The Illusion of Reflection (inspirational story)

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The Illusion of Reflection

--Author Unknown

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 may have stolen it. The king then asked them all

to search for it and offered a reward of $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, 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 to grab it, so he could get the $50,000 reward. He

put his hand in the filthy, dirty river and grabbed at the necklace,

but somehow missed it.

He took his hand out, looked again, and the necklace was still there.

He tried again. This time he walked in and dirtied his pants in the

filthy river and put his whole arm in to grab 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, 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, promising 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.

Bottomline: Material happiness is just like the filthy,

polluted river; because it is a mere reflection of the TRUE happiness

in the spiritual world. We don't achieve the happiness we are looking

for, no matter how hard we endeavor in the material life. Instead we

should look upward, 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.