The greatest culprit of discontentment is our chronic ailment of looking up. If my neighbour has a 32” LCD television, I must have a 46” television of the same description. If my neighbour dumps his old car and goes in for a bigger car, I must also dump my old car and get a car that is bigger than the one that he is going to get.

We perpetually create and run after status symbols. We want to own everything that the people who are better off have at their disposal. We make it a prestige issue. We are on an eternal rat race for one-up-man-ship with our neighbours; with other fellow citizens; in fact, with everyone. The net result of this unquenchable thirst for more is discontentment and depression.

When we jump into the fray, there is no end to our wants. We want everything. We want the best of everything. But, we have limited resources. So, we borrow money from banks; from relatives; from friends; from here and there. We carve for ourselves a life with an unending stream of debts. We are in such a hurry to get things that we do not stop to think that we have to return all the money at some point of time. Not just the money we borrow but also the interest that accrues on it.

When India attained her independence the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, said something that is worth remembering. He said: there is enough in this country to feed all our needs… but, not our greed. That holds the secret of contentment.

Now, if we are greedy…if we want everything we see…there can be no contentment. Contentment will simply evade us. If we choose to look up to people who are more privileged and try to match up to them, we will always be discontented. If we look at people who are in the same boat as we are in, we would be more contented.

The secret of contentment lies not in looking at people who are more privileged but in looking at people who are less privileged than us and comparing our lives with theirs. We would immediately realize how privileged we are. That would bring an enormous amount of satisfaction and contentment.

If you look up to people who are more privileged, you would be reminded of what you do not have. That will trigger discontentment. If you look at people who are less privileged, you will realize how privileged you are. That will pave the way for contentment.

I cannot think of a better quote to drive home my point than the one we find in the Holy Bible. It says: I complained to God that I had no shoes…and, then, I saw a man who had no feet! That, if you ask me, is the secret of contentment.