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VII. "HOW I LOOK AT
ANOTHER!"
A man approached his guru and asked him. "Master! How can I be free of sorrow?" It was a big question. To live in a world of sorrow and yet be free of it.
The guru said, “Well, we shall talk about it. But first bring mo the cloak of a man who is entirely happy."
The man entered a house and asked, "Brother, you are all happy here?"
Everything is all right as long as the question is not posed. The sea is calm as long as there is no storm. But let the winds blow and the storm arise, and it is all commotion. The stillness vanishes as if it were never there. Likewise, it is all right as long as the question is not posed; when it is posed, nothing seems to go right:
The householder said, “Happy? My neighbour is such a scoundrel, creating new problems for me everyday. How can I be happy In fact, I'm terribly unhappy!"
The man entered another house, and asked, "Brother, I hope you are all happy here and have no problems?" The second householder said, "What a question! Sir, I've a termagant for a wife, who has made my life impossible. I cannot even imagine what being happy is!"
The man went to another house, and still another. He met housewives complaining of their husbands' rages; and husbands complaining of their wives' ruthlessness. He met fathers harassed by insolent sons. He went into thousands of houses and found no happiness anywhere.
He was fed up with his unprofitable rounds, and went back to the guru and said, "I am cxhausted, Sir. You asked me to procure the cloak of a person who was entirely happy. What to speak of complete happiness, I found no one who was even tolerably satisfied!"
The guru said, "Why are they unhappy? What is their grict?"
He said, "Some are in conflict with their neighbour, others complain of a son's misdemeanour; everyone has a grievance against something or some person. Each one of them is unhappy on account of another."
The guru said, "The secret of being happy is not to look up to another, but to look at yourself. That's the way to abiding joy."
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