There was a popular song a while ago that went: Don’t worry, be happy. It became an instant hit, and no wonder.
We all have a laundry list of worries all the time. It is very difficult for us to predict when we are likely to be joyful, but very easy to say when we shall be worried, which is almost all the time.
We worry when we have no money; we also worry when we have money. We worry if we have no children; we also worry when we have children, as our children quite often are the cause of problems, especially when they emulate us.
Worry follows desires just as night follows day. Just as desires have no end, worries too are endless.
John went to a restaurant and ordered one of each item on the menu. With great enjoyment he ate all that was brought to him. After he finished with his dessert and coffee, he got up to leave. The waiter stopped him with a bill. Said John in exasperation: I never ordered this bill. Why have you brought it to me?
Most of us live our life like John. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go on desring about acquisitions and expectations of acquisitions. When the bill does finally arrive we are startled, and depressed as this is not part of our expectation.
Desires are not harmful by themselves. Desires are energy, as long as the desires are your true deep desires. Problem is that most of our desires are borrowed. They arise out of jealousy and greed and nothing to do with what we need.
Ramana Maharishi said about this beautifully: The Universe can cater to the needs of every single inhabitant. However, it can not fulfill the wants of even one single person.
In your own life, just think of all the things you wish for right now. Make a list. Now make a list of the things that you already have. Which list makes you happy, and which list makes you uneasy?
The answer is obvious.
Why don’t we focus on what we have, offer gratitude to the Universe for providing all that we have instead of worrying about what we don’t have? Whether we want to keep begging for more or be thankful for what we have is a choice that we make. It is a choice between happiness and sorrow.

PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

A Bank manager used to take all the cash to his home everyday and bring it back with him the next morning. He did this for a month and could not do it any more. He found himself trembling while driving back home and was not able to sleep at home with the money in his custody. He finally wrote a letter to his boss asking to be relieved of the job. His boss told him that even if the money was lost, he would not be blamed and that he could continue with his job. The manager slept peacefully from that day onwards.
Although he is doing the same job, the fear is not there any more. Why? Because the responsibility has shifted to a higher authority, that’s all. This is what surrender is. Do your duty, leaving the responsibility to existence.
You need not surrender to God or to any Guru. There is a life force conducting this world. It is this life force that is causing the breath that goes into you to come out, and the food that you eat to digest.
Simply surrender to this life force. The work that you do in your lifetime for your survival is lesser than the work required to convert a handful of food into blood inside your body. A research was once conducted to simulate the conversion of ‘one piece of bread into blood’. They found that the industry for it extended to three kilometres! This is the kind of mechanism inside you!
Do you think that the life force that sustains this mechanism cannot sustain our lives? It very well can. Only we don’t have faith.
A seed has to surrender to the soil to grow into a tree. It has to have faith in the soil and allow itself to rupture in order to blossom as a tree. In the same way, we have to place our faith in existence and surrender so that a new life, a life of eternal bliss can blossom.
How do you do it? Every time you feel heavy in the heart or mind, just tell yourself that the life force that runs the world will take care of you also and move on, that’s enough. When you do this, you will see that all your depression and worries disappear and creativity blossoms in you.
A deep peace pervades your Being. You begin to live in the moment.
Surrender is your shortcut to God! It is the ultimate technique to merge with existence.
Be blissful!

PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

1. When is it a good time to meditate?

This is always a controversial question! All the youngsters think “I can do this in my old age after I have lived my life fully and don’t have anything else to do.’ All the elderly people think, “I should have done this in my young age when I was fresh and energetic.’

So the question is not just how long to meditate everyday, but also when to make the decision to include a meditation practice in your routine.

Meditation is just like reading an owner’s manual before you start driving the car. The person who does not read the owner’s manual before driving the care will naturally meet with accidents. In the same way, meditation is like the owner’s manual for you body and for your life. The person who has not started meditation before entering into life will end up with suffering and depression at one point or the other.

Please understand, meditation is the basic need for every life. It is not an option. It is a very basic need.

Aft the age of seven, you need meditation because until then, as a child you are by nature in a meditative state. It is only after seven that you start getting conditioned by society and drop out of your true nature.

To really understand and enter into meditation, one important thing needs to happen in you – psychological revolution.

What do I mean by psychological revolution? It means a clear understanding about the Self, world and god.

As of now, the understanding that you are carrying about life is not complete. That is why you are not able to experience a peaceful, relaxed feeling in your system. When I say the words ‘psychological revolution’, I mean having a clear understanding about the Self, world and god; that is having a clear understanding about the source of the Self, the source of the world and the source of god.

The understanding that is able to give you a completely restful feeling, through which you are able to solve all you problems, through which you are able to find your own life solutions, is call psychological revolution.

Only a person who has gone through this psychological revolution can meditate. Until then, any technique that you try will seem to fail at some point in time.

People come and tell me, “the moment I close my eyes, I get more thoughts than when I did not meditate. If I am in action, doing something I have fewer thoughts. The moment I close my eyes and try to meditate I have more thoughts.` This means the psychological revolution has not happened.

If you straightaway close your eyes and start meditating, you may have an increased number of thoughts. So in the initial level, I always give a technique which is not directly a meditation, but is more a contemplation. When you work with the technique, it won’t lead you directly to a thoughtless state. It will lead you towards more and more clarity. It will lead to the psychological revolution.

The psychological revolution will develop an intense inner space where you can analyze your understanding, consider your decision and rethink again and again your desires, fears, worries and all that you consider as the basis of your life.

So in the initial level, taking up a technique that can awaken you, that can help the psychological revolution in you, is the best way to start.

Start meditating here and now. Neither age nor time can be the reason to postpone meditation.

The next question people ask is whether they should meditate in the morning or in the evening. My answer is that the goal is not to make meditation a quantity of life, but rather a quality of life.