with a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his
people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. Some
said a bird may have stolen it. The king then asked them all to search
for it and put a reward for $50,000 for anyone who found it.
One day a clerk was walking home along a river next to an industrial
area. This river was completely polluted and filthy and smelly. As he
was walking, the clerk saw a shimmering in the river and when he looked,
he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it so that he
could get the $50,000 reward. He put his hand in the filthy, dirty river
and grabbed at the necklace, but missed it and didn't catch it.
He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there.
He tried again, this time he walked in the river and dirtied his pants in
the filthy 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, no matter what. He decided to plunge into the river, although
it was a disgusting thing to do as the river was polluted, and his whole
body would become filthy. He plunged in, and searched everywhere for the
necklace and yet he failed. This time he was really bewildered and came out
feeling very depressed that he could not get the necklace that would get him
$50,000.
Just then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what was
the matter. The clerk didn't want to share the secret with the saint,
thinking the saint might take the necklace for himself, so he refused to tell
the saint anything. But the saint could see this man was troubled and being
compassionate, again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and
promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The clerk mustered some
courage and decided to put some faith in the saint. He told the saint about
the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it, but kept failing. The
saint then told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, toward the
branches of the tree, instead of in the filthy river. The clerk looked up and
true enough, the necklace was dangling on the branch of a tree. He had
been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real necklace all this time.
Moral of the story:
Material happiness is just like the filthy, polluted river; because it is a
mere reflection of happiness in the spiritual world. We can never achieve
the happiness we are looking for no matter how hard we endeavor in
material life. Instead we should look upwards, toward God, who is the
source of real happiness, and stop chasing after the reflection of this
happiness in the material world. This spiritual happiness is the only thing
that can satisfy us completely.
"HAPPINESS IS NOT HAVING WHAT YOU WANT, BUT WANTING WHAT YOU HAVE."
