Kasturi...

The musk deer is a funny creature. It has a very strong fragrance emanating from between his abdomen and genitals that nature has given it to attract mates, but he spends most of his life hopping mad trying to figure out the source of that fragrance.

But then, again, aren't we all like that? Don't we all spend our lifetime trying to find something? Most of us spend our entire life without ever coming to know what that "something" is. And those few of us who correctly know what they want out of life, don't they too spend a good amount of time trying to figure out how to get it? We give it different names. We call it the search, fulfillment, contentment, happinness. We seek for it in the form of approval, appreciation, acknowledgement. We even confuse it with possessions, acquisitions, victories and yet, after achieving all that and more, feel empty inside. We try to look our best because we think that's what will make us happy. We try to make as much money as we can so that we can buy all the things that will make us happy. We try to fall in love because we feel having someone in our lives will make us happy. And when we get all this, we still feel empty inside. We feel we have it, but we want more of it. So we start all over again. Then, one fine day, when we are too old to run around, we sit and mourn what a waste our whole life has been.

It is not the quest which is wrong.It is the manifestation of the goal in our minds that needs to be reassessed. We need to delve deeper. The thing that we are searching all around us is within us. All the source of joy, happiness, contentment, fulfillment is situated deep inside us, and we, like the musk deer, keep searching for it in every possible place except where we should actually be looking for it. We spend our lifetime chasing our dreams and aspirations and yet feel worthless because we are chasing momentary pleasures at the cost of something much more ephemeral - the joy of being the great creation that we are. We - each one of us - with our strengths, weaknesses, abilities, imperfections are unique and beautiful in our own ways. There is no yardstick that can proclaim one to be better than the other since that is not how we were meant to be. Each of us is a marvel of nature meant to be appreciated for what he or she is and not criticized for what he or she isn't. The individual as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts because the individual has a purpose. The purpose of the individual - the purpose of our being put up in this world, is not to conquer it, but to be a part of it and add to its beauty. It is only when we think and act in accordance with this fact that we truly feel happy.
Everything else is just an illusion.