“laughter is meditation.”

laughter is meditation. According to my understanding, laughter is one of the greatest meditation techniques. Almost every intelligent individual has recognised the power of the laughter or the transformation which it can bring into our body, mind and the soul. The healing effect of laughter is realised immediately. You don’t need to believe on this mediation technique.

There are few things which proves the power of laughter as a meditation technique. First thing immediate effect, other techniques first thing you need to believe the technique will help, next thing you need to practice, third thing you need to wait for the result. But laughter does not need anything else. Anything of this sort it doesn’t need, it doesn’t need your faith, it doesn’t need your belief in it, you don’t need to wait to have the result of it. Immediately you experience the result which is created by laughter, physically and mentally.

# Value of Laughter recognised by all great masters {#value-of-laughter-recognised-by-all-great-masters}

Almost all the great mystics all the great Masters have realized the effect, have understood the transformation which happens by laughter. It is one of the subject which is analysed by almost all the great Masters. Somehow, man never takes note of laughter as a meditation technique. Laughter is never considered as a spiritual quality because associate spirituality always with seriousness.

Spirituality is taken as something dead, something serious, something only for the people who have got long face. But according to me, spirituality has something to do with the life and the joy of living. We always think of spirituality is something for people who are old. When you don’t have anything else to do except knitting the sweaters, you need to take bible or you need to go to church. There is a saying, go to church, don’t wait to be carried by four men. We always wait to go to church, we don’t actually go, we wait to be carried by four men. We always think religion is something for old, religion is something to do with dead things. Whenever we think religion is for people who are old, we make it too complicated, too serious. The juicy portion of spirituality is lost. But religion is not for only the old people.

9.41mins

Religions based on fear are nothing to do with religiousness. There is two things, religiousness and religion. Just dead rituals are religion, and the juice which is inside the rituals is religiousness. Religions based on religiousness has always emphasize the beauty of laughter. They always used laughter as a technique to transform. But whenever religions grow based just on rituals, then you miss the whole juice that lies within. Religion is living thing, it’s not part-time job, it’s a part of our everyday life. It is not only for old people. It is quality of your life. It is just total quality of your very life.

# Intelligent communities of the world are the communities who have produced more jokes {#intelligent-communities-of-the-world-are-the-communities-who-have-produced-more-jokes}

Laughter is not taken note by the intellectuals or the serious guys because it is very simple. Anything simple we miss. We miss many things because they are very simple. When it is complicated we don’t miss. Our ego feel satisfied by doing complicated things but whenever something is simple or something is very ordinary, you miss it. Anything very simple always it escapes our eyes, we bypass it, we don’t look into it.

So many beautiful things can happen into your being, by simple laughter. Most intelligent communities of the world are the communities who have produced more jokes. In the world you can there are few communities who havew produced more number of jokes, one is Jews and another one is Sikhs, the Sardajis. These two are the people who have produced many number of jokes but you can see the intelligence in their life, in their community.

12.14mins.

For example, there are only three fields in the world, one is outer world which belongs to logic, mathematics, science, science. Another one is the inner world like religion, mysticism and spirituality. The third is in between, psychology. The world related to outer world, sciences the world related to inner world, religion, in between, psychology. The outer world you see the top person, Einstein. Eienstein is one of the genius mind in the science, in the field of science, inner world Jesus – today more than half of the universe is followers of Christ. In between, psychology, father of psychology, Sigmund Freud. A strange thing all the three are jews – Jesus, Eienstein and Sigmund Freud, father of psycology; all the three are Jews.

According to my understanding, laughter and jokes play a major role in intelligence. Communities which created more possibilities to laugh, more possibilities to joke, more possibilities to open the energy have created intelligent people. They have presented intelligent minds, genius minds to the world because when you laugh your whole being opens up. A new kind of energy enters your being.

Just a simple understanding about the jokes, how they work and how jokes the make you laugh. Actually when you listen to a joke, slowly slowly, slowly your mind is tuned to a certain kind of rational thinking. You come to a conclusion. But the last word, the punch line is always something beyond your expectation. The moment you listen something beyond your expectation, your logic is put off, your rationality is relaxed, immediately you open and you burst into the laughter.

