What More Do You Want?

When we drop the idea of having 'more and more' and start living in the present moment, we start living inside our boundary. What do I mean by 'start living inside one's boundary'?

We get up in the morning and while we are brushing our teeth, we think about the office. When we reach the office, we begin making plans for the evening: to go to the beach or maybe to a restaurant. In the evening, we go to a restaurant, but once we are there, we are already thinking about going home and resting. Similarly, on a Wednesday at the office, we start thinking about the

weekend. But when the weekend actually arrives, we start worrying about what work needs to be done in our office on Monday. On Monday, we are already thinking about the next weekend! By living in this fashion, we tire out very easily!

One thing is for sure: if we are here, our mind is not here. Our mind never stays where our body stays. This is the life style of 'more and more'. We run, run and run, without even knowing what we are running for. It is a rat race. In a rat race, even if we win, we are still a rat!

When we run with all our energy, we forget to enjoy, we forget to live. We forget to have Lakshmi in our life. Again, it is the quality of our life and not the quantity that is important.

The other life style, where we live inside our boundary, where we live in the present moment, creates a new mental setup: what Vedanta calls a cognitive shift; we start to live more intensely, with awareness, what Buddhists call Zen, mindfulness. Our living is then centered in our being; we feel fulfilled. We are always in bliss. Life opens a new dimension.

We feel continuously dissatisfied because we are under the continuous threat of our desires. We need to understand the term: threatened by desires. Observe carefully: the moment a desire arises, there is a deep uneasiness in our being, body and mind. If the desire is fulfilled, we start worrying about whether we will get to experience the same joy again or not. On the other hand, if our desire is not fulfilled, there is a hangover, a deep craving to fulfill the desire. Not only this: often we experience guilt the moment our desires get fulfilled. Until the desire gets fulfilled, there is greed. The moment it gets fulfilled, there is guilt! This is the usual pattern we trace with desires.

When craving enters our being, it splits our being into two halves. One side of our being craves the desired results, while the other side works towards fulfilling the craving in reality. This is what is schizophrenia. One half is thinking about what should happen, while the other half of us is living the real life. This gap between reality and imagination is what I call tension.

There are two kinds of lifestyles: living with 'more and more' and living with 'this and this'. Either we enjoy this or nothing, now or never!

There are only two kinds of mental setups: that of a man who enjoys the path as well as the goal, and that of a man who enjoys neither the path nor the goal. Be very clear: we can never enjoy only the goal unless we choose to enjoy the path first, because the path itself is the goal. This is a very deep concept which if understood can turn our lives around by 180 degrees.

For example, when we are young, we yearn to settle in America, thinking that life there will be good. When we get there, we start working on buying a good house, thinking we will be happy after that. Once we get the house, we think that after marriage, life will be good. After marriage, we start feeling that when we have children, they will give us happiness. After having children, we start worrying about them and imagine that when they grow up and settle down we will finally be able to retire with money, be free from worries, and enjoy life.

However, by the time we retire, the mental setup we have created to continuously run behind 'more and more' becomes a habit. We forget the art of enjoying life. Relaxation is only a word for us, not an experience. Naturally, we have lost sensitivity to life, the quality of enjoying life. It is like selling your eyes to purchase a beautiful painting; selling your sleep to buy a bed; like selling

your life to purchase a house!

Krishna says emphatically in the Bhagavad Gita: karmanye vaadhikaraste maa phaleshu kadachanah (do your duty, but don't expect results.) This verse is often considered the essence of this timeless scriptural work - Bhagavad Gita. Krishna does not mean that we should work without expecting our salary. What He means is, let the job itself become the enjoyment. Let the path itself give us bliss. When we enjoy the path, even if we fail to get the desired result, we will feel deeply satisfied. However, if we do not enjoy the path, even if we succeed, we will feel only dissatisfied.

When we postpone enjoyment, when we postpone living in the present, when we constantly hope to live in our future, the habit of postponement becomes a mental attitude. Be very clear: whatever we may acquire in terms of quantity, it is the quality of our life that gives it meaning. We may have a beautiful bed, but it serves the purpose only if our mind can sleep on it. So work to increase not the height of the bed but the depth of your sleep.

A small story:

There was once a forgetful man who used to continuously keep a reminder of what he needed to do.

Once, he had to remember to do three tasks and as a reminder to himself he tied three knots in his handkerchief.

He finished two of the three jobs but could not remember the third job however hard he tried.

He sat up the whole night racking his brains, trying to remember the third job.

Just as dawn broke, he suddenly remembered the third job that he had tied the knot for: to remember to have a good night's sleep, since it was the weekend!

This is how we waste our whole life. We plan to enjoy but never actually enjoy ourselves. If the quality of the mind is not present, what is the use of getting a weekend to enjoy our vacation? We will be in a different place but if we are carrying the same restless mind, the attitude is still the same.

A man came to Buddha seeking assistance to cure him of unhappiness in his life.

There was nothing exceptional about it; many others faced the same difficulties.

He seemed to have had an endless succession of small disappointments and complaints.

He was a farmer and he enjoyed farming. But sometimes it didn't rain enough or it rained too much and his harvests were not the best. He had a wife and she was a good wife whom he loved. But sometimes, she nagged him too much and sometimes he got tired of her. He had children and they were good children. He enjoyed them a lot. But then life was never stable; it was an unpredictable roller-coaster. And of course life is that way!

Buddha listened patiently to the man's story until he finished. He looked at Buddha expectantly, waiting for some word to fix everything.

Buddha said, 'I can't help you.'

The man was startled. He said, 'I thought you were a great teacher! I thought you could help me!' 'Everybody has got problems!' said Buddha. 'We always have eighty-three problems, each one of us, and there is nothing we can do about it. If we manage to solve one problem, it is immediately replaced by another. We will always have eighty-three problems. We are going to die, for example. For you, that is a problem. And it is one you cannot escape. There is nothing you nor I

nor anyone else can do about it. We all have problems like this and we never seem to be able to free ourselves from it.'

The man became dejected and exclaimed, 'Hey! what good is your teaching?'

'Well,'said Buddha, 'It might help you with the eighty-fourth problem.'

The man asked, 'The eighty-fourth problem? What is the eighty-fourth problem?'

'The problem that we don't want any problems!' said Buddha.

If we can free ourselves from our desire to be free of our difficulties, then what difficulty do we really have? As to what happens to us in life, we may have little or no choice. But as to how we deal with it, we have total choice. Why don't we exercise that?

The moment we create sensitivity in our being, even water tastes like amrita (nectar). There is a sutra (technique) in the Katopanishad that says, 'If we give away all our things in the Vajpeya yagna (sacrifice), we will become Indra (king of Gods). The underlying meaning of this sutra is that if we sacrifice the idea of craving, of having 'more and more', we will be in a different space. We will have the sensitivity to live and enjoy what we have.

A beautiful story from the life of Buddha:

There was a king by the name Aparasanjita whose wife was related to Buddha.

From a very young age, the queen had been associated with Buddha and knew Him.

She continuously inspired the king to meet Buddha at least once.

Finally, the king decided to go meet Buddha.

Being a rich and powerful king, he did not want to go like an ordinary person and decided to take the best diamonds with him to give to Buddha.

The queen warned him that Buddha would not accept diamonds and suggested taking flowers instead.

So the king decided to take both flowers and diamonds.

In one hand, he had a chest full of diamonds, while in the other hand, he had a plate full of flowers.

When he arrived, he saw Buddha seated with His ten thousand disciples seated in front of Him. He proceeded towards Buddha.

Just as he was about to offer the diamonds, Buddha said, 'Drop it!'

The king was shocked, but since he was in front of ten thousand disciples, he quietly dropped the diamond chest and proceeded with the flowers towards Buddha.

Just as he started walking, Buddha said again, 'Drop it!'

Surprised, the king dropped the plate of flowers, feeling really stupid in front of the big crowd.

When the king now took a few steps forward, Buddha said again, 'Drop it!'

The perplexed king was not able to understand.

A senior disciple of Buddha who was standing and watching what was happening said, 'Buddha is not asking you to drop the diamonds or the flowers. He is asking you to drop the idea of having 'more and more'. The diamonds are not even worth dropping; drop the idea that these things have value. If you feel that diamonds have value, you will fear the idea of dropping them. That is why Buddha asked you to drop the false idea of what is valuable, what is great. He is not asking you to drop physical things. He is asking you to drop your cravings. He is asking you to drop your mind, your ego.'

So understand: neither running after 'more and more' nor leaving outwardly comforts will help

us; only drop the idea of having 'more and more'.

Bring your mind to the present moment, to live life from moment to moment. Then, life will become joy, bliss, ecstasy; you will live life more intensely, with consciousness and awareness. Whatever you do, do it totally and completely. If you are drinking water, drink it with totality. If you are eating, eat it with complete awareness, totally. Whatever you are doing: walking, driving, sleeping, do it with full consciousness and awareness.

A king once went to a Zen master and asked him, 'Master, I have heard that you always live with joy and bliss. What is the technique that you use to do so?'

The master replied, 'When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep.'

The king was confused and asked the master, 'Do we not do the same thing?'

The master replied, 'Surely not! When you eat, are you really eating? You plan for the future, worry about the past. When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. Then your whole life will become worship. If you live life with the attitude of having 'more and more', life will be like work. If you live with the attitude of 'this and this', your life will be worship.'

Understand one thing clearly: either our whole life can be work or our whole life can be worship. We cannot have part-time work and part-time worship. Whether our life is work or worship depends on our attitude. With the right attitude, work becomes worship. With the wrong attitude, even worship becomes work. When we see priests in temples and other places of worship mechanically going about their jobs, often for commercial reasons with no passion, no compassion and no devotion, we can understand how even worship can turn into drudgery.

With the right attitude, anything can be converted to meditation, to worship. With the wrong attitude, even meditation will be converted to work. Going intensely into anything with absolutely no attachment to the results is the way to convert work to meditation. One more thing that has to happen here is a deep awareness about the core in you that is lying undisturbed inside although you are continuously working outside.

Once a disciple went to his master's cottage and came out after some time, crying. After some time, another disciple entered the master's cottage and came out laughing. The first disciple was surprised and asked the second one, 'I asked Master whether I could smoke while meditating and he beat me. What did you do? What did Master tell you?' The second disciple said, 'I asked Master if I could meditate while smoking! And he said OK!'

