I received feedback from a reader that it was quite some time since I used a story in my blogs and stories used to be the speciality of my blogs. True. Heeding to the feedback, We will have more stories in the weeks to come. A joyful Indian folk story to start with.

Once upon a time, an affluent and successful businessman lived in a city. Though he had everything he wanted, he could not find happiness. He went to a sage living in a nearby forest for advice. The sage listened to him patiently and asked him to come back the next day around the same time. The man was disappointed but came the next day promptly.

The man reached the hermitage of the sage at the same time the next day and noticed that the sage was looking for something outside his hermitage.

The person asked, "What are you looking for Swamiji? May I help you?"

The sage replied, "I lost my ring, and I am searching for the same."

The man joined the search party. After searching every nook and corner of the garden, the man got tired, but not the sage. The sage continued his search enthusiastically. The man quipped, "Swamiji, we are not finding your elusive ring after a long and tiring search but you are still searching. Is the ring so special? Why cannot we abandon the search?"

Swamiji replied "No, I cannot. It is a gift given to me by my guru when I attained spiritual mastery. I cannot afford to lose it."

The man then retorted "If it is so special for you, you should have preserved it carefully."

The sage heard his remark and replied without lifting his head "True. It is like you losing the precious happiness and searching your happiness everywhere. You must be aware that happiness is precious for life."

The man was startled but continued his search for another 30 minutes and the effort was futile. Having got exhausted he asked the sage "Can you tell where did your ring fall? Do you remember the area roughly so that we can focus the search instead of searching everywhere in the garden?" The man thought he was a wise businessman after all.

The sage instantly replied "Yes. I remember. I kept it in the pooja room before I went for my shower today."

The businessman got angry "Swamiji, are you making a fool of me? Why would you search in the garden when you kept the ring inside the hermitage?"

Sage smiled and replied calmly "Because, you are searching for your happiness everywhere when the happiness is abundantly there inside you."

The businessman understood the message very well and lived happy thereafter.

We are the reason for our happiness or for the lack of it, not someone else or the lack of something else.

Abundant happiness is there inside each one of us. We just have to polish our glass to see and feel the happiness. We have to train our mind to see and feel happiness in anything and everything in our life.

For those of you who are searching for happiness in your life, please remember:

• There is no shortage of happiness. It is just that you have not seen the abundance.
• Happiness is a precious treasure. Feel cheerful and share the happiness because it only increases by sharing it unlike other commodities.
• Happiness is in your hands (minds) and not in what happens to you.

I narrated the story of Thomas Alva Edison quipping excitedly to his son when his factory was getting reduced to ashes in front of his own eyes in my book and hence don’t want to repeat the story here. Thought provoking story. Read my book Grandma in the Boardroom (Available for purchase in all amazon stores and www.authorjaganathan.com).

The second of the powerful exercise for our mind as told by Lord Krishna is practicing Gracefulness.

There are different meanings to gracefulness as per the dictionaries. But the definition of sowmyatvam as per Bhagavad Gita is the lack of negative emotions. What are these negative emotions we should get rid of?

According to many ancient hindu texts there are six enemies within us and are called shadripu. They are kama, krodha, lobha, madha, moha and matsarya i.e. lust, anger, greed, pride, emotional attachment and jealousy respectively (Read my book COVID2121 to know more about the six enemies. Available in all amazon stores and www.authorjaganathan.com).

One will become graceful after controlling and overcoming all the six enemies. Another interesting story Who Stole My Cookies narrated by the famous leadership coach Prakash Iyer in his book The Habit of Winning.