14.56mins.

A small story, one guy was trying to tell a joke to group of his friends. To tell a joke you need intelligence.This guy was trying to tell a joke to a group of his friends who were sitting and chatting with him. But somehow he missed the punch line and nobody was feeling like laughing. Everybody was silent, keeping quiet. But one guy who was in the group started laughing uproariously, a full-bellied laughter. The others were not able to understand why he is laughing. One guy said, ‘why are you laughing, neither we understood nor he himself understood what he has said. The guy who was laughing somehow slowly controlled himself and said, ‘Laugh now itself otherwise he’ll tell the same joke once more.’

# Why we laugh when a joke is cracked {#why-we-laugh-when-a-joke-is-cracked}

Your logical expectation is different and the punch line totally gives a different view. The moment your logic is put off, the moment you see something different then what you expected, you open up, you burst out. If few of you have not laughed, I should try once more. Whenever your logic is pushed aside, you open up. A light of energy, a ray of energy enters into your being. It is like in a dark room a ray of light enters, just like that. A ray of energy comes out to your body from your atman, the source of all energies. From the ocean of energy a ray of energy is supplied to your body the moment your logic is pushed aside. That is what happens when you laugh or when you listen to a joke. But there are a few hard nuts who are continuously intellectual, who are continuously thinking. It is very difficult to make them laugh. It is very very very difficult to make them laugh. Understand, when I say the word intellectual I don’t mean they know everything. I mean they don’t understand anything. They don’t have sensitivity towards the reality. They are continuously thinking.

A small story, their was a competition in Bharat. If you don’t laugh for one hundred jokes, you’ll be given ten lakh rupees. Five people will be made to sit and those five people will continuously crack jokes you are supposed to stand on the dias without laughing. One guy entered the competition somehow he managed forty jokes. But the fortieth joke he was not able to manage, he laughed. The second guy entered and managed eighty. The third guy, a really hard nut to crack. He managed ninety, even upto to ninety-five, ninety-six. People were telling the jokes; they were not able to understand what is happening and these guys were prepared from all possible sources, getting jokes and arranging. The people who are seeing the programme, they all started getting stomach pain by laughing, laughing. But this guy is just standing. By ninety-eighth joke, a small smile started appearing on his face. This guy’s wife was sitting in the front she started shouting, ‘hey, keep quiet, keep quiet, don’t open your mouth. It’s only two more jokes, don’t miss ten lakhs, don’t laugh, close your mouth.’ But somehow, at the ninety-ninth he was not able to control and gave a laugh, full belly laughter uproariously. and so lost the competition and the ten lakh rupees. The moment he came down from the stage his wife shouted at him. ‘You fool, you missed ten lakhs just by one joke, one minute you could have shown your original face; why did you laugh.’ This guy said, ‘No, no. Just then I understood the first joke!’

20.17mins

Hard nuts! Don’t think they are very intellectuals. When you don’t have the sensitivity towards reality, when you don’t have sensitivity to what is happening around you, you keep your face long. And I tell you, really a man who is alive cannot keep a long face. When you are continuously thinking, if your whole energy is sucked by your mind, if you are great intellectual, just thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, actually if you are a great intellectual you stop living. You stop living with reality. The guys who have become great intellectuals, who have disconnected themselves from reality they miss the whole joke of existence. The whole universe. They miss the whole joy, they miss the whole play.

Because the existence is the ultimate joke. The existence is the ultimate bliss. If you have the sensitivity to live in this body, if you have the sensitivity to see the things around; if you have the senstivity to hear things around you, if you have the sensitivity to feel about what is going you will see your life will be filled with laughter. Because laughter is one of the important quality through which existence expresses itself. When you laugh, for that one moment you become one with energy.

22.09mins

# Story of Bodhi Dharma’s Enlightenment {#story-of-bodhi-dharma’s-enlightenment}

There is a great story of Bodhi Dharma. When he became enlightened the first thing which he did, the next thing which he did, the last thing which he did was laughing. When you laugh, you fall in tune with existence. When you fall in tune with existence you start laughing. You may think, what is this. The story goes, Buddha came to give his every day discourse, early morning. Ten thousand sanyasis are sitting in front of him. (It is always believed that Buddha had ten thousand enlightened disciples always with him, always travelling.) So these ten thousand enlightened disciples were sitting in front of him. One guy who is yet to become enlightened, this Bodhi Dharma, he has not yet become enlightened. Buddha when he came he brought a rose flower. He was just sitting looking at the rose flower. He was looking, looking, looking. Suddenly he calls Bodhi Dharma and gives that flower to him and says, ‘do you understand,’. Bodhi Dharma starts laughing uproariously. He neither gave a reply, I understood nor gave a reply, I’ve not understood. Just he started laughing uproariously. Buddha says, you understood, sit.

From that moment onwards, Zen Buddhist scholars and Buddhist scholars are writing volumes after volumes about what has happened between Buddha and Bodhi Dharma. Why did he laugh. Why did he laugh. So many volumes have come out but these volumes are totally serious.

According to my own understanding, what would have happened is in simple clarity. Bodhi dharma would have running, running, running searching for the centre of consciousness, for enlightenment himself. The moment Buddha gave the rose he has understood it is himself, so when he stopped searching he got it. Then he would have laughed, ‘oh, in what foolishness, in what rut I was wasting my life. I was searching everywhere myself, except where I am placed…my own inner being. The moment he has turned himself inside his inner being, he has experienced himself and started laughing. The whole existence is nothing but a great joke. Nothing but a big joke. When you continuously think intellectually, you can’t understand the whole play of existence.

25.45mins

# Story of Zen Master using laughter as a technique to enlighten a Professor {#story-of-zen-master-using-laughter-as-a-technique-to-enlighten-a-professor}

A great professor of philosophy goes to a Zen Master and asks him, master, please teach me the secret of the universe. Why all these things are happening?. What is happening? Why all these sufferings?. Why God created the world?. Why all these things are happening? Teach me. The Master suddenly started laughing uproariously. You do not know how these Zen Masters laugh. Their laughter is so strong and infectious. It is said that Zen Masters don’t only laugh only by mouth, they laugh with the whole body. It is said, they roll on the ground and laugh. There are clear records that Zen masters when they laugh, they don’t sit and laugh; they don’t laugh only by the mouth; they laugh with their whole being. They roll on the ground and laugh. His laughter is uproarious, infectious. For first few minutes the professor was feeling uncomfortable. What has happened who is he laughing at, has he gone mad. Of course, for thick heads you need a few minutes. After a few minutes slowly he started analysing; after all he is a Master. He will not do anything without proper reason. After a few minutes the laughter was so much this guy is not able to control, he also started laughing. The professor also started laughing. Because how long you can stand, how long he can stay? Either you have to leave the hall or you have to join in the laughter, there is no other way. So he also started laughing. Laughing, laughing, laughing. The story says that at one point the professor became enlightened and never stopped laughing till his death.

Of course, logically we can’t understand the last line, because we are also Professors. You may not do the job of professor but we are professors by nature. So much of our energy is sucked by our head. So much of our energy is stored only in the head, we almost stop living. There is a small scale, there is a small method to find out whether you are a professor or not. Being professionally a professor is nothing wrong, but being a professor twenty four hours is something wrong. Being professor professionally is nothing wrong, but being a professor twenty four hours is something wrong.

28.56mins.

How to identify if you are a twenty four hour professor

A small incident which happenend really. One guy came to me and started literally weeping. He said that I’m having marital problems and he introduced himself as a Doctor. I asked him what his wife was doing. He said she is B.A. B.L. In Bharat B.A. B.L. is lawyer. I asked if she goes to court regularly, no, no, Swamiji. She argues in the house itself. That is the whole problem.

You see, if you are a professional in your professional place, nothing wrong. But when you bring your profession into your life and home, then there is something seriously wrong.