There are different attitudes for any action. Here, one attitude resulted in a disciple getting beaten and the other attitude resulted in a disciple getting praised.

Our attitude decides our life. With the right attitude, we are showered with more and more. There is a beautiful sloka (verse) in the Puranas (sacred text) which says, nanda (bliss) attracts fortune. There is one more saying, 'Where there is bliss, Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) walks in naturally.' This is not just a simple faith or belief. Even modern-day psychologists say that if our mind is blissful, we attract happy people and happy situations around us. If we are sad and depressed, we attract the same type of people and incidents, sad and unhappy, causing us more sadness and unhappiness.

The being is like a dish antenna. If we tune ourselves to joy, we attract bliss; if we tune ourselves

to depression, we attract suffering and pain. Our being always attracts like incidents.

Be very clear: we can either enjoy this moment now or never! Tomorrow is going to come to us as today. So if we postpone our enjoyment today in the name of tomorrow, we will postpone it tomorrow in the name of day after tomorrow. It is our choice.

If we understand what life is, we will understand that we don't need anything. We are not just given what we need; we are actually showered. However, if we don't understand this, however much we are showered with, we will take life for granted.

A small story:

There was once a small boy, who was begging for alms in front of the king's palace. The king on seeing him felt pity for him and offered to let him stay in the palace guest room for a couple of days.

The boy was very happy to be in the palace; he had a sumptuous meal and went with great curiousity to his room.

On reaching the room, he was disappointed to see a medium-sized room with a small bed and some other furniture. He was expecting a royal room with servants waiting on him, with the choicest of foods and a big and royal bed.

He lay on the bed, muttering about how a palace could have such a mediocre-looking room, and finally went to sleep.

The next morning, the king enquired how he was doing, to which the boy could not help expressing his dissatisfaction at how he had been treated and how the room was not up to his expectations.

The king was furious at the boy's audacity and ordered his guards to throw him out.

The boy was thrown out of the palace. He started walking, weeping profusely.

On his way, he met a Sufi master who was begging for alms.

The master asked him why he was crying and the boy told the master how he had been invited to the king's palace and was not given fair treatment and was ultimately thrown out.

The master asked the boy to accompany him back to the king's palace.

So the boy covered his face in case the king recognizes him and accompanied the master.

On reaching the palace, the king saw the Sufi master and the boy, and invited them with all respect, to stay in the palace for a couple of days.

The master profusely thanked the king for the offer, had a great meal and was taken to his room.

He was given the same room the boy had been given earlier and they both spent the night in that room.

The next morning, the king inquired of the master how his night had been.

The master expressed deep gratitude for the excellent treatment and thanked him for the royal room and the comforts.

The boy could not believe what the master was saying.

The king was overjoyed and handed the master a thousand gold coins and offered him the guest room to stay in for as long as he wished.

The Sufi master thanked the king once again profusely and went on his way.

The same situation gives rise to entirely different reactions and events! It is the attitude that makes the difference. When we live with the attitude of gratitude to Existence for all that it showers us with, life will shower on us and everything will become beautiful and we will live it to

the fullest.

What more do you want? Let us understand this statement first.

A small story:

One man decided that he should pray as hard as he can to God so that he may live the life he has been dreaming of for all those years. He was a rich businessman but he was driven by a deep desire to have much more. God appeared because of his perseverance in prayer. The man could not believe that God had appeared. He asked him, 'God, how much is a penny worth in heaven?' God replied, 'One million dollars.' The man then asked, 'How long is one minute in heaven?' God replied, 'One million years.' The man asked, 'Can you give me a penny?' God replied, 'Sure. Just wait a minute!'

When we get greedy, when we start asking for more and more all the time, God knows how to take care of us!

When we understand how much life showers on us, we will understand: what more do we want? If we don't understand what life has showered on us, even in our grave we will be complaining that our neighbour's tomb is better than ours!

Don't be cheated by the mind which tells you that you are an ordinary person with ordinary blessings. One important thing: to become a Picasso or a Ravi Verma, we need talent, we need intelligence. However, to become enlightened, we do not need talent or intelligence; just our 'ordinariness' is more than enough. We need this understanding, that's all.

Ramana Maharishi once said, 'The moment you say that I am Bhagavan (God) and you are ordinary, you have missed my teachings.'

We hide our ego in a beautiful way by saying that we are ordinary. If the mind accepts the fact that whatever I say is always easy to practice, you should immediately start practicing my teachings. I never tell impractical things. But for you to practice my teachings, your mind has to die; it has to lose its grip on you. Like all other beings, the mind also has its own instinct to survive. That is the reason it does not allow you to go about without worrying about the past or the future.

With just a little intelligence, we can reason whether worrying has helped us solve a single problem in the past. If we have ten problems to start with, we create the eleventh problem of worrying about the ten problems. We cannot be so poor in our understanding. It is like saying, 'I understand fire burns, but I cannot resist the temptation to put my hand in the fire!' It is that foolish.

If this one point is understood, the very attitude of worrying will disappear from our system.

I read a few lines about worry the other day. It said:

In this life there are only two things to worry about. Either you will be rich or poor.

If you are rich, there is nothing to worry about. But if you are poor, there are only two things to worry about.

Either you will be healthy or sick. If you are healthy, there is nothing to worry about.

But if you are sick, there are two things to worry about. Either you will live or you will die.

If you live, there is nothing to worry about. If you die there are only two things to worry about.

You will either go to heaven or to hell. If you go to heaven, there will be nothing to worry about.

If you go to hell, you will be so busy shaking hands with all your friends, you won't have time to worry!

In a very jovial way, this conveys the truth about why we need not worry. If you read this, you will understand, there is no need to worry at all because not even an iota of good is going to come out of it; only our minds are kept unproductively absorbed in it.

People ask me, 'Master, I have tried very hard but my mind does not become silent. What can I do?' I tell them, you don't know how much work is going on inside your mind! There are scientists doing research on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and they say that to do 1/100 th of the work of data gathering, processing and analyzing that our mind does, we need a computer the size of a three-storey building and the noise generated will be as much as that of a large factory! The mind does so much work with no noise!

If we can put this mind of ours to productive use, if we can use it as a tool at our disposal, we can do wonders with it. Instead of going behind unwanted thought patterns and conclusions, if we can understand that we can succeed with what we have, it is enough. Don't bother if you have failed nine times and succeeded only one time. If you have succeeded one in ten times, increase the number of trials to one hundred. You will succeed ten times, simple! If we increase the number of trials, efforts and struggles, naturally we will see more and more moments of bliss.

We can easily hide in low self-esteem. When we have high self-esteem, society kicks us; our ego is disturbed. If we have low self-esteem saying that we are ordinary, society will never teach us; it will only praise us, it will only praise our humility! But this is an easy and cunning way to protect our ego.

Never keep yourself in low self-esteem. I say, whatever esteem we have of ourselves, except that *'*we are God', is low self-esteem, because we are divine! Don't think that you are just your mind; you are truly divine.

If we associate ourselves with moments of our success, our moments of success will naturally increase. Somebody was telling me the other day, 'Master, I am working on myself and I see the change happening slowly.' Be very clear: change is never slow; it is always quantum. Either we transform or we don't. Postponement is a cunning method the mind uses to escape.

We complain, 'I am a house-holder. I have so many things to take care of. How do I change? I am so restless; how can I meditate?' This is like saying, 'I am too sick. How can I take medicine?'

Understand this: if your mind is restless, it is then that you need to meditate. If you feel you are an ordinary person, it is then that you need these teachings. If you truly feel you are extraordinary, you don't need these teachings! If you feel ordinary, you need to practice with 120% effort.

When we begin to enjoy ourselves, we will express ten times the creativity that we express now. As of now, our minds are focused on the philosophy of 'more and more'. Eighty percent of our energy is therefore spent in iccha shakti (Power of Desire); only the remaining twenty percent of our energy is spent on kriya shakti (Power of Action). When we awaken gnana shakti (Power of Wisdom) in us, only 20% of our energy will be used in imagination, while 80% will be used in expressing our creativity.

In the great Hindu epic Ramayana, there was a character - Vali, who had the power to win away half the power of anybody who faced him in battle. Our desires are like Vali. When we face them in battle and struggle with them, we lose half our energy and power to them.

I am not saying don't build a big house or don't have a big bank balance; I am saying, drop the idea of having 'more and more'. Then we will be more creative, more productive, more energetic and more active and automatically we will have more! Running after 'more and more' is what I refer to as house-keeping in dreams. There is no use in house-keeping in dreams; do it in reality without the craving for it! The key lies in not craving for it.

Try this experiment for the next three days: just for the next three days, dropping all your worries. Surely, by dropping your worries for just three days, you will not lose your job or house; you will not die either. So drop bothering about the future totally, utterly and stop worrying about the past incidents. Whenever your mind goes to the past or future, just break the words that come to your mind immediately and completely change the thought. Drop your cravings for just three days. If it does not work, you can pick up your cravings again. You don't have to believe in this also; just take it as a hypothesis and experiment for yourself. Decide consciously that you will not allow cravings, you will not run behind 'more and more' for the next three days. Don't plan on doing this eternally; you will never do it. Start with now, that is enough! You will see how active, fresh, creative, bright, full of life, energetic, and blissful you will become!

The moment we drop cravings, our whole energy becomes integrated, centered. Eighty percent of it is available to express our creativity. As of now, eighty percent of our energy is not working, since we are stressed out with subtle and gross desires. Once we realize this waste of energy, we

will drop the idea of craving and it will automatically start getting used in creative work. We will start living in the vertical dimension of achieving rather than the horizontal dimension of running after 'more and more' and getting tired. We will start living in a different space.

Just try this experiment for three days; even if you lose something, it is worth trying. When we awaken the gnana shakti (Power of Wisdom), we start living intensely with awareness in the present moment. The mind is the supplier of energy. So if we are stressed out, how will we be creative?

J. Krishnamurti says beautifully, 'Ninety-nine percent of our worries never come true and the one percent that comes true is actually good for us.' The moment we remove the weight of worries from the mind, we remove the basic ingredients of stress; we will then see that we explode into energy and explode into creativity!

There is a wonderful statement by Mahatma Gandhi, 'We have enough to fulfill the whole world's needs. But, the whole world cannot fulfill a single man's wants.' Only a person like Gandhi can make such a statement. Gandhi's life was a living expression of this saying. He is truly one of the greatest human beings ever born on this earth. Apart from being a political leader, he had so many different dimensions to his personality. Only Bharat can boast of having a leader who preached and practiced non-violence. All other countries boast of warriors as their heroes. Here is a man who died saying, 'Don't punish the person who killed me!' Even in the last moment of his life, he was concerned about others. Living religion is easy, but living religion at the moment of death is surely not easy. Gandhi was a person who lived his religion even at the time of death.

The world has enough to fulfill everybody's needs, but it cannot fulfill a single person's wants. In Jainism, there is a beautiful concept. I don't know whether it is a fact, but it is the truth. We need to understand the difference between truth and fact. Truths that are already discovered and already analyzed are facts. If a truth has been proven by some scientist, by a theory or analysis, it becomes a fact. There are so many truths though, which are yet to be discovered, yet to become facts. Just because a truth is not yet a fact, we cannot deny the truth. For example, before the theory of gravity was discovered by Newton, was there no gravity? Gravity existed before and after Newton discovered it; he only made it a clear theory and proved it to be a fact.

In Jainism, there is a truth that Mahavira states: When we come down to planet Earth, the total amount of food which we will eat is sent with us to planet Earth. The energy needed to fulfill all our desires is given to us when we enter Earth. The things which we are going to enjoy - our house, comforts etc., are all sent to the world. The capacity to enjoy all our comforts is also given to us the moment we enter.

If this is the truth, why do we feel that we are lacking comforts? If I ask anyone whether they agree with this theory, most people will disagree saying, 'Oh, Master, God has given me less for sure. I don't think I received my share properly!' Most of us feel that something is missing; we feel deprived. But Mahavira says that all that we need has been already sent with us.

The problem is: after coming down to planet Earth, we see what others are enjoying and we start wanting to enjoy all that also; we start picking up desires from others. This is what we call borrowed desires. We not only want to work out our desires, we start gathering the desires of others as well. And we feel tortured that our desires are not getting fulfilled.

For example, we go to the mall to buy a refrigerator. There, we meet a friend who is buying a color television and oven. Just a few moments before we met our friend, we were very happy buying the refrigerator. However now after meeting him we start feeling that we should also have the color television. Our life was perfectly alright without the television until then. Even the thought would not have crossed our minds. But what has happened? From where did the desire enter? From where did the irritation about the television enter? Directly from the other person! This is exactly how we desire for more in every aspect of our lives, whether it is relationships or lifestyle or material things or anything.

Especially in lifestyle, we pick up a lot of things from others and start feeling the pressure to fulfill things.

The big problem is that we have enough energy to work out our desires in our life, but not enough energy to work out somebody else's desires as well in our life. We have one life. Hence, naturally, we have the capacity to live this one life's desires. If we add other's desires also in this life, the greed will result in stress. So we feel constantly that our time, energy and money are not sufficient; we feel deprived.

We have increased our desires after coming to this Earth. The energy which we brought is sufficient for our whole life. But when we start accumulating more desires and running after them, obviously the energy is not enough.

From a very young age, we are taught to compare. That is the reason we continuously compare and feel jealous. From young, if there are 2 children in the house, we automatically compare the two of them in every situation and sow the seeds of comparison in them. Everything starts from home. We create sibling rivalry and then make efforts to sort it out. Straightaway, we damage their consciousness. If we can somehow avoid this comparison and labelling of children as grade a, b or c, we can eradicate more than eighty percent of the violence and misery on this planet. All violence starts like this.

People ask me, 'Master, if we don't have comparison, how do we grow; how do we progress?' I tell you: nobody can grow by comparing. Each being is unique; each being has to flower. If we compare, we may progress as the other person is progressing, but not in the way the individual in us wants to progress. It is a very wrong idea that we can grow only through comparison.

Some children are masters of visualization; they are naturally inclined to arts like painting, poetry, dancing etc. Some are masters of verbalization; they grow in the fields of logic and language. Some are more inclined to mathematics. There are different aptitudes and inclinations. But when we grade children, we generalize them without giving any credit to what they are and this is where the problem starts.

We expect children to excel in everything, to be perfect. I tell you, perfectionism is actually schizophrenia!

There was once a Zen master who announced a competition among his disciples to declare who maintained a garden in the best fashion.

The senior-most disciple was a perfectionist and he was known to clean the garden extremely

well.

Everything was picture-perfect; all the old leaves were removed from the trees and the grass was mowed to be exactly the same height throughout the garden. The garden looked like a lego set. On the day of the competition, the master went around looking at the gardens of all his disciples. He went on rounds to inspect all the gardens.

When he came to the senior disciple's garden, he walked past it with hardly a glance at it.

The disciple was shocked and watched in disbelief as the master walked into the garden of the youngest disciple, next door.

The garden was nowhere close to as perfect as his, but it was maintained in a natural fashion, kept clean and tidy.

The master awarded the best garden award to this young disciple.

The senior disciple could not contain himself. He was angry and disappointed.

He asked the master why he was not given the best garden award.

The master just took a handful of old leaves from the young disciple's garden and scattered them in the perfect garden.

