THE DIAMOND NECKLACE

Once there was a businessman who had presented his daughter with a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and the police searched everywhere but could not find it. The businessman then requested the public to search for it and announced a big reward for anyone who found it.

One day a clerk was walking home along a river near an industrial area. This river was much polluted, filthy and smelt foul. As he was walking, the clerk saw something shining in the river and when he looked closer, he saw the diamond necklace. He put his hand in the filthy, dirty river and grabbed at the necklace, but some how missed it. He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there. He tried again, this time he stepped into the river 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 he saw the necklace again, 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 dirty. He plunged in, and searched everywhere for the necklace and yet he failed. This time he was really bewildered and came out feeling very sad that he could not get the necklace that would get him the reward.

Just then a saint who was walking by, saw him, and asked him what the matter was. 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 inform 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 his many failed attempts to get it. 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 sure 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.
This material world is a reflection of the spiritual world. The material world is but a shadow of reality. In the shadow there is no reality or substantiality, but from the shadow we can understand that there are substance and reality. 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 endeavour in material life. Instead we should look toward Lord Krishna, who is the source of real happiness, and stop chasing after the perverted reflection of this happiness in the material world.