Small scale, small method to find out whether you are a professor or not throughout your twenty four hours. If you see a rose, suddenly what we do generally; immediately the word ‘rose’ comes in our mind. And you start thinking about the roses which you presented to somebody, or the roses presented to you by somebody. The next thought will be how he reacted or how you reacted. The third will be the loving moments or loving memories or the disturbed memories which are associated with that incident. The fourth memory will be how you related with that person, lovingly way or in a wrong way or anything. The memory goes on, goes on, goes; you miss the real rose. Already you are, you are lost, you missed the real rose which is laughing, which is smiling at you which is welcoming you to appreciate itself, which was giving its being to you to enjoy. The moment you start arranging the words, the moment you associate thoughts continuously, be very clear, you are twenty four hour professor, twenty four hour professor. When I say you are a professor, I mean when you continuously playing with words not with the reality.

For example, Sigmund Freud says beautifully, he says all our thinking is association, it has no logical clarity. For example, you see a dog in the street, suddenly you remember about the dogs which you have seen when you were a child. Suddenly, you remember the teacher who taught you lessons when you were a child. Then you remember where your teacher used to live. Then you remember the school. Logically, there is no connection between the dog you have seen on the road and your teacher, even though both of them may have barked at you. There is no logical connection but the mind associates. If you are continuously thinking based on association not based on logic, then be very clear, you are professor, twenty four hours professor. We lose the living connection, the alive experience of existence.

This story says the professor laughed, laughed, laughed and he became enlightened; never stopped laughing till his death. You may think how laughing can make somebody enlightened. According to Zen Buddhism, if you laugh just for 42 seconds continuously, 42 seconds continuously, you can become enlightened; again shocking thing. We are all laughing continuously, sometimes even one minute, two minute; but we have not become enlightened, many people may think.

33.40mins

One thing, what Zen people say by laughter is total laughter. When you really laugh your mind stops thinking. For that one minute, for that one second, for that one chana you fall between the gap of one thought and the other thought. You can do only one thing at a time, either you think or you laugh. When you laugh you cannot think, if you are thinking you cannot laugh, if you are laughing you cannot think. If you are thinking or doing something else, then be very clear laughter is not total, your being is not totally into that laughter. Laughter brings you to the present moment. By thinking you travel either in the future or you areworrying about the past. But when you laugh automatically you are brought to the centre, you are brought to the moment, to the present moment. You live you experience the consciousness which is present.

# Health benefits of laughter {#health-benefits-of-laughter}

Even the doctors who have done research on the effect of laughter, they give amazing reports. They say, first thing it slows down the ageing process. The first effect of the laughter is it slows down the ageing process. Ageing process means getting old. You don’t get, you don’t look very old, you can see there are few people even after reaching the age of seventy, eighty, they look very young and healthy with full of enthusiasm, spirit, and the curiosity to learn the search to know things. Alive, vibrant. There are few guys who are out by forty, who are out by forty. Why? The laughter is one of the important ingredient for your health. We add so much, so many things to extend our life, understand laughter is one of the important ingredient. Many Doctors who have done research on the laughter, they give testimonial, they give their proofs how laughter helps.

The second thing they say anti-depressing chemicals are released in your system, anti-depressing chemicals, the chemicals which remove the depression from your body mind; the anti-depressive chemicals are released in your system. Third thing, the important thing they say is that your body starts radiating the beauty, you become more beautiful. Laughter is one of the important technique to really become beautiful. Even without the make-up you can look beautiful. According to me, laughter brings more grace to a person. Beauty comes because of make-up, laughter comes; grace comes because of laughter. Laughter brings new grace to your being. Even from the physical point of view, laughter does so much to your being, so much to your body.

