20. *How God functions*

For those of you who believe that God answers your prayers, let me tell you one thing: God is so compassionate that most often than not he leaves your prayers unanswered!

It is like this: When a child asks for an ice cream when he is suffering from a cold, do you give it to him? No, you don't give it to him.

Now, the child might feel ungrateful to you for it, but you know that you are doing your best for the child because he does not know that what he is asking for is not the right thing for him at that time.

In the same way, with your deep ignorance, you don't know what is best for you but keep asking God for various things. But out of pure compassion, God gently brushes aside your prayers and bestows you with the things that you actually need and prods you on towards better intelligence, which is his only concern for you. Remember that the more your inner intelligence grows, the less you pray or ask.

What can you ask God for? The moment you ask, it means that you think that there are a few things that God does not know! It means that you feel that unless you ask, God will not know. It sounds ridiculous, does it not? Can there be anything that God does not know?

Understand that God gives you what you need, not what you want. If he starts giving all that you want, you will move from misery to misery! When he gives you what you need, you will move from intelligence to more intelligence and somewhere, the asking will drop and gratitude will happen.

God gives you the strength and courage that you need to overcome difficulties.

He gives you the wisdom to dissolve your so-called problems.

He gives you an invaluable resource that is your own updated intelligence, to bring you prosperity.

He gives opportunities for you to explore your own love and care.

He gives you the intelligence to understand that all that you have is all that you need.

He gives you the maturity to flower with a fragrance.

The basic problem with all of us is, we are all ready to believe that God has the shakti or power to give us what we want, but fail to understand that he also has the buddhi or intelligence to decide whether or not it is good for us! Simply because we believe that God has only power, we keep asking and asking.

We always feel that we know what is best for us and pray to God for that. We want to use our intelligence and God's power to get us what we want! We clearly tell him, 'This is what I want and this is how things should be, so please do this for me with your power!' We give all our wants with our preferences within brackets, as a prayer to God!

This is the attitude that gets us into complications. We have to understand that God not only has the power, but also the intelligence to decide what is good for you. When we understand this, we will stop our method of praying.

We think that the whole world is running because of our intelligence. Be very clear: the world is running in spite of our intelligence!

A small story:

God and all the scientists of the world had a meeting and a competition.

Whatever item that God made, the scientists reproduced it identically out of some material. The scientists were able to reproduce things with no problem.

Finally, God made man out of dust and challenged the scientists.

The scientists started to pick up dust…

God said, 'Wait! Make it out of your dust, not mine!'

Man has to understand that Existence is the creator, the created and the creation. Only then can he simply start enjoying things without a care. Only then can he relinquish possession and doership.

We are so used to the concept of trading that it becomes difficult to understand that there can be someone who is not even our blood relative, who can care for us unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. It is too much to believe!

I tell you that Existence cares for you like no one else can. This truth I can tell you, but it is up to each one of you to realize this from within, from your own experience. Only then it will be first hand knowledge.

I always tell people, 'I cannot teach you spirituality, but you can learn!' I can tell you great truths so that you will at least know what you don't know. But making that truth into an understanding for yourself is up to you. I am ready to tell you how many ever times you want to hear the truth.

A small story:

Once when Adi Shankaracharya, a saint from ancient India, was on a pilgrimage by foot with his disciples, at one place he felt very thirsty.

They looked around but could not find anything to quench his thirst.

There was only a palm grove, where they were producing country arrack.

Shankara entered the grove and asked the workers if they had anything to quench his thirst.

They said they had nothing except the country arrack.

Shankara asked for the country arrack and drank it.

The disciples saw Shankara drinking. Immediately, they also asked for the arrack and drank it!

The arrack did not affect Shankara because he is an enlightened being, having boundary-less consciousness!

He walked on steadily but his disciples were staggering behind him!

After a few days, again they were walking, but this time in a desert area.

They felt thirsty and this time they saw only an iron forgery.

Nothing else was available.

Shankara asked the worker attending if there was anything to drink.

The worker said there was nothing to drink.

But Shankara saw the molten iron, the liquid iron and asked the worker for it and drank it.

