Finding your happiness

SARA BUBBER shares a Sufi tale about finding happiness and two fun activities to help you discover yours.

There is no way of finding mental well-being without being happy. Happiness cannot be sought outside. It can only come from within.

This World Mental Health Day brings a wonderful story on finding your happiness, which leads to inner peace.

A Sufi Tale

Once upon a time, there was a rich man who was trying to search for happiness, joy, and bliss. He was willing to pay any amount to anyone who could give him the key to happiness. He went from teacher to teacher, but no one could satisfy him. He was not happy. One day he went with a bag of jewels and set them down in front of a Sufi master. He asked him to teach him how to be happy. Sufi teachers rarely answer questions. They create situations that lead to great learning.

The Sufi teacher picked up the bag of jewels and ran away! The rich man was in shock for a few minutes, as he couldn’t believe what had happened. He saw a great Sufi teacher running away with most of his savings. When he regained his senses, he began running and yelling, “I have been robbed!” He looked for the teacher, but the Sufi master knew every lane and by lane of the village and could escape easily.

The town folk gathered and began to console him. They asked him to be calm. The rich man wondered how could he be calm when everything that he owned was in the bag. He was ruined! All that he could think of was how he would have to beg for a living and what a fool he had been to leave his jewels so carelessly.

The rich man and the entire town began to look for the teacher. After a few hours, they found the teacher exactly where the rich man had met him the first time. He was sitting the same way and the bag of jewels was lying where the man had placed them. The man was excited to see his life savings and jumped towards it with eagerness. He hugged the bag and sighed in relief. 
The Sufi teacher asked, “Are you happy?” 
The man replied, “I have never been so happy before!”

Activity 1

Draw a scene, a view or a thing that you have looked at before, but when you look at it now, you observe something different and it gives you some joy or happiness to notice new things.

Activity 2

The well-being of your mind and body are connected. Don’t forget to nourish your body, mind, and soul to achieve the pinnacle of health. Let’s explore the koshas (sheaths) and see what we do for them, and what we would like to do to keep them healthy.