37.40mins

There are few more researches they say laughter can rejuvenate your whole nervous system. Any other refreshing techniques whether it is yoga or exercise or any other system; it takes care of only some part of your body. But laughter is such it takes care of the whole body. The whole body is flooded with energy. You can see it in your own life. That is why now everywhere the Laughter Clubs are getting inaugurated. I’m seeing all over the world suddenly, a big understanding has come about the laughter. People have started realizing the importance of the laughter, the importance, the important role laughter plays on our physical health. At least thirty thousand laughter clubs are inaugurated just in 2003. I read a statistics – thirty thousand laughter clubs. It’s not a small number all over the world, then you understand how people have started recognising the importance of laughter. They do nothing. Laughter club means they all gather mornings at a particular time just ten minutes they laugh loudly nothing else and then they depart, that’s all. But the beauty is when you laugh as a group, it brings a new energy, because laughter is infectious. When you laugh alone its like you earned ten dollars and you spend ten dollars that’s all; when you laugh as a group – just understand one small thing ten people if they put ten ten dollars it will become a hundred dollars. But all the ten cannot enjoy that hundred dollar. Only one can enjoy that hundred dollars. If all have to enjoy means again it’ll come only ten ten dollars. But when it’s an energy, suppose when ten persons put ten, ten volts of current together in one instance, it will becomes a hundred volts. If all ten touch the hundred volts they will get the impact of the hundred volt shock. It’s not that they’ll have ten ten volt – no, all the ten will have hundred volt. So when it’s energy, each one receives the total effect of the group.

40.21mins

As far as laughter is concerned, according to my own understanding when ten people put r ten, ten volts of current, not only it becomes hundred, there is a new transformer which is called group consciousness that is created, converting even a hundred volts and collectively converting this to ten thousand volts. You put ten volts and you receive ten thousand volts. Group consciousness means a deep love and understanding among the whole group. When you laugh you show you are innocent, you open up to the new relationships. You show a positive sign to the next person. You show a green signal to the people who are around you, they can come into your space and you are welcoming them. If they allow, you are ready to enter their space too. Letting somebody else to come into your space is the greatest technique to create any relationship.

Why people suffer so much in aloneness. I have always seen the countries which are most depressed are the countries which are suffering from loneliness. Why do people suffer so much from loneliness. Because you don’t have courage to open your space for others to enter. I have never seen anyone suffering in aloneness or loneliness in Bharat. Very rare, very rare cases. People their suffer because of too much of crowd, never by loneliness.

Why? somehow from the young age techniques are taught to open up to almost everything, like going to the temples, taking part in group prayers, almost in every step you are taught to open yourself up for the others. Letting yourself open up to others and letting others enter your space is one of the important techniques to extend your life and to live more. Doctors say, if you are alone, if you don’t have good friends around, there is every chance of your dying eight years ahead of your time, scheduled time. They say eight years; eight years is not a small time.Eight years you can die earlier than your schedule if you are alone and if you don’t have good friends. There are statistics says if you retired early and you are not letting the people into your space, you are welcoming the heart attack; you are welcoming the cardiac problems. There are so many things, so many proofs even in the medical field which says letting the other people into your space or you entering into somebody else’s space, heals your mind, heals your being, gives you a fresh energy, gives you the fresh feeling.

43.58mins.

There is a book titled by me, the book title itself, ‘Open the door, let the breeze in’. We are so much filled inside with insecured feelings we continuously cover, cover, cover, cover ourself in layers finally we make our own jail. The worm which creates a net for him to stay safely finally he creates a jail instead of just net. And he forgets he’s in a jail. Most of our houses have become almost like a graveyard. When you are alone, when you are not letting anybody into your space, when you are not entering into somebody else’s space, when you are not sharing your space with others, your house is nothing more than a graveyard. It is a tomb maybe you are preparing it; maybe you are getting ready.

Be very clear, laughter is a green signal for the other to come and relate with you. It is a wonderful signal which you are giving to another, I am open to let you into my space.

Laughter heals lot of diseases, especially the diseases related to navel center and throat center. There are so many records, of course I myself have worked with the laughing meditation, I have seen so many people healed by this one meditation and such a powerful meditation, almost every person feels the effect except the twenty four hour professors. And even they are, they somehow open up. Because the group energy is so infectious, you can’t resist a group laughing. If you are alone or if you are only with your wife, you can tell keep quiet, shut up, behave yourself, something you can tell. If you are just with your kid then you can say shut up, sit, sit quietly, behave yourself; but when you are with the whole group, it’s too infectious. See the children. Have you seen a single ugly kid in the world? Not only in our country, look at all the cultures.Even in Ethiopia where kids are suffering due to poverty, where there is no food, even in Ethiopia they maybe lean and thin but you can never see an ugly kid. Have you seen any single kid who is ugly? No.Have you ever seen a single grown up man who is beautiful? No. Why? You loose the spontaneous laughter. When a kid laughs the whole body vibrates, whole body vibrates, kids never laugh only by mouth, they laugh with the whole body. Their laughter is with the whole body. When you laugh through the whole body, your whole body is flooded with energy. That is why kids are so alive but we people we are actually jealous with kids. Never think you are helping your kids; you have a subtle kind of jealousy; that is why you again and again control, keep quiet, sit still, sit straight, sit in a corner, who asked you to draw on the wall, raise your book, study. Why do you think you shout? It is always a subtle jealousy. You are not able to manage, you are not able to put up with the energy bubbling up within them. You are actually jealous. That is why we always control our kids. Once they have become dull, dead buffaloes, then we sit back satisfied, ah! We produced our what? Child and your next generation. We feel comfortable once we make them dull. When they laugh their whole being vibrates, that is the reason we feel jealous. So much of joy is too much, it’s is too much.

