One day a man was walking home along a river next to an industrial area. This river was completely polluted, filthy and smelly. As he was walking, the man saw a shimmering in the river and when he looked, he saw a diamond necklace. He decided to get it. He put his hand in the filthy, dirty river and grabbed at the necklace, but somehow 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.
Just then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what the matter was. The man didn't want to tell 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 man to tell him the problem and promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The man 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, towards the branches of the tree, instead of in the filthy river. The men 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.
Material happiness is like searching in the filthy, polluted river; because it is just a mere reflection of TRUE happiness.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment