What is the price of happiness?
Once there was a king
who had presented his daughter, the princess, 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 might have stolen it. The
king then asked them all to search for it and put a reward for Rs.5,00,000 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, 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 Rs.5,00,000 reward.
He put his hand in the
filthy, dirty river and grabbed at the necklace, but somehow missed it and did
not 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 Rs.5,00,000.
Just then a saint who
was walking by, saw him, and asked him what the matter was. The clerk did not
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 clerks looked up and
true enough, the necklace was dangling on the branch of a tree !!!
All along, the clert had
been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real necklace all this time.
We cannot do our part
unless we have unlocked the door and found something within.
Material happiness is
just like the filthy, polluted river, because it is a mere reflection of the
TRUE 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.
Happy people know that happiness is a choice.
They know it is not a reaction to present circumstances. Instead, happiness is
an available decision despite them. They have removed the thinking that waits
for everything to be perfect before joy in life is experienced.
On the other hand, unhappy people are
always searching for happiness. They believe happiness is reliant upon the
acquisition of something new or something different. They are constantly
chasing, but never attaining. Often times, they search for it in all the wrong
places.
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Amazing story
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