Where Is Happiness Hidden?

In ancient Afghanistan there was a young man who desperately sought happiness. One day she abandoned her parents, her brothers and went after her.

A few weeks later, on the banks of the river Helmand, he came across a fisherman and he commented that for him happiness lay in the vastness of the ocean.

Thus our boy descended to Iran and embarked on the high seas. He took barges, ships and ships, traveled the seas of the world through the routes of spices, and everyone asked the same thing: “Do you know where the ocean is?”

The sailors laughed uncomfortably at that strange question that seemed to mock them, but as they saw that the boy was asking it very seriously, they ended up answering him:

“This is where you are right now is the ocean, boy,” they said, pointing around him.

Then our boy looked at them confused, then looked at the vast horizon around him and said:

“Is this the ocean?” How can it be? If it is only the sea … I am looking for the ocean!

And so, he would get away from them and take a new boat to continue his search.

The accumulation of possessions

One fine day, a traveler revealed to him that happiness was hidden in wealth.

So the boy abandoned everything, left the sea and returned to land, and with it to fight against men, to seek opportunity, to amass money and more money. He paid taxes and tributes to the sultan, cultivated the fields and worked in the taverns at night, lived as a beggar, while greedily accumulating gold in a chest buried in the forest, safe from thieves.

One fine day he went with all his gold to the usurer and asked him:

“Where can I find the wealth?”

The usurer, seeing that treasure, opened his eyes in surprise and smiled:

“You’re already rich!” You have it all.

Our boy, who was not so young, replied:

-This? But if they are nothing more than gold coins … I am looking for wealth!

The usurer narrowed his eyes and stared at him, as if he were up to something.

“If you give me all these coins, I’ll tell you where you can find it.”

The boy accepted.

“You will find her far from here, in India, ” she said to get rid of him.

A voyage of discovery

So our boy left his land, left Kabul, and went on a pilgrimage. For months he traversed the Hunza Valley and the Thar Desert and, when he reached ancient Hindustan, he relentlessly traversed mountains and rivers.

One day he met a sadhu at the foot of a tree and asked him
, “ Master, where is India?”

The sadhu opened his eyes and laughed out loud at such a question.

“You are in India, young man.” This is India.

The boy looked around and saw only a few houses and the arid pink rock mountains of Rajasthan:

“How is this going to be India?” They are nothing but mountains and trees … I am looking for India! He exclaimed, and desperately walked away to continue looking elsewhere.

The search for knowledge

One morning, a pilgrim told him that happiness was hidden in knowledge, in the school of Benares. So the boy traveled to ancient Varanasi and arrived at the first Vedic school of mankind.

Entering his library, he saw countless books and scrolls, information from all of civilization, and asked:

“I am a pilgrim.” I am looking for knowledge, where can I find it?

The clerk smiled proudly at him and said:

“You’ll find it here.”

Our boy became his disciple and for years he sought knowledge in documents and manuscripts. One fine day he said to his teacher:

“But these are just books … And I’m looking for knowledge.”

When he was about to leave saddened, the preceptor stopped him and said:

-Waiting! I already know where you can find what you are looking for.

Our boy, who was almost an old man, became excited and raised his eyebrows with a glint of hope in his eyes.

-Where? He asked with the joy of a child.

The clerk led him into a dark old room behind the scriptorium, closed the door behind him and lit a small lamp, then grabbed his arm and guided him to one end, where he dropped a sheet covering an object. It was a mirror covered with dust and cobwebs in which his figure was reflected in a blurry way.

-Do you see? –Asked the teacher.

Our boy looked puzzled:

-To myself.

—Well, that’s where you will find everything you are looking for: the depth of the sea, the wealth, the transformation of the journey and the knowledge.

Because who knows himself knows that a drop of his being hides all the immensity of the ocean, that wealth depends on his desire, that we do not have to travel anywhere but within ourselves and that knowledge is nothing without it. wisdom.

Everything you seek is today, here and now, in you. That is the true happiness that you seek from your childhood.