I once asked a niece of mine when she was very young what she wanted to be when she grew up. She replied very simply ” I want to be happy”. 

I think all of us are seeking happiness and that is the basic stimulus for all our actions so when I was invited to a private screening of “Finding Happiness” last Saturday I accepted even though I was pressed for time.

The first shock


I decided to go more because it came highly recommended by R who had invited me in the first place and was quite shocked to see the room outside the auditorium filled with very intense looking people belonging to the Ananda community in America. I am always sceptical of cults and groupies and was a bit disconcerted to watch the movie.

The movie

Elisabeth Rohm of American Hustle fame plays Juliet, the hardnosed sceptical journalist from New York sent out to Northern California to get the story behind the Ananda Community, a settlement of like minded people established by Swami Kriyananda, a disciple of Paramhansa Yoganand. While the story and the magazine she represents are fictional, the community is very much real. They are real and they are really happy.Through a series of interviews Juliet gradually realised the key to happiness and goes back to New York a changed person for whom simple living means more than pursuing material pleasures.

While the movie is well made and engrossing, I couldn’t help the butterflies in my stomach while I watched the message unfurl in a movie that was essentially a PR exercise. However, once you deal with your misgivings you can actually sit down and appreciate the secret of happiness which is we should all live to be happy. And this happiness is within the reach of everyone of us who want to be happy all it requires is a change of attitude. A simple life style with Yoga and Meditation thrown in also helps.

Despite the community being non-religious and more spiritual, the teachings of Kriyananda draw heavily from Hinduism and the Bhagwad Gita in particular. Seeing old footage of the early settlers with long flowing beards and robes reminded me of Hippy communes and had me thinking whether Hindus are the original hippies after all?

Yay or nay?


Very simply put, this movie is worth a viewing because it does leave you feeling inspired and uplifted to find happiness in your daily life.