Magazine - Year 2017 - Version 1
Media: TEXT
Language: ENGLISH
Language: ENGLISH
Quest for Joy
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Man wanders throughout his life in search of joy and blissful peace. For this purpose, he acquires hordes
of wealth, worldly comforts, good health, delicious food, palatial house, vehicles, servants, gorgeous
clothes, beauty, loving family, faithful friends, supporters all around, power, prestige, name and fame,
security, and what not. People who lack in any of these strive for their possession; those, who already
have, try to amass more with new passion.
This scenario is like that of the tale of the swan, which has been hunting for the pearl since ages, but finds nothing but a drop of dew. Why? Because, it did not really search for the pearl; did not even turn his face in the direction of the grand “Mansarovar” where the pearls are hidden in the depths. It did not gather the courage and strength to fly so long. Short-sighted and pleasure-hungry mind advised it – “What is the guarantee that you will find that in unseen “Mansarovar”; and who knows whether there will really be any pearl and you would trace it”. So it satisfied itself with the shining drops of dew; licked it and thought it has quenched the thirst; it flew for some time and the thirst recurred with greater intensity.
The cycle continues. This is what happens with most of us who keep searching for ‘immortal’ joy in the mirage of perishable world, keep accumulating more of what gives only a momentary pleasure but keeps us away from the sight of real bliss.
-Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya
This scenario is like that of the tale of the swan, which has been hunting for the pearl since ages, but finds nothing but a drop of dew. Why? Because, it did not really search for the pearl; did not even turn his face in the direction of the grand “Mansarovar” where the pearls are hidden in the depths. It did not gather the courage and strength to fly so long. Short-sighted and pleasure-hungry mind advised it – “What is the guarantee that you will find that in unseen “Mansarovar”; and who knows whether there will really be any pearl and you would trace it”. So it satisfied itself with the shining drops of dew; licked it and thought it has quenched the thirst; it flew for some time and the thirst recurred with greater intensity.
The cycle continues. This is what happens with most of us who keep searching for ‘immortal’ joy in the mirage of perishable world, keep accumulating more of what gives only a momentary pleasure but keeps us away from the sight of real bliss.
-Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya
