masters take up responsibility for the whole world! How? Because they are so spontaneous and moving with the flow of Existence all the time! They know that if they simply flow with Existence, Existence will make things happen in a natural fashion! If you talk to the ashramites in our ashram, they will tell you about their experiences with me. It is very hard for them to know things before hand and keep pace with me, because I am all the time flowing with Existence! Over time, they first learn to drop their ideas of needing enough lead-time in order to function, and then slowly they learn to be ready for anything at any time! That is how things happen at the ashram. Things happen on the spur of the moment.

An outsider will be amazed to perceive the orderly chaos that happens at the ashram. Be it poojas or functions, I will tell them just a few hours ahead and things will get done. I will tell them only a few hours ahead because I am flowing continuously and not with any frame or plan. If we learn to flow with Existence, we can live without any worry. But somehow, we all have mastered the art of fighting Existence. We then suffer. If you tune yourself with the flow of Existence, you will find that every moment, you are being watched over and given what you need for that moment. When you tune in, you carry the radiance and energy of Existence with you. You will be able to see things getting re-arranged, things falling into place like a jigsaw puzzle so that things happen for you; you will be able to feel people receiving you with a strange spontaneity and enthusiasm wherever you go.

People will look at you differently. They will experience an unexplainable pull towards you. Your life will become a song that is being played by an unseen musician, to which you are simply dancing. Life becomes just music and dance. It becomes a celebration! But instead of celebrating, we are all the time searching for more, searching for miracles. We are all the time looking for miracles to occur and feel that they are not happening. Miracles are never done; they simply happen continuously around you! It is your recognition capacity that makes them miracles! Use gratitude to tune yourself with Existence and you will see the miracles that are happening! Gratitude will tune you to the miracles. Either you enjoy them or you miss them.

It is your choice! When you miss them, you will remain discontented. It is like this: the door is open but you are knocking continuously on it! I am telling you that all that you need is already there and you only have to receive it, but you are not ready to believe this. You dont see the miracles that are already happening around you and instead go in search of them. Understand that turning water into wine is not a miracle. Turning man into God is the real miracle. PC Sarkar, the great magician will do the former. It takes deep understanding to do the latter. A small story, which Ramakrishna used to tell often: Two brothers lived together. The older brother decided to pursue business while the younger one went on to become a sadhu.

After a few years, they met each other again. They asked each other what they had achieved in the previous few years. The older brother listed all the material things that he had achieved in the outer world. He explained about his business and how much wealth he had accumulated. He then asked the younger brother what he had achieved. The younger one simply took him to a river, crossed it seamlessly on foot and proudly declared, This is what I have achieved. The older brother hired a boat and ferried to the other side of the river and said, What? What takes two pence to achieve, you have achieved in so many years! People think that if they can do miracles in the outer world, they have become spiritual and powerful.

No! Understand: spirituality is not a game of miracles in the outer world. It is a game in the inner world, to change your personality to individuality, which is the greatest miracle! Changing personality to individuality is the greatest miracle. People time and again beg me to do miracles. I tell them that these so-called miracles are not a scale to measure my state. But they dont want to listen. Even if, just to demonstrate simple techniques like materializing etc., I do one or two things, people will start coming to me to watch these miracles, for the magic show; not for transformation! That is my worry. One day, upon persistent begging from a few devotees, I teleported a Lakshmi idol and gave it to them.

I explained to them that it was not a miracle. Just because you dont know the cause and effect relationship of what you see, you think it is a miracle. What actually happens in teleporting is, just like the sound waves from your voice over the telephone get converted to electrical signals and transmitted over a medium and then get re-converted back to sound waves at the other end, I just convert matter into energy, move it across air and reconvert it back into matter, that's all. There is no miracle in this. So stop searching for miracles. Live with a feeling of gratitude and love for Existence and automatically, you will see the real miracles happening to you. Your transformation is the greatest miracle that can happen through a master! And remember, you dont need miracles from a master; you only need intelligence.

When your intelligence grows, you will handle your daytoday activities effortlessly and you will be in peace. For example, if you are a manager, you have many duties: you hire people, supervise their performance, fix their salaries etc. Are you able to do all these things without getting stressed? With intelligence, you will be able to handle them without getting stressed. You will be in peace. What you need is intelligence, not power. Remember that. When you understand and experience that Existence is taking care, you will transform and move on to becoming an individual liberated from all these kinds of delusions. We always place our faith in people, astrologers, fortune-tellers, planets and stars and what not; never on Existence that is the very life source of the universe.

In India, there is a thrilling tradition wherein people ask about their future to a parrot! On the pavements on the road, there will be a parrot in a cage with its owner beside it. The people who go by will stop and pay the owner some money and faithfully ask for their future. The owner will open up the cage and command the parrot to step out and pick a paper from a row of stacked papers. The parrot will come out of the cage, pick out a paper with its beak, and hold it out to the owner. The owner will read out what's written on it. That is the prediction of the person's future! A man with 6 senses asks a parrot with 4 senses to predict his future! How is it possible? Just leave all these foolish things and start falling in tune; catch the central chord that is gratitude, and move in tune with Existence.

When you watch masters, they appear to be so graceful, so miraculous and so divine. This is because they move in tune with Existence. But you dont understand their state; you see only their status. When you understand their state, you will understand that they have simply merged with Existence and that is why they appear so blissful all the time. This is the state that you have to try to achieve. Instead, what do you say? Oh! He is a master; he is always in bliss. How will he know about my problems? I am struggling here for my bread and butter and he is asking me to be in gratitude all the time. You only see the rose petals at the master's feet; you only see his status and think that he knows nothing about your day-to-day matters.