He then remarked, 'Now this looks like a natural garden.'

Understand: this story is not telling us that we should not sweep dry leaves in the garden. This is how we normally understand things. I am reminded of an incident that happened in the ashram one day:

The boys were called for a meeting. A senior ashramite started with the topic of keys missing because the boys were putting them in their shirt pockets and walking away. After a long lecture she asked, 'What do you think is the remedy for this? How can we prevent searching for keys all the time?' One mischievous boy replied, 'Hereafter we should not stitch shirts that have pockets!'

So the garden story does not mean that we should leave the dried leaves as they are. It is to make us understand that while perfectionism is needed in the outer world, it should flower out of a totality and not out of an obsession for it.

When we compare, we sow the seeds of misery. Naturally, this results in low self-esteem or high self-esteem.

Both low and high self-esteem are a problem. With low self-esteem, we get into a shell and suppress ourselves. We get jealous of the other person about whom we have a high esteem. If we have high self-esteem, our behaviour will be such that society will not support us. In both cases, we guard ourselves from society. We harbour violence in some form against society. The seeds of violence and misery are sown in our hearts at a very young age itself.

We continuously run based on comparison. So naturally, we pick up the attitude of violence; we pull other people down; we learn methods to stop the progress of others. The more we learn to compare, the more cunning and crooked we become. We hide ourselves behind cunning words like, 'How do we grow if we don't compare?'

The only way to escape from the torture of comparison and jealousy is to see that they are shadows with no objects. One glimpse of this truth will remove jealousy and comparison from our system.

A father one day turned off the light in his room and asked his son, 'How will you see things now?'

The son lit a candle.

They had light for some time but soon the candle melted.

The son lit another candle.

This candle also melted.

The father looked at him and said, 'Lighting the candle is of no use. Just open the door and allow light to flood the room. The darkness will automatically disappear.'

Candle light is only like temporary wisdom that saves the situation for us. Sunlight is what will permanently remove the darkness. Our ideas of jealousy and comparison are like the darkness that will disappear only if we bring the light of understanding into it. With understanding that they are not real objects, they can leave us forever. There is absolutely no scope to compare anybody with anybody. It is the most foolish thing to do. Each one is unique with a different agenda; then where is the scope to compare?

The truth remains the same. When we start to compare, we pick up desires from other people. We try to work out many more desires than what we can in our one life.

There is a beautiful sutra in the Upanishads: Iccha Shakti (Power of Desire and Creativity), the energy which creates desire in us, is potentially powerful enough to create Kriya Shakti (Power of Action), to actually fulfill this desire created in us.

For example, if we have the desire to possess a house, the very desire can express enough energy to create the house in our life. It seems to be a very strange theory, but the rishis (enlightened masters) declare with conviction, since we are God; if we have the desire, we have the power to also fulfill it. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: as our desires are, so is our will; as our will is, so are our actions; as our actions are, so is our life.

Then why do we feel that we are not able to fulfill what we want? It is merely because we don't work to fulfill our desires only; we also work to fulfill somebody else's desire.

The next question comes up: how do I find out whether the desire is mine or somebody elses? The answer is: if the desire is yours, when the desire arises in you, the very desire will give you joy. When you fulfill the desire, it will give you a deep sense of fulfillment. If it is somebody else's desire, the very desire will cause a sense of uneasiness. Even after fulfilling the desire, it will leave a sense of hang-over, possibly guilt.

What is the difference between junk food and good food? With junk food, we feel filled but not fulfilled. With good food, we feel a deep fulfillment. After having junk food, we feel lethargic and feel like resting. This is strange: we eat to get energy but after eating, we feel like resting; we feel deprived of energy. After having good food, we not only feel satisfied, but we also feel energetic and ready to take on the next job.

Be very clear: if our desires make us feel tired, give us an uneasy feeling, cause disturbance in our mind, then there is something seriously wrong in our system.

According to the Upanishads, desires are energy. We cannot even move an inch without the desire

to do so. Desire is the basic energy of our life. Without desire, we cannot get up from our seat now and leave.

If we observe ourselves, early in the morning, we enter our physical body from our dream body, either because we have a deep desire to enjoy something through our body, or because we fear that we will lose something. We think that if we don't get up and go to work, we will lose our job. The thought may not take shape exactly in this form, but that is the underlying insecurity, driven by fear or greed, that causes us to get up from our bed. Our desire to enjoy is the force which pushes us inside our physical body from the dream body.

Be very clear: we assume this human body just to fulfill our desires. So when we assume this human form, we bring enough energy with us to fulfill those desires as well, to unfold our desires as well.

Understand one more important thing: basically, our energy cannot do anything with partial involvement; in a half-involved manner. The moment we create a desire, we create and release the energy to work it out. If we feel unable to release that energy, then understand that it is not your desire; you have borrowed the desire from somebody else. Borrowing desires from others makes you dull and depressed.

There are four levels of desires. Let me explain each of these. The first level is the physical level: the desire for physical pleasures and comforts, the desire to see beautiful things, desire to hear, desire to taste, desire to smell and the desire for sex. These are the basic pleasures which form the first level of desires.

The next level is the desire for name and fame, for attention from others.

The third level consists of spiritual desires: the desire to be spiritual, the desire to have darshan (vision) of God and the desire for enlightenment.

The fourth and the ultimate, but very subtle desire is to just hang on to the body.

Analyze your desires deeply to see where you have need and where it is merely greed. If we analyze our mind, our lifestyle, we can classify our desires under these four categories. Whatever may be the desire, we can classify it under one of these four categories. Understand whether your desires are coming from need or greed. If it is your desire, it is need; if it is somebody else's, it is greed.

We have enough energy, power, capacity to fulfill our desires, but we don't have enough to fulfill the desires of others. Look in all the four layers of desires and identify all the layers where you are picking up others' desires.

The fantasies that we pick up from the outer world are what disturb us. Reality in life never disturbs us; our desires which we want to enjoy never disturb us.

People ask me, 'Master, should I renounce all my desires?' I tell them, no, that is also greed. We want to renounce here in the material world, so that we can enjoy in the future in the spiritual world.

I asked a person who used to drink regularly why he stopped drinking. He replied that he wanted to go to heaven. He had read that in heaven, we get soma rasa (drink of the demi-gods). So, he gave up drinking in this world, in the hope of drinking in heaven! I told him, never give up something on the basis of greed. Do it only on the basis of understanding. What is the guarantee that you will get soma rasa after death?

There are some sects of people who give money in this world to religious institutions. The priest gives them a receipt for the donation and promises that they will go to heaven through the power of their donation and the proof of the receipt. When the person dies and is buried, the receipt is placed along with the body. They believe that God will honor the receipt and give them the benefits of the good deed; they have an exchange offer with God!

If we drop things in this world in the hope of pleasures of the other worlds, remember it is still the same greed playing tricks on us. Look into your life deeply: in how many cases is greed replaced by beautiful words to describe it?

All our prayers are nothing but bargains. There was a man who was praying to Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth), 'Oh, Lakshmi, please give me one million dollars. I promise you that I will donate a hundred thousand dollars to you then. If you don't believe me, you can deduct a hundred thousand dollars yourself and give me the remaining amount!'

Our greed has become an undercurrent in us. Another small story:

NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars. Only one could go and couldn't return to earth.

The first applicant, an engineer, was asked how much he wanted to be paid for going.

'One million dollars,' he answered, 'because I want to donate it to M.I.T.'

The next applicant, a doctor, was asked the same question.

He asked for $2 million. 'I want to give a million to my family,' he explained, 'and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research.'

The last applicant was a lawyer. When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewer's ear, 'Three million dollars.'

'Why so much more than the others?' asked the interviewer.

The lawyer replied, 'If you give me $3 million, I'll give you $1 million, I'll keep $1 million, and we'll send the engineer to Mars!'

This might sound funny as a joke but the truth is, greed shows up even in our humour. Our humour decorates our greed, that's all.

It is said that Lord Venkatachalapati in the temple at Tirupati in South Bharat actually fulfills everybody's desire. Actually, it is a great enlightened master's energy that exists in that temple. There is a great spiritual energy existing there. Just like we can see whatever slide is projected in front of a projector as is, similarly, any thought comes to reality in front of Lord Venkatachalapati. The problem is: we pray and get into trouble since most of the time we don't even know what we need and what to ask for. He never misses; he always fulfills our wishes. But the choice of making the right or wrong wish is ours. Our desires are a projection of our greed. But we always

find ways to try and hide and decorate our greed.

Our desires never make us feel tired, but living out the desires of others makes us feel dull and depressed. Have you seen any animal suffering from obesity? No animal suffers from obesity. Of course, pets may overeat and suffer because they pick up the habit from us. Have you seen animals getting headache or having to go to the psychiatrist?

Animals have plenty of food continuously available to them but they never overeat and suffer. Why? Because they work out only their own desires, never others'. In our lives, we pick up desires from others.

We are continuously exposed to advertisements of McDonald's and we pick up the desire to eat unconsciously. We are continuously bombarded by images and desires. We see a Starbucks, and the desire for coffee automatically arises; we enter the shop for coffee, irrespective of whether we need it or not. See at how many levels we exploit our body for the sake of our greed!

We always blame our body saying that because of our sensory pleasures, we have wasted our life. Never blame our senses or body. Our body is naturally intelligent. The problem is our mind. Never think that our body disturbs us; it is we who disturb our body. Just look at yourself; how many nights have you spent watching television when your body was begging for rest, but you stayed up watching a football or cricket match.

In Bharat, a lot of Hindus equate cricket with patriotism! Please understand: if your country, Bharat, had to be represented, let it be represented by eleven enlightened masters, not by eleven cricketers! Cricketers cannot be representative of Bharat and its culture. I am not against the cricketers. They are nice people but they don't represent Bharat! If Bharat has to be represented, let it be represented by Sankara, Ramanuja, Ramana or Vivekananda! Many countries may be represented by their players, since that represents their culture. These countries have universities and stadiums all over. But all over Bharat, there are temples and ashrams; so the true representatives of Bharat are the enlightened masters.

We torture our body for the sake of our joy. Even if our tongues are burning, we continue to eat spicy food. When our body feels comfortable with our desires, it is our need. If we are feeling tired even after fulfilling the desire, it is our greed. If we feel fulfilled after fulfilling the desire, if we enjoy, are in bliss, ecstasy, joy, if we feel we have flowered, it is our need. If we feel tired, disturbed or uneasy, it is our greed.

