Joke Of The Day

Nithya Ameeta was busy with her house accounts when her baby was persistently grabbing her papers. She put him inside the playpen and resumed her work but the little one screamed until he was brought out of it. Ameeta thought for a moment and struck upon an idea. She gathered all her papers and got inside the playpen. The little one happily played around outside.

A little bit of lateral thinking can turn a situation around. A one-track mind will only dwell deeper into the familiar side of a situation.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Kanthi was on the cross-country rail and spent all her time in the observation car. An elderly lady was seated next to her and Kanthi told her that the best part of the journey was the breathtaking scenery outside. The lady sat for a while and left. A little later, she came back and sat for a while before getting up to go. The third time, she came and sat behind Kanthi. Barely a few minutes went by when she tapped her on the back and asked, “Excuse me, but do you see something that I don’t?

We are surrounded by beauty. But we see only what we want to see. That is why they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Twinkle had her sister over for a few days. The two were enjoying themselves when their parents called up to say that they were driving over to spend time with them. Nithya spun into focus and thrust a duster cloth into her sister’s hand to start dusting. The latter protested saying that the house was already clean. Nithya replied sharply, “This is sister clean, we will have to make it mother clean.”

Man spends all his life on putting to rest others’ anxiety; he gets himself anxious in the event! This is a phenomenon which can be broken only if intelligence blossoms in every man independently.

Joke Of The Day

Durg Chander was jogging early one morning. As he passed by a man seated on the road, he asked him breathlessly, “What is the time?”, but got no reply before he jogged on. The next day, during his jog, he passed by the same man. As he passed him, the man shouted, “Sorry, but it’s 7am!”

Timely help when failed to be offered has no purpose when offered later.

Joke Of The Day

Ananda was known for his wisdom. He always told people that they should strive not to be attracted by material things. But very often, Ananda was seen in the fancy store doing window shopping. Puzzled, his friend asked him what the great idea was. Ananda replied, “It never fails to amaze me when I see the number of things in this world that I don’t need!”

Enjoy the worldly things by renouncing them! This state cannot be achieved as a goal; it simply has to happen to you, somewhere in the path of inner growth.

Joke Of The Day

Ananda Pathi decided to surprise his wife with a gift one day. He ordered the gift to be door-delivered with a poem of love attached to it. He told them not to put his name saying that she will know once she sees it. The gift was delivered and the agency promptly got a call from his wife. She asked them who the sender was. They said that the sender preferred not to disclose his name. She pleaded, “Please, I need to know this before my husband gets back home.”

Only a radical change in our nature can convince the world that we have changed. Superficial moves will not suffice!

Joke Of The Day

The entire city was flooded and the rescue group was evacuating people from their homes. A flexible staircase was suspended from the first floor of a building to evacuate the inmates on to a waiting lorry. An elderly lady appeared and cautiously made her way down while everyone watched with bated breath. She landed safely and everyone sighed relief. She called out upwards, “It’s nothing mamma, you can do it!”

Life is a great drama with no dearth of action. It is up to us whether we are going to enjoy it objectively or get involved subjectively.

Joke Of The Day

Boss Ananda was very efficient in getting work done. He however had no idea what it was to bend his own back. He would see only the results and never tolerated shortcomings in them. One day, his secretary didn’t turn up and he went without coffee for the day. His friend asked him why he didn’t make coffee for himself. He replied, “Well, I had no idea how I took my coffee.”

It is not enough if you master the technique of ‘instructing’ alone! You should also be able to get down to do the job perfectly if need be.

Joke Of The Day

Latur Singh opened his lunch box at work and sighed, “Oh! the same old fried rice yet again.” His colleague asked him, “Why don’t you tell your wife to make something different?” Latur replied, “What wife? I make my own food!”

Where man is, his mind is not and that’s why he suffers a lot. When he zigs, his mind zags and in the event he gets hurt. Live in the present and much of your problems will dissolve!

Joke Of The Day

Churu Kiran took up a part-time job with a supermarket to promote a particular product. It required him to dress up as a duck. When he was on the job, a man walked up to him and asked him, “Don’t you feel silly dressed up as a duck?” Churu snapped back, “You ought to feel silly talking to a duck.”

