This is Enough to Be Happy - 5th December 2016

As earlier, I left quite a few have been asking me recently, 'Why are you always pushing us to awareness?' and complaining too, maybe sometime. Just to say because it is the truth is not enough, because the question 'What's in it for me?' can still be strong. That is why it is also important to point out that in this realm, the best existence is for those who have come to this realization. There is nobody that I have found in my outside Satsang life who can claim that they are not suffering, who can claim that they are fully content beyond misery. And you ask any of them, they'll say, 'I want money because then I'll be happy. I want this relationship because I'll be happy.'

It's like the whole story of these two. One of them is just being very lazy and sitting around—I'm not advising that, I've got into a lot of trouble needlessly because it sounds like I'm advising laziness—but one of them was just sitting around and the other one comes and says, 'Why are you just sitting? Why don't you go work in your field?' He says, 'Okay, so then what will happen?' 'Work in your field, you'll be able to sell your crops, then you can build a bigger house.' 'Yes, so then what will happen?' 'See, a bigger house, then you can get married, you have children, you can have a beautiful family life.' 'And what will happen?' And he says, 'Oh, then you can expand, you can hire people to work for you to get more and more money.' 'And then what happens?' You know where the story is going. So ultimately he says, 'Then you can just sit and be happy.' 'Yes, but that's what I'm doing already.'

This that is here now is enough for us to be happy, actually. That is why, irrespective of... some can have millions and billions of dollars and are extremely unhappy, some have no money and are extremely unhappy. It's not that. And some can have money and be happy, and some can have no money also and be happy. Some can have no relationship or a terrible relationship and be happy, and you can have the best relationships and be unhappy. So it must be clear by now that there is something beyond material possessions which links to this end of suffering. And please hear me carefully: I am saying that it is not contrary to material possession. In either situation, it is possible to suffer or not to suffer.

So what is that distinction? If I was to consider myself an object, if I consider myself an object, then other objects would be important to me. Of course, if I am just this body, then this body is dependent on so many things—where I live... if I were just this body, then all of these things become more and more important. But am I an object? Am I an object? And if I am not an object, then what importance do objects have for that which is not an object? Therefore, this must be very important to clarify before we get on to any endeavor, isn't it? Yeah. Or you must see, okay, what is that which is available at the top of that wall before we decide to climb a hill? You see, okay, what cave is there? Is it Skandashram which we'll sit in? Is there a lot of peace available in those terms?

So before I take on an endeavor, I must be clear about what it is that I'm after. Now, if it was completely clear to me that I am this flesh and blood, all the rest is just mumbo jumbo—they all are just mumbo jumbo, brainwashing terms, just talking, they have nothing to do with reality—if this was what it is, then what must my endeavor be? Yeah, if I were just this, can we contemplate this on the other side for a minute? What should I be doing now? Pleasure and pain for the body. One thing is inevitable: the death of this body. So first I must, if I am enjoying the existence of the body, I must try and see how we can get out of this. How can I prolong it? Because otherwise, how does it matter? See, now if you try that and we find that actually there is no way out of it, then the other thing must be that how can I enjoy every single second of the body which is available here?