Remember that the respect he commands is to his state, not his status. You have no idea of the struggle that has gone behind achieving that state. You talk of struggling for bread and butter. I tell you from my own experience that so many days of my wandering, I went without food. Of course, I never thought of it at that time as a shortcoming on the part of Existence. I was so fervently in search of the truth that everything became meditation, including going without food. You know, barring a few charity houses, and in Northern India where sannyasis are given great respect, people always shun sannyasis. Sannyasis are always eyed with suspicion. People think that they have come to steal their property. I tell you, never shun them.

Why dont you just give them a bowl of rice? That is enough for them. Never be miserly when it comes to giving to people. Remember: if you are not willing to be a dhaani, that is a man who gives a small portion of his wealth, you will be a mahadhaani, one who leaves all his wealth and dies! Anyhow, please understand that I am talking from my own experience. Even in the deepest of troubles and struggle, if you function with unwavering faith and gratitude, and use your inner intelligence in moving through them, you will see that you will emerge out of it successfully with only greater gratitude and intelligence! Even if you lose something very precious, just feel grateful for having enjoyed it for awhile, that's all.

When you become pure gratitude, you will not cry over anything lost. You will just enjoy it as long as it is there and then continue to feel grateful after it is gone also. A small story: A king used to go on rounds at night in disguise in his own kingdom. Every night, he would see a master sitting under a tree in a blissful state when the rest of the city was asleep. He felt deep respect for the master and requested him one night to stay with him in the palace. The master said, Alright, I will come today because tomorrow is never sure. The king was taken aback at this rather abrupt acceptance of the invitation, but took him to the palace.

In the palace, he gave the master the best of rooms and the best of food. The master enjoyed everything to the utmost. The king was observing him as he enjoyed all the material comforts. He did not believe that a real master would enjoy things like this, so his respect for the master decreased day by day. He felt cheated. Finally one day, the master said to him, 'something seems to be troubling you. Why dont you come out with it? The king said, Yes, I cant understand the difference between you and me when I see you enjoying all these things like I do. The master smiled and said, Alright, let us go for a walk. The king agreed and they went for a walk.

They walked in silence for a long time. They came to a river that marked the end of the king's boundary. The master said, Alright, my stay is over. I am going, leaving your kingdom. Are you coming? The king said, How can I? I have my kingdom and my people and so many things to solve! The master smiled and asked, Now have you got an answer to your question? The king was simply jolted at the master's words. masters know that everything belongs to Existence. That is why they live totally in the moment, enjoying it to the utmost. Every moment is lived with totality. They are not fearful of losing anything because what is yours to lose? Always remember that everything belongs to Existence.

You are a temporary possessor of it, that's all. Feel gratitude always whether or not you are in possession of many things. That is the way to a liberating life. You can enjoy tremendous freedom when you understand this one thing. Another beautiful small story: God and all the scientists of the world had a meeting and a competition. Whatever item that God made, the scientists reproduced it identically out of some material. The scientists were able to reproduce things with no problem. Finally, God made man out of dust and challenged the scientists. The scientists started to pick up dust God said, Wait! Make it out of your dust, not mine! Man has to understand that Existence is the creator, the created and the creation.

Only then can he simply start enjoying things without a care. Only then can he relinquish possession and doer-ship. So understand: when you change your attitude from seeking discontentment, worries and depression, to seeking the present with gratitude, you will automatically be able to harness the energy of Existence better. You will then be able to appreciate Existence better and gratitude will then become your attitude. A small story: A man went to the market to buy vegetables for his wife. He bought ladies finger, came home and showed them to his wife. The wife saw the ladies finger and said, Oh! These are so over grown. I will not be able to cook them. The man went the next day and bought some more ladies fingers, choosing carefully this time, and came home and showed them to this wife.

The wife said, What have you bought? They are too tender to make the dish I had in mind. The next day, the man went to the market, prayed to the shopkeeper and said, Please give me some good ladies fingers that are neither too ripe nor too tender. The shopkeeper picked the best ladies fingers himself and the man took them home and showed them to his wife. The wife saw them and said, What? Youve bought ladies finger today also! Appreciation never comes spontaneously for many of us. When we cannot appreciate spontaneously, it means that we have a complaining or discontented nature in us. Actually, discontentment is food for our mind. The beauty of contentment To be discontented is like giving some food for the mind to chew.

The mind will feed on it and keep itself busy. What happens when we feel too contented? The mind becomes starved. It doesnt know what to do. It starts searching for its food! A lady went to a shoe store. She asked for shoes to fit her feet and the salesman patiently showed her many pairs of shoes. She tried on one after another and felt that none of them fit her perfectly. Finally, the salesman showed her a pair and asked her to try them on. She tried them on and said, They fit too well. I wonder if this is the right size. When you are determined not to feel contented, then no one can help you. It is a state of mind which only you can help.

Most of us feel a certain comfort zone in talking and feeling discontented, because there is always something to talk about; the mind is occupied all the time. To feel contented always is like losing the mind. This is also why, although we claim that we want to feel contented always, we are not ready when it happens. Our mind plays cunningly because it needs something to chew on. We feel secure when we run behind the horizon. The horizon is only an imaginary line, but we feel secure running behind it because there is something to run behind! The mind has been trained to run always! When you are like this, you are actually fooling yourself, that's all. You are creating self-contradictory results for yourself.

For example, you want to feel contented at the bottom of your heart, but you keep denying yourself contentment by constantly complaining and refusing to see what has been given to you! You want something but bring something else upon yourself.