IN THE PRESENT WORK, WE EXTEND CARISTI'S fixed point theorem, EKELAND'S VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE AND TAKAHASHI'S MAXI-MIZATION theorem TO FUZZY METRIC SPACES IN THE SENSE OF GEORGE AND VEERAMANI [A. GEORGE, P VEERAMANI. ON SOME RESULTS IN FUZZY METRIC SPACES, FUZZY SETS AND SYSTEMS. 64 (1994) 395-399]. FURTHER, A DIRECT SIMPLE PROOF OF THE EQUIVALENCES BETWEEN THESE theoremS IS PROVIDED. ALSO SOME ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES ARE GIVEN.