YOU ARE HAPPY IN SPITE OF...
Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Many a time you laugh, not because you have a desire fulfilled. In fact, most of our moments of happiness are picked up when no desire is fulfilled.
I will tell you a story. It is a village episode. Some times a village episode is nice to hear. From this village a boy was getting married to a girl in another village twenty miles away. This happened in Tanjore district, Tamil Nadu. The custom here is that when the bridegroom goes to the bride's place in another village where the marriage is to take place, he is received with a lot of pomp. He is given a new set of clothes. Till then, he has to wear some clothes that look nice. The boy was wearing his shirt and dhoti all right, but he had no angavastram, upper cloth. An angavastram can look very beautiful on one's shirt. But this boy did not have one. Generally, you get these things only after the marriage, at the cost of the father-in-law! But he had a friend of his own age who was rich. He had many gold-laced angavastram. They are nicely folded and when they are opened they look like a hand-fan. It is very beautiful. He asked his friend, “Give me the best one that you have. I will give it back to you after I get my new ones.” He thus borrowed a very good angavastram from him and wore it. His friend also wore one. The bridegroom and his friend went to the other village along with all others in the village.
A marriage is a very important event in any village. The whole village is out. In fact, they stop cooking for four days. When these two well dressed young men were seen in the marriage group, naturally, the ladies in the village were all curious to know who the bridegroom of their girl was. They figured out that one of these two must be the bridegroom. Everybody else was older. These were the two fellows who looked bright with nice clothes and so on. One woman came forward and asked who the bridegroom was. They won't ask the bridegroom directly. In front of him they would ask who the bridegroom was. This bridegroom is old-fashioned and therefore he is shy. He does not answer saying, “I am the bridegroom”. Else they would come to a conclusion. These people are very judgmental.
So his best friend has to answer. The bridegroom, in fact, requires a best man even to button his shirt. I don't know whether they are nervous on that day. So, his friend does the buttoning of the shirt and even the dhoti he has to tie. The best man has to answer because the bridegroom won't answer.
His friend therefore said, “This is the bridegroom but the jarry angavastram is mine”. Then another woman came and asked “Who is the bridegroom?” The friend answered, “This is the bridegroom but the jarry angavastram is mine!” The bridegroom got upset. He pulled him by his ears and told him, “Idiot, why did you say the angavastram is yours? Let it be mine for some time. I'll give it to you later. Don't say it is your angavastram” The friend said, “Okay”.
Another woman came and asked, “Who is the bridegroom?” The best man said, “This is the bridegroom. The angavastram really belongs to him”. One more person asked the same question. He said the same thing. The bridegroom got so upset that he called him aside, and said, “You shut up. Don't talk about the angavastram” The best man said, “Okay.” Then, another person came and asked “Who is the bridegroom?” He said, “He is the bridegroom but don't ask me anything about the angavastram!!!
You all laughed. How many desires did you fulfil now? It is very clear you don't require to have a desire fulfilled to laugh.