49.05mins.

If you are laughing inside the house, we can always try to control this, enough, behave yourself, it is too much. But when you are laughing with others, you cannot control these situations. Such laughter in a group is infectious that is why Laughter groups have become so popular. The place for getting therapy and healing, according to me, Laughing Clubs are more religious than any other church, any other temple, any other mosque or any other synagogue, because Laughing clubs are creating more life, more energy, more positivity into the world. In our Ashram, we have a place called the Laughing Temple. The place itself is named as a Laughing Temple where I conduct regular discourses. Somebody asked me, what is this, Swamiji, new name, Laughing temple. I said in this place you are supposed to offer laughter as your offering. That is why I have named this pace as a Laughing temple.

Laughing is one of the greatest religious quality, sense of humour is one of the greatest expression of enlightenment. According to me there is no enlightened master who has not expressed this one quality, the sense of humour. There are so many enlightened masters, you see some masters express the love, somebody expresses the compassion, somebody expresses the silence, somebody expresses the great intelligence, somebody expresses by dancing. If you see the Krishna, he always sings and dances. If you see the Buddha, he is silent and graceful. If you see Mahavir, always meditating, if you see Rama always living righteousness. Every Master expresses one one quality, but here is one quality which all the Masters have expressed. This must be the basic quality of enlightenment, sense of humour. Every master who is born, every enlightened person who is born on this planet earth has expressed a beautiful sense of humour.

51.38mins.

Ramakrishna’s books if you read, Bhagwan Ramakrishna’s books, the direct recording of his teachings, there is a beautiful book called the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Every other page you will see a bracket …everybody laughed, everybody laughed. After every other page, you’ll see a small bracket,everybody laughed. Actually the translation is done in a very polite way because in original Bengali he used to speak in a very slang language. He spoke all his teachings in bengali, the original bengali if you read; you’ll be shocked – is it Ramakrishna who is speaking. He was a very simple person. He is not high intellectual he doesn’t know how to use those cultured terms or how to present those things. It is just heart, straight from heart to heart more like gossip. I always tell people more than using the word ‘gospel’, ‘gossip’ is right word for his teachings. His words are straight from the heart. He is so simple so innocent and all sorts of dirty jokes you can never expect from an enlightened man such dirty jokes. He gives all sorts of dirty jokes.

There is one particular intimate reminiscence of the time when one of his disciples he asked him; if you read the original bengali version you can understand what all the types of jokes he makes. One of his disciples is asking him, Master you are an enlightened monk why are you making such dirty jokes?. Sri Ramakrishna replied, ‘What! I just tell jokes, you make it dirty, what can I do.’ I just tell jokes, you feel it is dirty, what can I do.That is the beauty of innocence, the beauty of enlightened masters. He says, ‘When you are speaking in a cultured way it means you are editing your words. Two things will start happening, first, verbalization, then editing, you present it. But when I speak with my people I don’t edit it. When I’m speaking to the public, when I’m speaking to the common man, a new comer, I give an edited version, censored version. But when I speak, whenI open my heart to my own people to a group of seekers, I give an uncensored edition. He says, I just tell jokes, you make it dirty.

54.29mins.

