I must have so much joy doing something, then it becomes effortless
Moment you bring up this idea, “Oh no, I have to meditate again”, it becomes a drag.
It's okay in a class if you fail
5th grade or 5th year of college if you fail it's okay
It's not the worst
But in life if you fail
you have to repeat the whole life again
and once we get used to failing in classes you become rigid about it and then
you know, parents keep crying, “My son is still in the ninth grade. He doesn't do anything
He is wasting his time. When is he going to pass out of the school?”
The same thing happens to us, to our Lord, “When is this fellow going to return back home?
When is he ever going to get moksha, liberation, so that we can be together again?
But we go on repeating life after life, life after life, life after life.
So we have to understand the seriousness of the spiritual adventure.
We have to put our heart into it, see?
You know, one of our senior preceptors during Babuji's life time, Dr.K.C.Varadachari,
he used to give this example
if you dig a well for water one foot here and then you get fed up
and then after 10 days you dig another five feet somewhere else
and then ten feet somewhere else, you will never get water
Though you are making an effort sporadic and unregulated, without plans
Likewise when we meditate now, and then after sometime we meditate and then after some time we meditate.
You know the other day I worked in my backyard, in the garden
I was removing the soil and I must have dug almost a foot deep and about two feet wide.
It took me more than an hour, and then what happened
After five days when I went to plant a sapling,
someone had already filled that one foot deep two feet wide pit that I had made
when he was watering the place.
And while watering, the rest of the mud that was on the side filled it up again, see? So I had to dig it again.
So either we go on repeating the same thing again and again,
this is what we call wasted efforts. And the problem comes when we get used to this
we become complacent about our journey. I have to become very restless about my own path
it becomes effortless
Moment you bring up this idea, “Oh no, I have to meditate again”, it becomes a drag.
I would like to share with you a real story from Napoleon's life
When he was returning back to France after winning many provinces, there was a lot of loot,
many treasures his army was carrying. Some were being carried on donkeys, some on horses, and some on men.
One of the army personnel, a soldier, was on foot.
He was carrying something on his back
some treasure, gold treasure, but it was heavy, and the soldier was thinking,
“What is this? I am carrying all this load, I am dying, I am hungry, I can barely walk in this cold.
When Napoleon saw this, he asked, “What are you carrying?
He says, “Sir, I don't know what I am carrying. He says, “Look inside.”
He looks. He saw this tremendous value gold, all gold and precious jewels, Napoleon says,
“This is all yours, take it.”
Just a few moments before he was cursing himself for carrying it,
“So much gold and I have to carry this.” But all of a sudden his mood changed,
so much joy radiated from every part of his body, he was unstoppable
He was running back home. I mean, speed you can't imagine.
A simple change of attitude can fire us up and a simple change of attitude in a negative way
can also withdraw and, somehow, stop our spiritual progress
Not only spiritual progress, in studies also we have seen enthusiastic children
versus those children who find it burdensome, this aspect of education.
It's a vast difference. So cultivating a certain level of attitude helps us a lot.
Even if you pretend artificially, you smile and say, “Let me do this. Let me do this with joy.”
Your enthusiasm itself will spread like a contagious disease
Your wife also will be affected by this positive sign
children with whom you interact will also be affected by this positive sign
Even with many questions that we ask,
your teachers are not cooperating, but because of your enthusiasm they will also join your hands
They say, “Wow, there must be something with this meditation. He is always cheerful, he is always smiling
So I think what I learned today from all this is that we all need to develop a certain level of attitude
attitude of passionate enthusiasm, joy in doing our things.