The Truth Of Life

Once there lived a king who presented his daughter with a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace got stolen and his people searched everywhere is the kingdom but failed to find it. Then after all the efforts, the king made an announcement in the village that whatsoever finds the necklace will be rewarded with one lakh rupees.

One day a woodcutter was walking home along a river. This river was completely polluted, smelly, and filthy. As he was walking he saw something shining in the river, when he carefully looked it was the diamond necklace. He decided to catch it so that he could get 1 lakh is.

Irrespective of the dirty river he put his hands inside the filthy river and grabbed at the necklace but somehow missed it. He looked again at the necklace, it will still there. He tried again but this time he walked up in the river and dirtied his pants and put his whole arm around, to catch the necklace. But strangely he still missed the necklace. He came out and started walking away, feeling depressed.

He turned around towards the river and saw the necklace was the right there. This time he was determined to get it no matter what. He decided to dive into the filthy river, although it was a disgusting act because his whole body would become filthy. He jumped in searched everywhere but failed.

He was very puzzled because he was able to see the necklace but not able to catch hold of it. Just then a saint who saw him asked what is the matter. The woodcutter did not want to share the secret thinking that the saint might take the necklace. So he refused to tell anything to the saint. The saint again asked him what the matter is. You seem to be troubled? I promise you I will not tell anyone about it.

The woodcutter gathered some courage and told the saint about the necklace and how he tried but failed each time. The saint smiled and told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, towards the branches of the tree, the woodcutter looked up and to his surprise, the necklace was hanging on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere reflection of the necklace.

From this story, we can learn that material happiness is just like the filthy polluted river because it is a mere reflection of true happiness, we should look upwards, towards the source of real happiness and stop chasing a reflection in a material world.