Beautiful thing we need to understand. It is we who make anything dirty. It is we who make anything dirty. For him it is everything normal, simple. Of course, according to me, Ramakrishna is one of the greatest masters who has used laughter itself as a great meditation technique. There is a record, reminiscence of his disciples they say that sometimes they and laugh so much when he used to mimic or imitate somebody, he imitating the peope; we used to get stomach pain and sometimes we used to feel it is enough and we use to escape from his presence we used to run away from him. You can’t imagine that Ramakrishna used to make so much of jokes.

# Laughter is the basic quality of enlightenment {#laughter-is-the-basic-quality-of-enlightenment}

Every Master’s sense of humour is seen in every expression of enlightenment. According to me, this quality must be the basic quality that is why every Master expresses it. In other qualities, like dancing is concerned, there was no expression of this activity and aspect in Buddha’s life. In Mahavir’s life there is no expression of music, in Krishna’s life, silence is never expressed. In every Master’s life, something is missing but as far as a sense of humour is concerned it is expressed in all the great Masters’ lives. Moreover, if you see the Masters laughing you will see the ultimate expression of existence. One master, great enlightened Master used to tell his disciples, meditate on me as if I am laughing. Meditate on my form of laughter. Someone asked him what is the speciality, what is the speciality. He says, a miser will be in his optimum energy, he will be in his maximum energy when he is counting money. People never get tired of counting money,have you seen - even if it is somebody else’s money. In the bank, even if you are working in the bank people never get tired of counting money. A miser will be in his optimum, in his maximum, when he counts the money. A womanizer will be in his optimum, in his maximum energy when he is enjoying women. In the same way, an enlightened master will be in his optimum, in his maximum, will be in his total energy when he laughs. Because for that moment, he is directly expressing the existence. That is one of the important saying by Zen Buddhist master.

57.43mins

# How Zen masters test eligibility to monkhood? {#how-zen-masters-test-eligibility-to-monkhood?}

Somebody goes to him and asks, Master, always you say what ever is done by you is different then whatever is done by us. If you yell at us, you say it is good for us. You say it is an expression of compassion. But if we yell at someone you say it is an expression of anger. Whatever we do you find some fault, whatever you do, you say it is good for us.you justify it; whatever you do, you say it is something else;whatever we do you say it is something else. Tell me some one point where we both meet and merge with each other. Where both are one and the same. Master says a beautiful thing, he says, if I touch a rose flower I’m totally different and the rose flower also feels totally different. If you touch a rose flower, you feel totally different and rose feels totally different. Because your sensitivity is very less, my senstivity is very high. When you touch a rose, only half of your being touches, and the same way only half of the rose responds. When I touch a rose my whole being feels it that’s why the whole rose responds to it. Their is one important thing in Zen, they will make a lawn, grass lawn around your house. You have to go to the house and come back only walking on the lawn. If you don’t make a path on the lawn, if the grass does not die by your walking in one year, only then you will be initiated into monkhood. Important thing you should understand, they say if grass does not die by your walking then you are qualified to become a monk. Means you become so graceful, so vibrant, filled with positive energy, grass never feels hurt by your walking. Grass should never feel hurt by your walking. The intellectual people they always tell me, No, No, Swamiji, after all weight; how can you expect grass not to feel the weight.

One important thing I want to tell you, this incident has happened in my life and come back. After half an hour of walking into the forest, suddenly I thought, aare, we are in the deep forest, and how to know what way to go back and where is the way? No board, no way. I asked the person who takes care of the elephant, he was walking with us, I asked him how will you now find out the way to go back; it’s now dark. It’s only in the night time they take to go for safari. I asked him how we will recognise the path, how to go back? He said, no, no, Swamiji, everyday I walk on this path, there is path made by my walking, because I walk everyday, there is a path very clearly made by my walking. I know how to take you, I’ll go on the same path. I asked him alright, you walk along with the elephant, does elephant also makes path? He said, No. He said, No. An important thing, one more question, you may think, no, no, Swamiji, elephant has got four legs. The pressure given by the body is distributed to four legs, but we have only two legs, the pressure is too much that is why the grass dies.