Strangely, the eye that misses our own follies, never misses others’!

Joke Of The Day

Ananda Pappaiah was called to make a reforming speech at a prison’s criminal offence section. He stood up and to the horror of everyone present started by saying, “I am happy to see you all here today…”

Our mind is always following past patterns; it is seldom in the present and this why we make mistakes.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Ameeta came dressed in a two-piece outfit to a party. The host looked at her rather sternly and said, “I’m sorry, but my wife and I would rather not have people dressed in two-piece clothes.” “Sorry sir,” replied Ameeta, “which one should I remove?”

When a certain moral conduct settles down in a person, he turns dangerously blind to its shortcomings.

Joke Of The Day

Barsi Rajan taught a group of physically handicapped children how to do various things like handling electronic gadgets, repairing them etc. His greatest lesson to them was that they should have faith in their capabilities. He was thrilled when one day a boy came in with a broken toaster in one hand and a loaf of bread in the other!

The most essential thing is to have trust in our own capabilities. Most often, we trust others’ capabilities more than ours!

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Pathni and Ananda Pathi were returning from a party one night. Nithya said she would drive as Ananda had taken a little liquor at the party. She struggled to take the car out of the crowded parking area. A policeman who was watching, came over and knocked at Ananda’s window. He requested him to blow into an instant alcohol test kit. Ananda protested, “I’m not driving anyway.” The policeman said, “Please Sir, do as I say.” Ananda did so and the test came out negative. The policeman said, “Now Sir, could you please take the wheel and help this woman get out of this area.”

We sometimes feel shy to try and therefore live life the harder way. If the results will not be upsetting, it is worthwhile to try better ways in life.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Kanthi had a heated argument with her husband and stormed out of the house. Her husband wasn’t too concerned until twilight set in and she did not return. He made calls to a few of his friends but to no avail; there was no trace of his wife. As he was seated in despair, the door opened and Kanthi walked in. She announced: “The night’s too cold out there. I will leave tomorrow morning.”

All of us fight very bravely from inside four walls. Only when we are made to fight in the cold outside will we realize the security we’ve been enjoying thanklessly all along.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Kanthi was seated in the doctor’s waiting room inflicted with depression. The lady next to her started a conversation and came to know that she was mother to 12 children. The lady exclaimed, “Twelve children and you look so young and beautiful!” Kanthi got her prescription and felt instantly better.

Most often, we fall sick because we don’t hear what we wish to hear. It’s amazing how we allow the outside world to influence our physical and mental health!

Joke Of The Day

Sikar Shareef decided to take judo lessons for self-defense. Strenuous training for a month gave him tremendous confidence to tackle any surprise attack. One day, he was walking to his house in the middle of the night and he was suddenly assaulted near a bush. His judo lessons had prepared him with magnificent foot sweeps to handle such situations, to smash the assailant to the pavement. He astounded his assaulter – with a knock on the head with his umbrella.

What comes naturally to a man comes with near perfection! We should therefore nurture our nature with all great virtues.

Joke Of The Day

Nithya Ameeta was busy with her house accounts when her baby was persistently grabbing her papers. She put him inside the playpen and resumed her work but the little one screamed until he was brought out of it. Ameeta thought for a moment and struck upon an idea. She gathered all her papers and got inside the playpen. The little one happily played around outside.

A little bit of lateral thinking can turn a situation around. A one-track mind will only dwell deeper into the familiar side of a situation.

‘Unclutch’ from the mind maze

GENERALLY all our thoughts are related to something about the past or the future. We cannot have thoughts about the present. In the present moment we can have only consciousness, no thoughts.

Thoughts are either related to some joyful experiences that you had in the past and want to have in the future, or painful experiences that you had in the past and don’t want to have again.

Even in the peak of joy, you will have some unconnected negative thought and even at the time of some serious problem, you will suddenly have a positive thought. If you sit down alone and write your thoughts on a sheet of paper for ten minutes, without suppressing or editing any of the thoughts, you will be amazed to see that there is no logic in the way thoughts form in your mind!

For example, you see a dog on the street. Immediately you remember the dog from your childhood. Your thoughts then jump from your childhood days to your school teacher and then to the house where she used to live. There is no logical connection between the dog that you saw recently and the teacher who taught you in school.. However, in a few seconds you simply jumped from seeing the dog to your childhood teacher.

Understand, that no two thoughts are logically connected. No thought is responsible for the creation of another thought. They all appear randomly, independently and illogically.

How do you ‘unclutch’ from this random stream of thoughts? Unclutching means experiencing the neutral space that exists between any two thoughts in our mind. That neutral space, that silence that exists between two thoughts, is peace and bliss.

When we no longer grab onto thoughts and connect them to the past or future, we remain ‘unclutched’. As we remain ‘unclutched’ from our thoughts we become more aware of the neutral spaces between thoughts. The gap between the thoughts will automatically extend when we remain ‘unclutched’. We will dwell in the neutral space longer and experience more and more peace and bliss.

When you completely unclutch, tremendous awareness, energy and intelligence happens in your system. If we learn this one simple technique of unclutching, we will be able to retain a significant amount of energy in our system, in our being. As a result we will be many times more productive and creative. Relationships will improve. Life will have a different quality and you will become a different person in the world.

Be Blissful!

Awareness — the benign virus

WORRY is a deeply embedded pattern in us. It happens independently, without any valid reason to justify it. Worry is like an addiction. Any addiction happens because we try to maintain our patterns. It becomes our nature.

We should understand that the mind is like a piece of hardware programmed with the software called ‘worry’. If, for example, we experience depression or worry every morning due to work pressure, then even on holidays we will experience a disturbance in our mood around the same time because our mind is a programmed hardware.

The stress of suffering or worrying becomes part of our being. If the worry or stress is taken away from us, we feel lonely. We feel we are missing something. When we fall into this software, this worry, again and again, we often end up in a dilemma.

The dilemma happens when thoughts move back and forth while making a decision. There are so many thoughts inside us trying to put their signature on our final decision. These thoughts clash with each other when a decision has to be made because they were recorded at different times and circumstances. This conflict becomes our dilemma. For each person, the dilemma is different as there are no standards or rules for a dilemma.

We become so used to our inner software that we end up like an island that is cut off from the fragrance of the mainland. We are cut off from the fragrance of Existence because of our worries. We miss the miracles of Existence continuously happening around us. We forget to appreciate and remember only to complain. We forget bliss and remember stress. Remembering these negative things becomes a habit. Bringing deep awareness to our being is the solution to this distorted software of the mind. Deep awareness is like a benign virus, if such a thing exists! Once awareness enters our system, the more we work with the mind, the more the awareness gets into the worry software and destroys it!

Awareness is nothing but bringing our focus to exactly what is happening in and around us. Anything that we watch with awareness, whether it is physical pain, mental pain, worry, etc, will dissolve. That is the power of awareness. When we watch with awareness, we stop the conflict somewhere within us. We start moving with the natural flow of things.

When we watch worry with awareness, we focus light on exactly how worry is created, how it exists. Once this happens, the worry starts to dissolve and clarity starts happening.

Be Blissful!

Be sincere but not too serious

SERIOUSNESS can be defined as paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It arises from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life. In a Zen monastery, there was a competition among disciples over who had maintained the best garden. One disciple was of a very serious nature. He always kept his garden neat, clean, and well-swept. All the grass was of the same height. All the bushes were neatly trimmed. He was sure that he would get the first prize. On the day of the competition, the master went around all the gardens. Then he came back and ranked the gardens. This disciple’s garden got the lowest ranking. Everyone was shocked. The disciple could not contain himself and asked, ‘Master, what is wrong with my garden? Why did you rank me the lowest?’ The master looked at him and asked, ‘Where are all the dead leaves? A garden maintained in such a way is no longer alive! It is dead.’

