MISERY
The mind lives on “more”. Misery starts with “more and more,” and misery makes you dense and gross. The Self is subtle. To go from gross to subtle, you must go through the finest level of the relative – the atom. To overcome aversion, hatred, jealousy, attraction or entanglements, you have to take yourself to the atom. Taking yourself to the atom means accepting a tiny bit of all of this.
It may be difficult to accept something you do not like but you can definitely accept a tiny bit of it – an atom. The moment you accept that one atom, you will see change occur. But this must be done in a meditative state. Suppose you love someone. You want more and more of them, yet there is no fulfilment. In anuvrat- the vow of an atom – you take just one atom of that person and that is enough to bring fulfilment to you.
Though the river is vast, a little sip quenches your thirst. Though the earth has so much food, just a small bite satisfies your hunger. All that you need are tiny bits. Accept a tiny bit of everything in life – that will bring you fulfilment.
Question: What about trouble?
There is so much trouble in the world, you can accept just a tiny part of it. Tonight go to bed feeling that you are satisfied, taking a tiny part of divinity with you. Satisfaction comes from the subtle and not from “more and more.”
Question: What about giving?
You take a tiny part, and the rest you give away.
European Ashram, Bad Antogast, Germany , August 11, 1999
Each experience completes. Completion means being led to void or nothing. In the progression of life, you will leave behind every experience saying, “This is nothing.” Anything that is completed loses its importance. It leads you to void – it is nothing.
A sign of intelligence is how soon you arrive at this underastanding. Examine everything in life and say, “This is nothing: and what remains is love, and that is everything. When “this is nothing” does not come out of knowledge, it will come out of misery. Either through knowledge or through misery, you come to the point of “this is nothing, this is nothing.” The choice of how you come to that point is yours. If you got this, it is really NOTHING. If you did not get this, never mind – this is nothing.
