Are dogs happier than humans?

Ninad Gadre, who used to be a good friend of mine always used to say that dogs look much happier than humans. He somewhere really felt that humans are sinners and that’s why they are humans and the dogs have must have done something really virtuous in their past life and hence they are happier than humans. The reason behind saying so was the calm and relaxed appearance of dogs, which used to be sleeping on the boat club while students running around doing lectures and submissions with their faces much sadder than those of the dogs.  Some authors have written about dogs being better than humans. But no one has taken efforts to find out if dogs are really happier than humans or not.

Are dogs happier than humans?

Though religious scriptures claim that human life  most valuable and most difficult to get, it can be seen that many dogs are living happier than human beings. At the same time, if you look at road side dogs also, they look much silent and satisfied than human beings. This might very well create the illusion that dogs are happier and even more satisfied than human beings.

Just as dogs do, babies also appear to be happier and satisfied than the grown up humans, The curiosity, innocence, calmness and completeness in the eyes of small babies is completely missing in the eyes of grown ups. Grown up human beings are mostly frustrated, angry, annoyed and cursing things around them. So, would it really be better if we were dogs instead of humans? Or, would we have been more happier if god kept us always like a baby? I know many people around who cannot forget their childhood and repent being grown up.

Happiness: Innocence and ignorance

As always, Osho comes to our help to solve this issue. As Osho says, both ignorant and innocent beings are happy. But, this does not mean that one should be ignorant all the time. In our day-to-day life also, we can see that persons, who are ignorant and reckless, are always happier than those who are serious about things. Dogs and babies are happy because they are ignorant- natural ignorance. So, are dogs happier than humans? No. They cannot be. Momentary calmness should not be confused with happiness.

Considering all this, where do we human beings stand? We are somewhere in middle- between ignorance and innocence; struggling to attain permanent happiness.  As Nietzsche also says, we are standing somewhere on a bridge between divinity and devil. I guess, this devil nature is another word for ignorance and divinity being the another word for innocence.

I also remember a very famous statement made by Socrates-

I would rather live as dissatisfied man than living as a satisfied pig.

I guess by saying this, Socrates also wanted to warn human beings that do not be satisfied pigs or in other words, do not be satisfied with happiness which comes out of ignorance. In order to be innocent, first one has to be aware and awareness initially brings dissatisfaction. But, as one tries to understand the things around him, the ignorance gets transformed into innocence which brings the eternal joy, which is not dependant on external situations but something which comes from inside. This joy cannot be taken away from you, as it was with Socrates even when he took the poison and left this world!