20. Choose Joy Every Time!

If I tell you that you choose your worries, you will disbelieve me. But that is the truth!

Each one of us carries our personalized list of worries. Our worries are not the same as our neighbor's. Our worries are completely based on our perceptions and on our individual desires.

A small story:

One lady was moving to another place. She watched over the movers packing her household articles in preparation for her move. One man was handling her antique vase and she warned him, 'Please be careful; that is over a hundred years old.'

The man looked at her and said, 'Don't worry ma'am. I will handle it like it is brand new!'

Greed, pure greed, fuels many of our worries. All our worries stem from greed. Our actions also reflect the greed in us, greed for novelty, greed for what others have, greed for something new all the time. In this story, both the lady and the man reflect the greed in us.

Greed drives us like nothing else can. If a neighbor has bought a new refrigerator, it increases the temperature in our kitchen! When a friend buys the latest model automobile, we immediately feel that our last year's model looks like a vintage car.

Our desires are plenty. When these desires are unfulfilled, we begin to worry. Our worries do not arise from a genuine need for what we pine for. We create and invent ourselves over and over again by comparing ourselves with others.

Desires by themselves, are not harmful. If our desires are deep and pure, they materialize. Such deep and genuine desires have the power. In fact, desire is energy.

We all have a problem here in that our desires are borrowed; they arise out of jealousy and greed. We develop the desires by comparing ourselves with others. These desires have no connection with our needs.

Ramana Maharishi, a realized master, explained the nature of desires with clarity: the universe can cater to the needs of every single inhabitant. However, it cannot fulfill the wants of even a single person. Needs are different from wants. Needs are basic. Wants are borrowed; borrowed from others after seeing what they have.

Look around. Everyone is traversing their own circuit of desires, worry or greed.

Look within. Listen with the heart in silence; that silence will transform you.

Bliss bubbles from within. That is our true nature; joy is our true state. Choose this joy every time. Choose to be within your heart. This is the path to eternal bliss - THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM.