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Because you can possess a thing only if you share. There is no other possession. If you cling to a thing, it shows that the thing is bigger than you, bigger than your love, bigger than your being. That's why you cling to the thing. Your soul is in the possessions. You cannot share, you cannot be generous.
BECAUSE HE HAD A HIGH RANK IN THE INVISIBLE HIERARCHY, HE WAS KNOWN AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD.
Sufis confer such titles on their beggars: `President of the World.' Don't misunderstand! He is not a president in the sense Ford is, or Nixon was. They are the poorest men in the world, the very last, in a deep illusion that they are the first. This man must have removed himself to the very last. Only those who are disillusioned with the world can stand at the very end. They can become the very last. And Jesus says, `Those who are last in this world will be the first in the Kingdom of my God.' Jesus must have been talking about such a man -- rich, generous. And I tell you: if you are generous, you are rich; and if you are not generous, you may be in an illusion that you are rich, but you are poor.
Generosity is the real richness.
And to be generous, to share, you don't need many things. To be generous, you just have to share whatsoever you have. You may not have much -- that is not the point. Who has much? Who can ever have enough? It is never much, it is never enough. You may not have anything at all, you may be just a beggar on the road, but still you can be generous.
Can't you smile when a stranger passes by? You can smile, you can share your being with a stranger, and then you are generous. Can't you sing when somebody is sad? You can be generous -- smiles cost nothing. But you have become so miserly that even before smiling you think thrice: to smile or not to smile? to sing or not to sing? to dance or not to dance? -- in fact, to be or not to be?
Share your being if you have nothing. And that is the greatest wealth -- everybody is born with it. Share your being! Stretch your hand, move towards the other, with love in the heart. Don't think anybody is a stranger. Nobody is. Or, everybody is. If you share, nobody is.
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