Seriousness kills spontaneity and destroys creativity. It closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. When you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind. When you do something too seriously and are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

We should be sincere and sensitive which means being aware of everything. Understand, being sensitive does not mean being open to everything. Being unable to say ‘no’ does not mean sensitivity. That is actually ego! The person who is not able to say ‘no’ when he needs to is egoistic. Sensitivity is having the clarity about when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’ and having the sincerity and courage to follow that decision.

We should make plans and think ahead with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness while giving your best without worrying excessively about the result! When you are serious, you don’t enjoy, you don’t laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious?

We should understand our uniqueness but this does not mean that we should consider ourselves so special that we start taking ourselves too seriously.

Be Blissful!

Convert restlessness into intensity

WHETHER we lead or we follow, in order to be fulfilled in whatever we do, we need to be intense. Intensity is not an emotion. When you are intense, one part of it may be emotional. Intensity should become a quality in you. If you are talking let intensity be there. In your relationships, in your decisions, in your memory, in your thinking, in your desires, even in your fears, be intense without escaping from this moment.

Intensity does not depend on the nature of the work or action. It can be as complex as running a billion dollar company or as simple as cleaning the floor. It is not the ‘what’ but the ‘how’ that is important. Intensity means radiating the energy that does not create any conflict inside and outside. Intensity is intensely being inside you. Intensity flows smoothly and yet strongly. We always believe that if anything flows smoothly like a river, it will not have intensity, and if something is intense like a stone it will not be flowing freely. No. Intensity is like a flood, which is intense and flowing.

Some people intensely create conflict every moment! Anything you tell them to do, they will be ready to create a conflict. Real intensity does not create conflicts. It is flowing but intense.

Usually we feel a terrible restlessness towards the outer world. We do not know what is happening. We do not know what should be done, but there is a deep dissatisfaction about what is there in the inner space; this restlessness should become intensity.

The father of Yoga, Patanjali, says: ‘Success is nearest to those whose efforts are sincere and intense.’ A river does not need a navigator or signboards to reach the ocean. It reaches its destination without any help. When your whole energy moves in one direction as a whole you can move easily. When you are intense and ready to flow you will achieve your goal.

Usually intensity leads to a solid feeling. We may be intense but we may have lost the ability to flow, because we are driven by ego. We are determined to achieve what we want but we have our own rigid ideas about how to get there. We fail to understand that Existence can make events happen in a much more beautiful and effective way than we can plan.

Take up something and follow it with full intensity. Intensity does not mean acting rigidly without scope for updating or change. Only when you are open to change you can make your way like the river flowing intensely towards the ocean. Intensity is integration. Intensity is focus. Intensity is sincerity.

Be Blissful!

Each individual is unique

WHY exactly do we compare ourselves with others? We compare ourselves because we have never understood ourselves and are not aware of who we are and what we have. It is also because society has conditioned us from our birth to evaluate ourselves based upon others.

Buddha says, ‘Nothing exists except in relationship.’ Suppose you were the only person on a new planet, how could you compare yourself with anyone? Could you call yourself tall or short, ugly or beautiful, rich or poor, intelligent or dumb? No! When there is no one to compare yourself with, you just are!

Understand , there is no scale to compare you with anybody. Each individual is unique. Can you compare a lion and a horse? Do we ever compare ourselves with flowers or birds or mountains? Then why do we have to compare ourselves with other human beings? Just see nature: the rose plant and the mango tree grow in the same garden and prosper because they use all their energy for their own growth instead of using it to compare themselves with the other.

Comparison leads to jealousy. Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit! We always compare ourselves with others in various fields — looks, wealth, knowledge, name and fame and friends, etc. When we compare ourselves with others we feel that somebody else has something more than what we have and, we get caught in jealousy. We suffer and constantly fight with others openly or inside ourselves. We are just waiting for someone to hurt us. Don’t throw the responsibility of your suffering on the other person. Be very clear, nobody can hurt you without your silent permission.

You are made to believe only by comparison you can grow. No. Through comparison you will grow only to the extent of the person with whom you are comparing yourself, not to your own unique level. The whole spiritual knowledge or experience is nothing but realising you are unique, there is nothing to compare. Comparison is societal. Realising your uniqueness is natural.

Comparison happens because you feel that you are somehow lacking. But you have no idea of your true, unique potential! If you did, you wouldn’t spend one second looking outside yourself for answers about how to live a creative, fulfilling life. All the confidence, intelligence, and vibrant energy that you need already exist inside you. You have the potential to live like god on planet earth.

Be Blissful!

Unleash your natural intelligence

INTELLIGENCE is not something to attain; every single being is endowed with intelligence. Each one of us has intelligence. It is an inherent, inborn quality of life. Most of us have lost touch with our natural intelligence; that is why we are not able to live life to its fullest potential. We mistake our acquired knowledge for intelligence.

Every single being in nature has been endowed with inherent intelligence. Birds have a natural intelligence that enables them to fly. From the caterpillar to the chimpanzee, every animal lives its life beautifully using the natural gift of intelligence. Plants and trees have natural intelligence; this is what enables them to produce food directly from the sun. Man also has tremendous natural intelligence. He is a more evolved, higher form of consciousness than birds, animals or trees.

By nature we have all the intelligence in our human body. The difficulty is we strongly believe we are limited. We have been conditioned to think that we have only limited capabilities, so we have forgotten how to use these capabilities. Hence we are not tuned to the technique of tapping into all the dimensions of our being.

You have a natural, spontaneous intelligence inside you. As a child, you are born intelligent. You looked at things in a very simple, straightforward way and were so spontaneous and enthusiastic. But family, society and conventional schooling destroys the natural intelligence within us. As a result we sacrifice our priceless creativity and uniqueness, and we are not even aware of it.

By constantly thinking that you are not enough, you try to imitate others and waste the wonderful natural energy bubbling inside you.

If you blindly imitate another person’s performance or behaviour instead of acting from your own inner spontaneity, your own intelligence, you will be cheating yourself out of wonderful possibilities.

Intelligence is the ability to respond to a situation or challenge. As the situation differs, the dimension of intelligence that responds to the situation also differs.

Everyone is born intelligent; it is a question of just discovering each one’s unique dimension of intelligence.

Allow your complete being to simply express itself and you will see your natural intelligence flowering beautifully. You will become integrated and fulfilled.

Be Blissful!

Be responsible and spontaneous

INTELLIGENCE is being aware and spontaneous. When you are deeply aware, you cannot make mistakes! With awareness, you don’t rely on what others have taught you. You don’t rely on the past conditioning that has gone on inside you for many years. With deep awareness you are in the present moment, alive and alert. Your intelligence by its very nature is spontaneous. It is only a question of awakening it from within.

The first step is to watch yourself and see how you unconsciously react to situations. See how your actions are rooted in your attitudes and conclusions from past experiences. Watching yourself with awareness is the first step. The good news about awareness is — it is the only step that is needed!

Most of the time, we continue to live in the dead past and miss the wonderful dimensions of life. Or we get angry over what has happened and feel hurt. Or we blindly follow other people’s directions instead of relying on our own intelligence, because it is easy to place responsibility on others. This is dangerous because sometimes we are not even aware that we are missing responsibility and intelligence.

You say you are being obedient, but you are actually shirking the responsibility of owning up to your actions. It is always easy to put the blame on the whole world for what happens in your life. But if you just look a little deeper, you can see how you are completely responsible for what is happening in your life!

We do many things unconsciously because we do not live every moment with awareness and take responsibility for our words and actions. Then, when the effects of these actions happen, we claim we don’t deserve the results! If you just look with deep awareness, an energy will awaken — the energy of intelligence — which is enough to bring about the solution to your problems.

The very awareness is enough to break free from the past conditioning and act intelligently. This awareness will simply kindle the spark of intelligence that has always been a part of you. The whole key lies in being aware so that your intelligence can function.

Acting out of your own intelligence is taking complete responsibility for what you do at all times. Follow your intelligence with the clear understanding that you alone are responsible for your actions. Then you will not hurt anyone including yourself. The light of awareness is enough to remove the darkness created by years of living by habit.

Be Blissful!

Words from the Master

Swamiji, how does meditation help in feeling contented?

