Darshan 27 September 1979
Anand Norbert... The three dimensions of bliss The first dimension is peace, absolute peace, as if the lake of consciousness is without any waves, without any ripples even.
The second dimension is joy: joy for no reason at all, joy not caused by anything from the outside, joy simply arising out of you mysteriously, for no reason, with no cause at all - uncaused joy.
And the third is love, love not as a relationship but as a state of being. Not that you love somebody in particular but that you are love.
This three-dimensionality has to be understood to understand what bliss is all about. This is the real trinity: peace, joy, love.
And norbert means divine brightness. When one is blissful one is luminous, one is full of light. That light cannot be hidden, it expresses itself. There is no way to hide it. Bliss creates in you a light that shows forth. It makes your whole being a flame, and that flame will enlighten your path. It can also help others to find their path.
Unless one knows bliss, meditation, silence, prayer...
It is because of this phenomenon, that God is gracious, that man can hope, otherwise there is absolute darkness. There is only one small sight, a distant, faraway star - that is God's grace.
Jesus says: "Ask and it shall be given, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you." He is simply saying that God is gracious.
Anand Willem... We can choose to accept or reject the gift of bliss...
It is not a question of finding it somewhere other than within you. Each moment brings two alternatives, each moment is an either/or: either be blissful or be miserable. And the decision is yours. Whatsoever you choose, you are responsible for choosing it. The ordinary mind goes on throwing the responsibility on others, hence it remains in misery. Its very vision is fundamentally wrong; the responsibility is one's own. If you are miserable it is what you have chosen to be. If you want to be blissful you have to be consciously, deliberately aware not to choose misery any more.
Each time and each moment wherever the possibility arises of choosing between the two, always choose bliss. Slowly slowly it becomes a natural phenomenon: you simply choose the blissful one.
You simply forget about choosing the miserable alternative. Each moment opens two doors: one is heaven, another is hell. People go on entering into the door which is hell - that too is just out of habit. They have become so accustomed to it, so much so that they can't see the other door; they have become blind to the other.
Being a sannyasin means becoming aware that the other door is very close by. The difference between the door called hell and the door called heaven is not much - a very small fence divides them. They are not far away; it is not that hell is somewhere deep down below the earth and heaven somewhere above in the sky, no - they are neighbors.
From this moment resolve to always choose bliss, and whenever you forget and by mistake you choose misery then don't throw the responsibility on others. That creates bondage and then you become a helpless victim. What can you do if others are making you miserable? You lose your freedom. But if you say that "It is my choice to be miserable," even in misery, you are free!
If you consciously enter into a prison knowing that it is you who is choosing the prison, then even the prison is not a prison because it is your choice and you have chosen out of your freedom. Choice is freedom; and when the freedom is there why not choose bliss?
One simply needs to learn the language of bliss. Meditation is the alphabet of bliss, the grammar of bliss, the language of bliss.
Prem Daniel... Love and God are synonymous Love is a basic need, God too is a basic need; no one can live without God.
The people who try to live without God create their own gods. Money can become your god; power can become your god. Marx, Engels, Lenin - the unholy trinity - can become your gods. But man cannot live without gods. Either you go to Kaaba or to Kashi or to the Kremlin; either you go to Mecca or to Moscow. But man cannot live without religion, it is such a fundamental need. The reason why it is so fundamental is that God is nothing but another name for love. The body needs food and the soul needs love.
And Daniel is also a beautiful name; it means God is my judge. The full name will mean: the god of love is my judge. There is no need to be afraid because love can only be compassionate. Love cannot condemn, it is impossible for love to condemn; it can only forgive.
Rejoice that the god of love is your judge. That is the greatest hope for man. Otherwise man commits so many errors: if God is only a cold judge then there is no hope. God is in passionate love with his existence, hence immense forgiveness goes on flowing from him. He comes like a flood and takes all your sins and errors and mistakes away. The moment he starts pouring on you, showering on you, you are cleansed of all dirt, of all dust.
Hence there is no need to be worried, no need to be obsessed by the idea of sin, no need to be afraid of committing errors and mistakes, because God is a god of love and you can depend on his compassion. You can commit as many mistakes as possible, still you are forgiven; you are already forgiven.
Committing mistakes is a way of learning; without mistakes nobody can learn. Committing mistakes is a way of growing; without mistakes nobody can grow. So commit as many mistakes as possible, but remember only one thing: don't repeat the same mistakes again and again, because then you don't learn. Then the mistake becomes mechanical, it starts repeating itself. That is sin. In my vision, that is the definition of a sin: when a mistake becomes so ingrained in you because you have repeated it so many times that now you need not do anything for it; it repeats itself, it has become autonomous. Then it is a sin.
A mistake committed unconsciously many times, repeated many many times, becomes second nature; then it is sin. Otherwise each mistake is beautiful. If done once, and done consciously, you always become more rich than you were before you committed the mistake. You are richer for it:
you are more alert, aware. You have seen more of life and slowly slowly as you grow, less and less mistakes... The moment your growth has reached to the point of the explosion called enlightenment, then no mistakes are committed. Then life is spontaneous, a simple flow... very ordinary, yet very extraordinary too.