The lady agreed and they went to sleep in the room given to them. The house was filled with the fragrance of the jasmine flowers. But however hard they tried, the fisherwomen could not sleep. They were tossing and turning, and they did not know what to do. Then suddenly, one of them got up, brought in the empty fish basket and kept it at their heads, and they were able to sleep in no time! We carry our worries with us everywhere we go and feel comfortable nurturing them. But we also complain that we are so worried all the time! We want to be free from something but we are not willing to transform and be free from it. This is how self-contradictory we are.

Knowledge - the culprit Anyhow, how can we be free from this? What should be our attitude? How to be free and what should be your attitude both questions have only one answer: whatever you do, you should be able to do with a feeling of bliss, that's all. You see, the space inside you, or your consciousness, decides the quality of your life. This space should be pure and blissful always. It has been proven that the consciousness of a scientist plays a major role in the experiment that he conducts. It has been observed that the same experiment when done in the same controlled environmental conditions produce different results when done by different scientists. They have clearly proven that our inner thoughts control our actions and the results of our actions.

Ananda or bliss attracts fortune. This is a great truth. When you are blissful, automatically, Existence showers and material wealth will start flowing towards you. Be with a sense of gratitude always. The rest will happen automatically. Simply decide not to feel miserable about anything. If any worry or guilt or sad incident comes to your mind, just look at it and smile and say, No, I am not going to be affected by you. What will you do? Simply look at it and say this. Automatically the incident or guilt will not have any effect on you. By allowing it to attack you, are you going to gain anything? No! By looking at it and saying that you will not let it attack you, you are only avoiding misery.

I am not saying to run away from it. I am asking you to look at it and say this. Understand this point clearly. If you try to suppress these thoughts, they will keep lurking at the back of your mind and they will threaten to come back at any time. Allow them to surface. But just look at them and tell them that they are powerless; you will see that they automatically disappear. They will think that it is not worth haunting you and they will simply disappear! Anything that gives you strength through your body, mind or spirit is spirituality and will automatically take you towards bliss. Anything that weakens you is not spirituality and therefore, just dont pursue it. This is the thumb rule to be followed.

Never forget that bliss is your true nature. And one more thing: anything beautiful that you see, experience it instead of just typecasting it with your patterns and being a cold spectator. Have you seen the sunrise and sunset in the ashram or anywhere else? Have you ever stood and watched the beautiful transformation of colours and rays of light spreading across the sky? Most of us either dont know that the sun is setting or simply say, Yes, the sun is setting; so what; it sets everyday anyway. Knowledge simply mars your innocence and makes life dull for you. When you see the sunset or sunrise, it can be such a beautiful meditation for you. Instead of looking at it with your mundane knowledge, if you become a part of it and merge with it, you will see that you are a speck of this tremendous Existence that is celebrating.

You will then participate spontaneously in the celebration. But we are dulled by our so-called knowledge, which is nothing but again a collection of words and another cause for inner chatter and worry. We have collected so many words and we live with these words and therefore nothing surprises us. Even if God comes to you and says that he is God, you will say, 'so what? Everything is taken for granted because of your knowledge. The whole of Existence is taken for granted because of your so-called knowledge. You miss the whole of Existence in this fashion. You run behind worldly things that give you only more and more greed, worry and fear. These things only disconnect you further from your inner core; they make you look outside instead of inside.

They make you totally dependent on outer world things instead of your own inner strength and they make you sway between depression and joy alternately, instead of being centered upon permanent bliss. You feel that everything is happening outside and that you have to run to catch it before it is too late. That is why you are always in a hurry, always chattering inside yourself. That is why you are in a rat race. That is why you are always in the future and never in the present. Knowledge is simply data, facts, statistics; it is simply dead. Collect knowledge, but dont let it control you in any way. Learn to keep it aside and look at life with awe. The mind always tries to conclude, summarize, judge, and collect information with whatever it sees.

You want to collect words and more words, that's all. Of what use is it? I took a couple of devotees to Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. It was so beautiful. We went in the boat on the river Yamuna, reliving the days of Krishna. I was sharing my bliss with the devotees - a pack of highly intellectual people. Here I was recalling the days of Krishna, showing them where Ras Leela happened, and I was filled with such ecstasy and the devotees were telling me that the tiles in the place look as if they had been renovated! I was so shocked. I told them that I should have brought a few people who had lesser knowledge and more awe left in them so that I could share my ecstasy with them.

Knowledge is dead at the end of the day. Somehow, people use knowledge to measure a person's worth. The more knowledge you have, the more you are respected. With knowledge, you are constantly living with your mind. You can never know Existence with your mind. Existence is beyond Logic You can know Existence only through your heart. Only through love you can know Existence. And the mind does not know love; only the heart knows love. The mind knows only calculated love, which is not love at all. It is just another calculation that you do to satisfy yourself at the superficial level. Spirituality is all about understanding the perfect harmony, the deep connection between man and Existence. When you understand this and drop your entire struggle, you will just flow like a river.

The river will take its course and join the mighty ocean. You just need to let go. I dont mean that you can sit in a corner and you will be swept along by some river. You just do your work with the undaunted faith and feeling that there is a life force that is conducting this universe that is taking care of you also, and which is making the breath in you go in and out. That is enough. Simply shift the responsibility to a higher authority and relax. You will then live like a king! You will then start listening to the synchronous music of the flowing river, of Existence taking you, of the harmony between you and Existence. This harmony is what you need to tune into.

And then, all your worries will disappear! Of course, there is no proof that Existence is taking care of us. Certain things cannot be proven. Can you prove that this direction is East? No! Can you prove the phenomena of sunrise and sunset? No! You can only experience it. Because you cannot prove it, can you disprove it? Can you prevent the sun through science from setting and rising everyday? Understand that Existence is the only thing beyond logic. If you can prove existence with logic, it means logic is greater than Existence, and this can never be! One man asked me, 'swamiji, should I become a Hindu to become spiritual? I was shocked at the question! I told him that he did not have to become a Hindu.

Be very clear: anything that curbs your field of perception is clearly not related to spirituality. Spirituality is always all encompassing. Drop all your notions of I am this and I am that. Keep your life open. This is the basis for spirituality. It is like this: a person who stays continuously in a locked room will not know about the open air and breeze. He will be having such clannish thoughts. The moment you impose this kind of restriction upon yourself, you will not know about the infinite love and compassion that lies within you. You will only worry and complain. You will not blossom. Buddha was once asked what kind of hell was given to people who were not compassionate. He replied, You cannot put them in hell because they are already in hell! Only when you are in hell, you will create hell for others, because you can give only what you have.