You see, when you continuously meditate, you will become soft and vulnerable. You will become porous, sensitive and aware. You will find that your Consciousness is expanding every moment. Your Consciousness determines your feelings and actions. That is why again and again, I ask you to meditate. It will purify your Consciousness. Things will become clearer to you.

You will be able to feel your center shifting from your mind to your heart. When the distance between your mind and you increases, your whole Being will start vibrating with a different feeling and this feeling is what is contentment, a deep fulfillment, a deep love without a reason - towards the Whole, a continued sense of joy and bliss.

As long as you operate from your mind, you will only ask for more; you will analyze, divide and conclude with dissatisfaction, more than anything else. When you operate from your heart, all your analysis will stop and you will neither dissect the past nor worry about the future. You will be just in the present, without any judgmental feeling, and in this state, you feel only contentment and gratitude. A new space has opened up in you.

When you have found this space, all the energy that you earlier spent on negative thinking and dissatisfaction is released, and you feel blissful and integrated and filled with energy. Gratitude then becomes your prayer and Thank You becomes your mantra!

The gush of Energy that you feel when you are in a state of gratitude towards Existence cannot be explained in words. It has to be experientially understood. Every single thing that comes your way will give so much contentment and it will attract more and more from Existence and you will find yourself being showered by Existence.

Suddenly, the whole thing will take on a new dimension where more and more bliss can be felt. You will be overwhelmed by every passing moment. Just existing will seem so overwhelming. You will feel like a blessing to yourself and to the whole world.

When you ask, you are clearly missing. When you are grateful, you are showered. Just be thankful all the time. That is the master key to the whole thing. Of course, you need to feel grateful from your Being, not from the periphery. Only if you feel grateful from the Being, things will start happening.

When you go to sleep, go to sleep with a feeling of gratitude for having spent one more day with Existence. When you wake up, wake up with the feeling of gratitude for having one more day with Existence! This is the simplest and most effective meditation you can do to make gratitude your very Being.

I tell you, just by feeling and radiating gratitude from your Being, you can change the face of planet Earth. All terrorism, wars, religious fanaticism, ill health, poverty etc. can be eradicated by just spreading awareness about the gratitude that needs to be brought out from each person.

When each one feels and radiates gratitude, there can be no love, no hate, no jealousy. All the possible roots for global negativity can be destroyed with just this one feeling, because the reasons for all negativity will simply dissolve with it. That is the beauty of gratitude!

Alright, now let us spend some time doing a beautiful meditation technique called the Sahasrara Dhyana* – a meditation of gratitude.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

* To learn and experience Sahasrara Dhyana under a qualified instructor, kindly enroll for Ananda Spurana Program (ASP) at a center close to you.

Words from the Master

People ask me, “Swamiji, you struggled so much in your life and then reached your goal. Should we also not suffer to reach our goal?” I tell them: I struggled because I was using 10,000 keys to try to open one lock. I experimented for years together and found the right key. Now I have the right key with me. I am ready to give it to whomsoever wants it. It will take you only one moment to open with it! Of course, if you feel that you have to suffer, then that is your freedom; I will not interfere!

Your only effort should be to allow Existence to flow through you. The lesser resistance you pose to Existence, the lesser effort you have to put yourself. It is a directly proportional relationship. When you get enlightened, you are but an empty channel through which Existence flows continuously, that’s all. When all efforts drop on your part, Existence can flow effortlessly through you.

Yes…any questions that you want to ask?

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

We have all along been taught to be wary of nature, of God, of Existence. We have been taught to wear slippers while walking so that the earth does not hurt us. We have been taught to stay away from rain. We have been taught to stay indoors when it is windy. We have been taught to stay away from animals…and what not.

I tell you, Existence is your only friend on Planet Earth. Do you know how wonderful it is to walk with a feel of the Earth? I never used to wear slippers in my younger days except while in college because their rule demanded that I wore them. I just used to walk barefoot, whether it was at home or in school or during my days of wandering.

Even now in the ashram, I walk barefoot most of the time. Of course, the people around me pamper me with my slippers saying that my feet will get hurt. I ask them how my feet that wandered the length and breadth of India bare can get hurt now!

