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him redhanded. He was standing there with that broomstick. I asked him, "Why have you brought it in?"
He said, "Well, it may be needed sometime."
I said, "But it is useless now."
He protested, saying, "No, no, it may be of use sometime. Why throw it away? Let it stay."
This is the mania of collecting things. What is the reason for this? Why does man want to accumulate? Really there is big emptiness inside which has to be filled, and it has to be filled up with anything, otherwise one feels very empty. If one possesses nothing then one feels very empty inside. Just think: if you have nothing to possess, you will be free and empty inside.
Friends come to me for meditation. When they have meditated for some time -- say for a month or so -- they start seeing that emptiness inside themselves. That emptiness was always there but it was not noticed. Meditation makes you more aware -- awareness increases and then one becomes aware of the emptiness. A very peculiar thing then happens. Whosoever feels that inner emptiness starts eating a lot. One or two cases of this type come to me every day. They say, "What are we to do? We never used to eat so much food. The effect of the meditation is such that we want to eat all the time."
I explain to them that the reason for this is that meditation has shown you the inner emptiness, and this emptiness hurts so it has to be filled up. You therefore fill up this emptiness with money, position and fame. By accumulating things and sitting amongst them, one feels that one has something. Those who do not have anything have the desire of accumulating. But those who have something do not accumulate, they are sufficient unto themselves. Just 'being' is so fulfilling that there is no need to collect anything.
That is why we worshipped Buddha, we worshipped Mahavira, we worshipped Shankara, because we noticed that their wealth is within them; there is something in them on account of which the emptiness has disappeared. There is some light within them on account of which the inner emptiness has become fulfillment, the inner emptiness has become truth. Meditation brings emptiness.
If you are
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