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| | | Book Name: Yoga - The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4 | Previous Next | |
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tell me when I am going to die?' The woman closed her eyes, contemplated and said, 'On a Jewish holiday.' Hitler said, 'What do you mean, what holiday?' She said, 'That is irrelevant. Whenever you die it will be a Jewish holiday.'
Marpa said, 'It is irrelevant what God has in His mind. Wherever I go, it will be heaven -- because I know, I am happy with out any cause.'
An austere man comes to know that happiness is the nature of life. You need not have any causes to be happy. You can simply be happy just because you are alive! Life is happiness, life is bliss; but this is possible only for an austere man. A man who accumulates things always thinks that because of these things he is going to be happy. Palaces, money, gadgets; he thinks that because of these things he is going to be happy. Riches are not the problem; the attitude of the man who tries to find riches is the problem. The attitude is: unless I have all these things, I cannot be happy. This man will always remain unhappy. An austere man comes to know that life is so simple that whatsoever he has, he can be happy. He need not postpone it for anything else.
Austerity will then mean: come down to your needs; desires are mad, needs are natural. Food, shelter, love; bring your whole life energy down just to the level of needs, and you will be happy. And a happy man cannot be other than religious; and an unhappy man cannot be other than irreligious. He may pray, he may go to the temple and the mosque -- that doesn't matter. How can an unhappy man pray? His prayer will have a deep complaint in it, a grudge. It will be a deep grump. Prayer is gratitude, not complaint.
Only a happy man can be grateful; his whole heart cries in total gratitude, tears come to his eyes because God has given so much without his asking. And God has given so much just by giving you life. A happy man is happy just because he can breathe -- that is too much. Just to breathe for a single moment is enough, more than enough. Life is such a benediction! -- but an unhappy man cannot see it.
So remember, the more you are possession oriented, the less happy you will be. The less happy you are, the farther away
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