You just completely disconnect yourself from nature by doing these things. So many people ask me, “Swamiji, how is it that your feet are so smooth and flawless even after so many years of wandering in rugged terrain?” I tell you now: I have never felt alienated with Existence, that is why; that is the real reason. I always felt that I was a part of Existence.

I always felt that I belonged to nature. That is why I used to wander without a care, without being afraid of anything.

Just imagine if you had to be alone in the darkness of the jungle with wild animals, with no food and no idea of where your next meal would be and no place to sleep except under the cover of the sky? How would you be? Totally terrified, is it not?

This is because you have never been taught that Existence is your unfailing friend. You have always looked to people for help because you believed that only people help. You fail to understand that Existence helps through people. Your faith has always been on people, never on Existence.

When you place your faith on Existence, you can live like a Lord on planet Earth. I enjoyed my days of wandering. I used to simply walk where my feet led me, with no idea of my next destination. I used to get into any train and get off at any station where the scenery attracted me. I did not know the Hindi language at that time and most of my wandering was in North India, in the Himalayas. I simply picked up Hindi words to find my way about.

Actually, to learn any language, the first difficulty is your thought that you don’t know the language. You first alienate yourself from the language and then it seems difficult. Here again, you alienate yourself with your all-knowing nature.

Anyhow, most often, I wandered on my own and not with any group of sadhus. Never did I feel that I was alone. I enjoyed being part of Existence. When you learn to relate with nature, you will feel the joy of Existence. I never had to beg for food. When I was hungry or even otherwise, food came through someone in some form. This is what I mean when I say, just believe and let go, and Existence will take care.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

A beautiful small story:

One man was a very God-conscious and loving man and he did a lot of good deeds in his life.
He came to know that there was a particular book with a person, that had the names of people who loved God.
He was excited to find out if his name was there in the book and went to that person and asked if he could see the book.
He searched through all the pages several times but could not find his name in it.
He was very disappointed and went away.

A year later, he came back to see if his name had been added to the book.
Again, he could not find it anywhere.
As he was turning to leave, the man said, “Sir, please wait. This book has the list of names of people who love God. I have another very small book that has a few names in it. It is the list of names of people whom God loves.”
He showed the man the book.
The man found his name in it.

It is very easy to fall for God. After all, he is so loving, so giving, so powerful and what not. You can continue to say that you love him and remain where you are. But when you start feeling God at the Being level and the transformation happens in you, God will fall for you! You will find yourself being loved in many ways like you have never known before. Such is the compassionate love of God.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

When you open yourself to Existence, it fills you up. How much you open yourself out, that much it fills you up. You all think that you have to work hard to cling on to God. Not at all. Have you seen the way a young monkey clings to its mother? There is every possibility that it might let go and fall. Whereas with a cat, the mother clings on to its kitten; the kitten then is perfectly safe.

You don’t have to cling to God. If you just allow yourself and do your duty leaving the rest, God will cling on to you. Falling for God is not a big deal. Making God fall for you is a big deal! This will happen when you have undaunted faith and live a life of love and service.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.

Words from the Master

If you go to the Himalayas, you will get a permanent and strong reminder of the profundity of Existence. From peak to peak, the mountains rise, the mountain becoming the valley and the valley rising into the mountain, with no perceivable beginning or end; and the river Ganges flows continuously in the valley in different moods, in different colours and trails, chattering and laughing in the language of Existence. If there is a world not made by man, it is the Himalayas. The Himalayas prove that humans are not the ultimate kings.

When you see the Himalayas, you will see how, over hundreds of kilometers, ice mountains appear as just ice mountains and then become mountains and water and later just water. Such are the wonders of nature at its peak.

What books cannot teach you with words, the Himalayas can teach you through just the experience of seeing. Only you need to be ready to receive it. The Himalayas are a live Energy body with penetrating silence. You just have to allow it to penetrate you. If you understand that you are but a speck of the splendor of Existence, you will accept it with grace and humility, with no questions asked.

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This excerpt has been taken from the book: Guaranteed Solutions.