Real happiness

Real happiness

June 2014

Once there was a king who had presented his daughter with a beautiful diamond necklace. Sadly, the necklace was stolen. The king offered a reward of Rs 50,000 for anyone who found it. One day, a clerk was walking along a polluted river next to an industrial area. Suddenly, the clerk saw something shimmering in the river and when he looked, he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to catch it so that he could get the reward. He put his hand in the filthy river and grabbed at the necklace, but somehow missed it. He looked again and the necklace was still there.

This time he waded into the river, and put his whole arm in to catch the necklace. But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out and started walking away, feeling depressed. Then again he saw the necklace, right there. This time he was determined to get it. He plunged into the dirty river and searched everywhere, and yet he failed. Just then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what the matter was. He told the saint about the necklace and how he had tried repeatedly to catch it without success. The saint then told him to try looking upward, toward the branches of the tree, instead of the filthy river. The clerk looked up and sure enough, the necklace was dangling from the branch of a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real necklace all this time! Material happiness is just like the filthy, polluted river; it is a mere reflection of the true happiness of the spiritual world. We can never achieve the happiness we are looking for no matter how hard we endeavour in material life. Instead we should look upwards, toward God, who is the source of real happiness.

-Lekh Raj Shori