We are all beggars......

We are all beggars. What are we begging for? Happiness. What kind of happiness? Divine happiness or premananda. We have been experiencing the happiness of the world for uncountable lifetimes. But worldly happiness has two defects. First, it is limited, and second, it is temporary. Limited means when you see or learn about a happiness beyond what you are presently experiencing, your current state of happiness ends. A poor man is contentedly eating a dry piece of bread until a man comes before him eating a delicious and rich dessert. The poor man thinks dejectedly, “Is this dry bread something that’s fit to eat? Look at what he has…”

A poor man is traveling by bicycle. A rich man passes him driving an expensive sedan. He thinks, “This bicycle is worthless. If I just had a car…” A person graduates from the university and wonders how and when he will locate a job. Finally he finds employment. Someone asks him, “Do you have a job?” He replies, “Yes, I do.” That person asks, “What is your pay?” He proudly says, “10,000 rupees a month. What is yours?” The other man says, “50,000 a month.” The happiness of the person who earns less disappears. As an axiom, when we see a greater happiness than our own, our present happiness ends. Even if we were to experience the greatest worldly happiness, its nature is to slowly diminish in intensity until it comes to an end. Thus, no matter how great it is, it is only temporary. This is what happens whenever you see anything pleasing in the world. A person visits India and sees the Taj Mahal, “Oh, it’s really beautiful!” If that person is asked some time later, “Come on, let’s go see the Taj Mahal.” His answer, “What for? I already saw it once.” From a distance, a boy sees a girl outside her home and goes mad for her. By chance they ended up getting married. Once they start living together, he begins to see each and every one of her physical defects and personality faults. Now he thinks, “Oh no, my life is over!”

The happiness related to everything in the world continuously reduces. On the other hand, God’s greatest happiness always steadily increases, no matter how many times you experience it. So that true happiness is what we have eternally desired, but we are looking for in the world and asking for it from beggars. We are asking our mother, father, spouse and children to give it to us. We are begging like this 24-hours a day. Even though we are shamed, discouraged and belittled by these same people, we keep on asking them. Really, what could they give you? Just as you are begging from them, they are also begging for happiness from you. We say to each other, “I love you”, but do we understand the definition of love? We have merely memorized this phrase and keep on saying it. The ones who can truly give are those who possess premanand, divine love – God and the Saints who have realised God. These two possess true wealth. They don’t desire anything beyond this because there is nothing greater to attain. What will they do now? Nothing. Because any action that a person performs is done to to attain something.

A person is sitting with closed eyes. Now he opens them. Why did he do that? There must be a reason, because no action is performed without a reason. First we have some kind of aim and then we act. But all aims end for the one who attains God, which means his actions also come to an end. But what will the Saint now do? He will perform charitable actions that bestow ananda, true happiness. But who could he give this to? The souls do not have a worthy vessel to hold it, and the vessels that a few do possess are full of holes, making that ananda leak out. We have met Saints uncountable times who have given us that happiness. But after receiving it, we threw it away. Our vessel, the mind, is dirty. Our intellect is mayic, material. For these reasons whenever we met a true Saint, we asked, “Why is he dressing like that? Why is he acting like that? Why is he looking around like that?” and so on. By doing so, we just added to our stock of sin. Instead of gaining, we lost. Our puny intellect doesn’t let anyone escape its analysis – not even God or Saints. It is constantly evaluating what is good or bad and right or wrong. The proof of what is wrong with us is the wrong we see in others.

So God and Guru are the true givers. But in spite of seeing God in uncountable descensions and after having met innumerable Saints since time immemorial, we did not fully accept them. If we did, it was only for short time. Why? This was due to the intellect’s decision. We thought, “God and Saints are performing the same kinds of actions as me.” We never understood the difference between their actions and ours.

For example, you are eating a ras gulla and enjoying its sweetness and flavor. A Saint is also eating a ras gulla, but he is savoring only God’s bliss. Yet, both appear to be performing the same action. A Saint has children and so do you. In fact, 99.9% of all Saints have had children and lived in family life. The only difference is they had no emotional attachment. Once Prahlad’s son Virochana and the son of Prahlad’s Guru became infatuated with the same girl. They were both in competition for her. Virochana said, “I am the king’s son. I am better than you.” The other boy said, “I am the king’s Guru’s son, so I am better.” So both of them made a bet and wagered their lives, “If I am greater than you, then I can take your life. If you are greater than me, then my life is in your hands.” But who would be the judge? The Guru’s son said to Virochana, “Your father should judge this.” Virochana said, “What if you say my father is being partial?” The Guru’s son said, “No, my father said that Prahlad is a Saint and he has absolutely no emotional attachment.” Otherwise, there is no judge who could be impartial in giving a judgement to his own son.

Prahlad decided that the Guru’s son was greater. With no qualms, he peacefully told Virochana, who was his only child, “Alright son, get ready. Place your head in the noose.” But the Guru’s son stopped him and said, “Wait, I have a question. Why am I greater?” Prahlad said, “Virochan is the son of a demon, but you are the son of a brahmin and my Guru.” Then the Guru’s son said, “Then that means you have to follow my orders.” Prahlad said, “Of course.” So the Guru’s son said, “Let Virochana go.” Prahlad just as peacefully removed the noose from his son’s neck. This is the difference that sets God and Saints apart from us.

We are emotionally attached to each and everything in the world, thinking, “This is mine!” You feel this way about your mother and father, but your parents have changed innumerable times in previous lifetimes. However many dogs, cats, donkeys and even flies there are, those souls have all been your mother and father at one time or another. After all, the human form is only received occasionally. We have wandered in lower births for millions of years. This human form is granted to us only time to time by God. While we were still in the womb of such a birth, we prayed to God, “Please take me out of this intolerable hell! Now I will only worship you!” After taking birth, our mother taught us through attachment to her that God doesn’t exist, “I am your only mother.” As we grew older, we developed many more attachments – a wife, a husband, children, your children’s children – everywhere we are surrounded by attachments to everything.

Someone has a high fever, someone else has been hurt in an accident. We cry for all of them, and on top of that is our own personal pain. It is quite surprising that a human being remains alive despite tolerating so much suffering. But if you were to place your hands around the neck of such a suffering person and pretend to strangle him to help take him out of his misery, he would say, “Hey! What are you doing?! I don’t want to die!” “But you are suffering so much.” “So what! Let me suffer.” This is the state of our ignorance. So the true givers of happiness are God and the Saint. All else are beggars. The one who surrenders to God and Saint and ends his faith that happiness will come from his worldly attachments becomes divinely gratified.