happy fellow, whispered Tolstoy, so much he adores his work that even when death approaches him, it doesn't scare him a bit!

Butterflies that live approximately forty-eight hours, work continuously by flying from flower to flower leaving countless eggs until their Soul departs them. Surely the work that brings supreme happiness has a reason to be loved so dearly?


The young children too are constantly moving when awake; they run, jump, cry and laugh at the smallest thing. Whatever moves in nature is healthier, stronger and doesn't rust or fall ill so easily. On the contrary all still stones, forgotten tools and lazy fellowmen mould, rust and lose prestige much earlier. All living things on earth and in the universal planets are moving constantly. Fountains, rivers, winds, clouds, stars, solar systems, galaxies, and moons run and turn like spinning tops without rest.

Every healthy human being likes to be physically constructive, like the hard working bees and ants, because only when industrious he feels healthier and prosperous. Plato used to say, never exercise your mind alone, but always together with the body. Like the inseparable Siamese, anywhere the one goes the other also must. What treasured thing it is to be happily busy! And what a catastrophic mistake is to be habitually lazy? "Idle mind, devils garden" said wise proverb.

When mind and body is not creatively occupied, they look for more food and other harmful habits. "Too much leisure and no work or play, makes Jack a dangerous bandit" says another proverb.

A few years ago when I was approaching my retirement, I thought to slow- down a little and enjoy life with less working as before. I built a house on a mountain slope facing the Ocean and started to read, write, gardening and short walks. Unfortunately I did not calculate well the side-effect of dropping my work so suddenly. My body, mind and soul whas not so happy with my abounded leisurely days, neither did my sleep refresh me as well as before. Being not so happy with my new development, I decided to do some extra work to avoid health deterioration. I remember once reading Plutarch's work about the habits of Alexander the Great, who he never ate, breakfast or lunch and only took an early small supper.

Ten years later when his empire reached until the far Indian plains, he decides to return to his first colonial grounds and retire from any war activities. He started to eat regularly and have merry times daily with his officer friends. Unfortunately his royal festiveness did not last too long, as he died much too early at thirty three (33) years of age. I hear rumors that he died from catching a high fever, others that he had been poisoned by jealous officers and some say that he died from malaria.

I respect all these views, but I would like also to give my opinion. "I believe if he had some more colonies to conquer, surely he would had lived much longer".

The secret of longevity is the love for work and not in idleness; we live to create, as this is the main purpose of our living.

The slothful drones, eat food from the honey-comb without replacing with new stock, for this reason the female bees kill them cold bloodedly for a better economy in the hive. Similar happens to the lazy characters; they are avoided, disliked and through illness removed from life earlier. Like an engine part that offers no useful work to the universal loom. Even the spirit is opposed to chronic laziness, as it communicates only with creative minds. "Laborare est orare" the Roman used to say, (work is my worship).

Perhaps that explained why idle clergy men are rarely spiritual. I don't deny that some of them could be good human beings but not spiritual, the corpses too are always good. Religious bigotry and celestial spirit is opposed to one another; when dogmatic fanaticism is established, celestial spirit is absent. One can be deeply religious and spiritually ignorant, but never spiritual and ignorant. Spirit is obtained only by creative activity. It is a momentous living current and needs constant renewing like the oxygen that we breathe.

Work though to be spiritually constructive, needs to satisfy the mind and soul first, otherwise it is like a servile labor that atrophies and weakens the individual Soul. Every human is born with a certain inner call to explore in life which is named talent, and when discovered, performed with inexhaustible passion and enviable perfections.

In vain we search to find work far way from our biological charisma, because rarely we will find pleasure and creativity in it. By allowing our minds to follow the inner magnetic voice, we discover instantaneous our real work. Like the fishes out of water, who suddenly touching the river or the sea, resume their lost happiness?

The swallows gathers tender sticks with mortar of clay to build their nests under balconies, are happy.

The storks carry strong rods and resilient grasses to build their dwellings in high belfries are also happy.