longing towards the eternal

I ask every one what he is thinking about life. The meaning and value of life is hidden in the investigation of life itself.

If he is searching only for pearls and stones, then how can the value of his life be more than what he is searching for?

But most of the people become small in the investigation of the small, and in the end find that they have wasted the wealth of life in search of such wealth as, in fact, is no wealth at all.

It is desirable that before we start on a journey we find out where we want to reach, why we want so and also whether we will be able to tolerate the difficulties and hard labour that will be involved in the journey to the object.

He who does not think before starting, often finds that either he does not reach anywhere at all or if he reaches somewhere then he does not find that place worth reaching at all.

I want that such a mistake does not happen in your life because it destroys the whole life itself.

Life is short. Power is limited. Time is little. Therefore, only those who move after careful thinking, and with care and caution, can reach somewhere.

There was a beggar. His name was Shivli. He was on a journey. On the way, he saw a young man running fast and asked him: "Friend, where are you running away?" That young man said without stopping: "To my home". Thereafter Shivli put him a rather strange question. He asked: "Which home?"

I also ask you the same question. You are running away. All are running away. I ask: "Where are you running away?"

Could this entire race not be planned?

Is it not that you are running because all others are running? Without knowing where you have to reach?

I wish in reply to this question you could say the same thing which that young man had told Shivli; and then my whole being will start dancing with happiness.

That young man had said: "There is only one home. The house of God. I am in search of the same".

Doubtless, the rest is all dream. The search for any other home is a dream. Home is only one; real home is only one, the house of God and he who searches for it has to go into himself because he is hidden in the self.

Is there any other house than the house of God?

And can God be found anywhere except in the self.

If I were in place of Shivli. I would have asked that running young man one more question. I do not know what answer he would have given. But let me tell you the question itself.

I would ask him: "Friend, if you want to find God why are you running away? Where are you running away? How will you find him by running away who exists right here. Is not the desire to find him in the future an illusion; Him, who exists in the present and now? And he who exists inside can only be lost by running away. To find him, is it not desirable that you should stop, stay and search within yourself?"

Do not search for religion; search for yourself. Religion will then automatically come to you.

MY LOVE TO YOU FOREEVER

I too am a farmer and I sowed some seeds. They sprouted and now flowers have come to them. My whole life is filled with the fragrance of these flowers and because of this fragrance now I am in a different world. This fragrance has given me a new birth, and now I am no longer that which is seen by ordinary eyes.

The unseen and the unknown have flung open their closed doors, and I am seeing a world which is not seen through the eyes, and I am hearing music which ears are not capable of hearing. Whatsoever I have found and known is eager to flow just as the mountain waterfalls and springs flow and rush towards the ocean.

Remember, when the clouds are full of water they have to shower. And when the flowers are filled with fragrance they have to give off their fragrance freely to the winds. And when a lamp is lit, the light is bound to radiate from it.

Something like this has happened and the winds are carrying away some seeds of revolution from me. I have no idea in what fields they will land and who will tend them. I only know that it is from seeds like these that I have attained the flowers of life, immortality, and the divine. And in whatever field they land, the very soil there will turn into the flowers of immortality.

In death is hidden the immortal and in death is life -- just as flowers are inherent in the soil. But the potential of the soil can never become realized in the absence of seeds. The seeds make manifest that which was unmanifest and give expression to that which was latent.

Whatever I have, whatever I am, I want to give away as seeds of divine consciousness. What is attained in knowledge -- knowing -- love gives away in abundance. In knowing one knows God; in love one BECOMES God. Knowledge is the spiritual discipline, love is the fulfillment.