Happiness has come from within and it is not because of the dresses.

A student goes to Mulla Nazaruddin, a Sufi master, with a bundle of dresses, surrenders to him and says - O' divine master, I want peace, I want happiness.The master looked at him. He has left his house with only this bundle with him. Mulla slowly gets up snatches the bundle of dresses and starts running. The student is surprised. "I came in search of happiness and the master snatches my dresses and run away." The perplexed student tells himself, "Let me at least get my dresses back" and charges after him.

Mulla knows all the lanes of the town very well. He just appears and disappears and the student is very unhappy at the loss of his dresses. He was such unhappy. By coming to him, he has become more unhappy. He keeps running behind Mulla. Mulla goes all round, comes back to his original spot, keeps the bundle aside and innocently sits down.

The student comes running to him. Seeing this dangerous fellow, first thing he does is to snatch his dresses. He is so happy that he has his dresses back.

Mulla says - HERE IS HAPPINESS.

Please see, the student was unhappy when he came to Mulla. Mulla just snatched the bundle and returned it back to him. The student was happy that he had got back his dress. So what was the cause of happiness?

Logically it appears his happiness is because of the dress. But then, this bundle was with him even before it was snatched away by the master. Therefore where did the happiness come from, the dresses or from somewhere else?

Happiness has come from within and it is not because of the dresses. This is exactly how we feel in our life - that this object or that has given us happiness.