As you sit here, everything about you is
about life and death, and they have to occur together. As soon as you are born,
it is destined that you’ll die. And yet we find ourselves in a state of great
joy when a child is born; and feel great sorrow when that same child dies. Why
we do that we don’t know. Think about yourselves: if you were locked in a room
for one hour you’d want to get out. On a long bus ride, halfway through the
journey you want to get off because you can’t handle being closed in. Yet after
nine months after being suffocated, and carried in a closed environment, we are
so excited that this child is born into another state of pain, sorrow and
depression, called life. Ask anyone how they’re feeling and they’ll say ‘okay’.
Nobody feels excellent, or extra good. They all feel ‘okay’. The reason being
that they are so crowded with thoughts of pain, of sorrow, of financial
difficulty, and of stress, that they lose every touch with happiness and joy.
What is happiness and joy? We don’t know because
we are individuals who seem to be happy when a child is born and sad when a child
dies. The purpose of this birth is to never be born again. But all of us want
to be born again. Continuously. ‘I wish I don’t have the same life in my next
life’... Why do we speak like that? It’s because we’re so much in tune with our
pain that we know no better. This whole life is about pain. Whether you’re a
great sage, a pauper, or on the streets begging – the pain is the same. The
only difference is that when you are in a state of affordability you can go for
two hours to Sibaya or Suncoast and forget about the pain, only to remember it
again as you leave the casino. You have two hours of painlessness – you hear
‘kling, kling, kling’ in your head until you get out. Then you have to think
again about paying your lights and accounts. The pain does not stop.
We must think about this life of joy. What is
joy? When Buddha wrote his manual, one of the things he asked was, ‘Why do
humans always want a rope around their necks? It’s because they want to be born
again and again’. We should say, ‘This is my last life and I’m going to make
the best of it’. And the best of it is if you follow the spiritual path. Once
you follow that you’ll find so much peace and bliss. I know who you are. You
come here on a Friday just to get more of that and to be energized for the next
week. Some of you look forward to Fridays. On Friday mornings you’re already
getting ready for the evening. That is beyond the state of happiness, it’s beyond
words.
On the spiritual journey you need to be in
total states of ecstasy. You must dance like you’ve never danced before; sing
like nobody is listening to you. Love like you have never loved before, and
give like you have never given before. That is the state. Give continuously
without thinking, as Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita (2.47) – do not wait for
the rewards of your service. That will happen. You don’t have to wait. Even if
it doesn’t happen you should be happy because this isn’t about birth and death.
It’s about living. The period between birth and death is called life. And in
that period you need to make the best of it. When I say make the best of it,
let God be your constant companion in your mind. That’s all. Whether you’re
sitting in the office in the bank writing legal documents, sitting in your
garage counting all the cash you made, or whether you sell one car or hundreds,
let God be your constant companion.
Hari Om.
