A simple book on how to find happiness

Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn to introduce me to Robin Singh‘s Happiness Happens: Happiness For Those Who Have Everything Else. Published by Ebury Press, an imprint of Penguin Randon House India, this was a nice closure (for now!) to my (pro) vegan book review series.

A casual, honest nonfiction book that’s a quick read, this is like a self-help book wrapped in memoir. We learn how, when Singh lived in India, a misspelled email address led to him landing a job in the USA and eventually running a tech company in 2010 that set him financially free.

Despite this freedom, Singh questioned the meaning of life. He realized that every time we consume, someone somewhere in the world suffers, thus leading him on a quest back to India to live a simpler life.

Part of figuring out his life’s purpose led to him running a dog sanctuary, where he volunteered to ease the suffering of dogs. He eventually managed the sanctuary and started a dog sterilization program, but he realized there were limits to the impact he could have this way.

Here’s Singh’s short film, Once Upon a Time in Spiti:

In the book we learn about how Singh bought land and started building what would become Peepal Farm in 2014. Without spoiling the rest, here are my other highlights worth mentioning:

• Life isn’t fair, and we all have a suffering footprint. Is your pursuit of happiness causing suffering? This is why it’s important for us to know why we pursue what we do.
• My interpretation of Singh’s definition of “life purpose” is an existential, collective purpose, something that helps many people, not just yourself. This purpose balances out the unfairness of life.
• There could be a trade-off of freedom when you fulfill your life purpose. This is okay because you will eventually suffer less, and happiness will be a byproduct of your practicing life skills.
• In the West, we could reframe happiness as simply changing our default state, not trying to achieve it constantly.
• Some technology and convenience can reduce collective suffering. (I think it’s in how we use the tools we create.)
• Where can you start to discover your life purpose, especially if you don’t have many resources? Start locally and give food, water, and love. Long-term, aim for other ways you can help people, animals, and the planet reduce long-term suffering (becoming vegan is a great way to do this!).

Hopefully, this gives you a taste of the simple wisdom that’s in Happiness Happens. It’s a great book you can open a page to when you feel like you’re suffering. Thank you, Robin—may this book touch everyone who reads it.

Would you pay for a Substack version of this (pro)vegan book review series? Let me know!

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