HINDUISM: Nasiruddin, the smuggler

Mullah Nasiruddin was a breeder of donkeys. Every Monday he would drive the donkeys across the border to a neighbouring country as there used to be a festival and a fair in the town across. The guards at the border used to let him go as he never carried any goods across, nor did he bring any goods back with him. This went on for quite a few months, so the guards began to get suspicious.
They would stop the mullah and check him and his donkeys thoroughly before allowing him to go. However, they never found anything in his possession. They checked him out every time, as they were almost sure that he smuggled something, but could find nothing.
The truth, dear friends, was that the mullah was smuggling donkeys across the border, selling some over there and returning in the evening with all the unsold ones. The guards always looked at what the donkeys were carrying but not the donkeys themselves.
Just like the very alert guards, our attention is always on externalities. We keep searching for happiness all our lives, but our attention and efforts are in the wrong place. The glittering objects of the world do not possess what we imagine they do. They are powerless to grant us what they have not. One can never get butter by churning sand, however much we may try.
Shift your searching gaze, dive deep within and you shall come upon the treasure house of true happiness, thy own self.
Give top priority to your date with yourself daily. Be unconditionally happy. Your inner peace and happiness is your treasure, for keeps. Guard it well. It is you who is being smuggled out daily, smuggled out of your happiness.
Prarthna Saran, President, Chinmaya Mission Delhi.