The second level of desires is the desire for fame. How do we know whether this desire is need or greed? Understand that attention is a basic need of our life. Research studies have shown that a man can go for ninety days without food and yet survive, but he cannot be mentally balanced for more than fourteen days without receiving somebody's attention.

We are all products of our society. Without human friendship, without the human smile, without human touch and interaction, our lives will become miserable. The loneliness will become intolerable.

If we are not attended to, loved, cared for, we feel something is missing. Attention is a basic need in everyone's life. Each of us wants to be loved, cared and attended to. But if it is just a need, we

not only will have the desire but we will also reciprocate; we will automatically give others back what we get.

If it is greed though, however much we are attended to, we suck others energy and never feel like giving back and never feel that we have had enough either. We feel more and more powerful, but never feel like giving back the attention, the care.

We can see this very well in politicians. The more the crowd, the more is the volume of their voice and the number of promises that they make. The more energetic they are, the less is their service. Again, they work only for more attention and not to do something in reality.

Attention is also the basic reason for the existence of the family system. In marriage, we take multiple vows. One of them is the vow taken by both the man and woman: until the end of my life, I will support you whenever you feel the need for attention and care.

The problem is that nowadays, nobody knows the meaning of the vows that are taken at the time of marriage. It is more like the priest is getting married, rather than the bride and groom because it is the priest who chants everything. According to the Hindu system, there is no concept of divorce. We take the marital oath in front of agni (fire) that till the jataragni (inner fire of stomach) becomes cold (till we die), we promise to keep up the vows. So, it is a promise until death to support each other. So divorce is neither socially nor spiritually accepted in Hinduism. The man takes an oath to give all his attention, love and care to his wife and she in turn promises to give all her attention, love and care to him.

Marriages are supposed to be wonderful ways to exhaust each other's unfulfilled actions and not add any more to it. But today, marriages are endured on a different scale altogether.

A husband discovered that his wife always carried his picture in her handbag. He was thoroughly elated. He asked her, 'You always carry my photo in your handbag to the office. Why?'

The wife replied, 'When there is a problem, no matter how impossible, I look at your picture and the problem disappears.'

The husband exclaimed, 'You see, how miraculous and powerful I am for you!'

The wife calmly replied 'Yes, I see your picture and say to myself: what other problem can there be greater than this one?

This is how some of the marriages are endured today!

So understand: if we are really in need for attention, we will take the attention and also give it. The problem is again that we have the greed for attention.

In today's world, how long do you think one would allow his wife to watch her favorite television show without disturbing her? How long would a wife allow the husband to watch the news on television without pointing out how long it has been since he was glued to the television?

Be very clear: the greed of attention can never be fulfilled. Even if we get attention, we will constantly be in need of more. Why do people die to become celebrities? The greed for attention can take one to any extent, even to the extent of dying.

Before we get attention, we have a deep fear about whether we will get it. The moment we get it,

we have a deep fear about whether we will lose it! Will our name and fame get spoilt in any way? Both before and after the desire, we are continuously in fear.

We may be in awe of celebrities, but understand that celebrities are actually like our slaves. Never think that our leaders are leading us; it is we who lead them. If you live near any celebrity, if you get to watch them at close quarters, you will understand how much of insecurity and fear they live with.

Without us, they cannot be celebrities! Their whole life and energy is based on our attention. But enlightened masters are not like that. We see: a Paramahamsa (enlightened master) is a Paramahamsa whether we are there or not. He does not need fans and followers. There are so many enlightened masters on planet Earth today who are living in bliss in caves in the Himalayas! But what about us? If we are a celebrity, we need fans to give us status. If we are a politician, we need citizens to follow us.

Once, a king after winning a series of wars, was feeling very powerful and proud. He was taking a tour of his kingdom, when he saw a man sitting under a tree, deep in meditation and blissfully unaware of the king's presence.

He walked up to the man, angry that he had not even bothered to get up and salute the king.

He drew his sword angrily and putting it to the man 's neck, threatened to kill him if he didn't salute him.

The man started laughing loudly and asked him why he should salute the king.

The king, now even more enraged replied, 'I am the king of this state! How dare you not respect me'!

The man replied laughing, 'What kind of a king are you? You are begging for respect from me; you are no more than a beggar!'

The man under the tree was more like a king, since his self-esteem was independent of others' opinions of him. He did not need to beg for respect, for attention from others.

The king was shocked at the statement and the body language of the man.

That is why it is said that when Buddha used to beg for alms, He used to look like a king and the kings like beggars! Outwardly, possessions cannot make us regal; it is the inner bliss that radiates and makes us regal.

Living each day as if it were to be our last, and living life to the fullest are the best ways to extract the maximum juice out of life and living. To understand the process and meaning of death, is to live.

We do not have to wait till a death sentence is pronounced upon us to change our priorities and to question the way we live. Start today!

Understand: living in the now, welcoming reality, will take us to a different dimension where we will be able to use our creative energy to fulfill our true desires. Live every moment with total awareness. Enjoy this journey, this gift of life! This will automatically lead us to joy, bliss and ecstasy!