After drinking the liquid iron, he turned to his disciples and offered it to them!

The disciples were simply shocked.

Shankara wanted to make them understand that they should do what he says and not what he does. The arrack did not affect him because he was established in boundary-less consciousness. Unless you have experienced it, you will not know. So you cannot simply imitate from outside. It has to happen from inside for each of you, and then you will know.

How committed or how connected you want to feel with the truth, is your own decision. I can only help those who help themselves. I can give my hand to lift you up, only if you are willing to at least lift your hand to reach out to mine. If you really want to be lifted, you would at least put out your hand to me. Otherwise, I will allow you the freedom to simply be where you are, that's all. That is why they say, 'God gives you the freedom to be in bondage!'

Most of us think that we are not helped by God the way we should be. I tell you, God knows you better than you know yourself. This is the truth. You have to understand this, that's all. Just try to drop the doubt and have some faith; that is enough. The rest will be taken care of automatically.

A small story:

Two goldfish were inside a fish tank. One of them asked the other, 'Do you really believe in the existence of God?' The other replied, 'What else do you think changes our water everyday?'

If you believe that Existence takes care of all your needs, you will be free from any kind of worry. But remember, as I told you, your needs are different from your wants. Your needs are few but your wants are many. Your needs are automatically fulfilled by Existence. When your wants increase, you lose faith in Existence because you don't see them being fulfilled.

Guaranteed Solutions

You see, ordinary belief is just believing, that's all. Faith on the other hand, is belief plus energy to put it into action. You can start with belief but you have to end in faith. With belief, there will be a doubt; with faith there will be no doubt, because you would have experienced it. When you have experienced for yourself the wonders of gratitude, you will attract more and more fortune for yourself. I am declaring this from my own experience.

Gratitude brings more to you

A small story:

A boy once visited a king's palace.

He requested to allow him to stay for a night in the palace. The king agreed and the boy stayed.

The next morning, the boy came up to the king and complained endlessly about the shortcomings of the accommodation provided to him.

The king ordered the boy to be taken out saying that even a day's accommodation was too much for a person such as him.

The boy felt very bad and went to a Sufi saint and narrated to him the happenings.

The saint did not say anything. He simply asked the boy to become his disciple.

A few months later, the saint told the boy that he was going to visit the king and asked him to accompany him.

They went and asked to be allowed to stay for a few days in the palace.

The king agreed.

The next morning, the king asked the saint if he was comfortable with the arrangements that had been made for him.

The saint expressed heart-felt gratitude towards the king for the comforts made for him.

The king was very happy and immediately ordered his men to pay more attention to the arrangements made for the saint.

The saint told the boy, 'Do you see now? This is the secret of life. Feel grateful and you will be showered.'

This is what happens when you thank Existence instead of finding fault with what has been given to you. By feeling gratitude, you send out positive vibrations that will automatically bring back more than you can imagine for yourself.

This does not mean that you have to praise people with your lips and cunningly deceive them to get more. No! When you are in a state of thankfulness all the time, irrespective of your state in the outer world, your gratitude will radiate from you. Then, things will simply start happening for you.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, there is so much suffering around us. Why is this so?' I tell you, this is all nonsense. First of all, there is not as much suffering as you make out to be. There is suffering alright, but it is magnified by your own mind. If you take proper statistics and see, you will understand how much your mind plays in these things. It has become casual social talk to say all these things and magnify the whole situation. Secondly, there is suffering because our faith has disappeared, that's all. We have become avaricious, driven by our unconscious ways.

Understand that Existence simply orchestrates the happenings in the universe. All the events are so synchronously conducted that the more aware you are, the more you can perceive the amazing order in what now seems to be chaotic to you. We just need to be aware of this and play our part accordingly; life will then flow like music.

When you become sensitive to this phenomenon, from small events to larger ones, you will start realizing how things are being re-arranged and made to happen with you being a simple instrument in the whole process. The power of coincidence will start revealing itself to you in its entire splendor. You will become aware that you are part of a macrocosmic orchestra wherein you just need to flow with the music and enjoy it! It is only when you fight the flow, when you try to go against it, that the problem starts.