Then I sat and calculated the weight of a human being and the weight of an elephant and the space in which you relate with the earth, the space or size of the foot which touches the ground and the size of the elephant’s foot which touches the ground. The proportion comes four times more than a human being. The weight delivered to the earth or the pressure given to the earth is four times more than human being. But elephant never creates path, human beings are creating the path. It means there is something more than just the pressure, understand something more is happening than simple pressure. That is why the Zen buddhists they always say if you do not create a path on the grass lawn, you are qualified to become a swami, you are qualified to become a monk. You are so light, you become so graceful, nature never feels disturbed by you. If you fall in tune with the nature, it feels totally in tune with you. In Zen they say, forty two seconds if you laugh; forty two seconds is too much time to fall in tune with existence. And this master says, there is only one thing different between you and me; that one thing is laughter, laughter.

If you touch a rose then your feeling and my feeling is totally different, than if I touch the rose. Whether you touch or eat or drink- it is always different from an enlightened person’s feeling. When an enlightened person eats something, he just becomes eating. When he drinks something, he just becomes drinking. See this Master says, if you drink, it is different from my drinking, if you eat it is different from my eating, if you touch, it is different from my touching but if you laugh, it is no different from my laughing. Laughter is the bridge where buddha and budhu meets, Shiva and shava meets; enlightened and ordinary meets. It’s a point of contact. It’s the point where differences disappears. It’s a point where you meet your Buddha inside. You meet your consciousness, because for that one moment, your logic is pushed aside, your thinking is pushed aside, the energy is gushing, the energy is flooded into your system, the doors of the energy, the gates of the paradise are opened to your being. Laughter is the ultimate technique in the physical world, and in the mental world and in the spiritual world. It creates wonderful inter personal relationships.

1.05.26mins.

# What is the scale to call an act as a meditation technique. {#what-is-the-scale-to-call-an-act-as-a-meditation-technique.}

One small thing – how can we call any act as a meditation technique, what is the scale. The scale is the technique must be able to give you the physical health, mental health and inter- personal relationship, ultimately the spiritual growth. There is no other technique which can give all these four to you immediately, instantaneously like laughter. There are thousands of proofs that laughter gives you physical health, there are thousands of proofs laughter gives you the mental well being. It removes the depression from you. A simple technique which can simply take you out of depression and people say, Swamiji, I’m not able to laugh what to do? I tell them the word which says, which is getting repeated in you; I’m not able to laugh, is the only hinderance. Just change the word, I’m able to laugh, edit the word, that’s all, nothing else. After all you are speaking to yourself. You can’t say that you are so poor that you can’t even edit your own inner chattering. You can’t be so poor that just to change, that you can’t say; you can’t be so poor to say that no, no I am not able to change my words. No. Just change your words. Instead of saying, I can’t, I’m not able to laugh just say I’m able to laugh, over; you’ll see that you are able to laugh. Its nothing else. The simple laughter can bring so much of mental transformation. It can simply bring you out of depression. It is a wonderful technique to bring you out of low mood, low energy. And one more thing, even in the mental understanding,laughter can do miracles even in the mental understanding, laughter can do miracles.

1.07.49mins.

There is a small zen story again, one Master and disciple, they both are sitting and Master says to the disciple to paint a particular person. The person is made to stand and this disciple is painting. The disciple paints, Master says, No. Again he re-paints, Master says, No. Again he re-paints, Master says, No. Same thing is happening more than ten times. At one point, disciple has dropped the paint on the Master, and Master started laughing instead of getting angry. Because the Master started laughing, disciple also started laughing. When he started laughing, suddenly some thing has happened in him some understanding; he drew the picture it came perfectly. Master agreed. He said, right. Then Master asks him what happened? How are you able to accomplish it? How are you able to do it? The disciple says, till the moment I laughed, I had the pressure, I should win, I should win, I should win, the very pressure the very stress was holding me back. The moment I laughed, I felt something is happening in me. The whole thing has become like a play, the whole thing has become like a play and I was able to express my playfulness. The moment I expressed the playfulness, I am successful.

Tell you one of the important secrets. All seriousness is just sickness. When I say all, I mean capital letter, red capital letter A L L. All seriousness is sickness. And life is not worthy of suffering; it is too small to be spent in worry and it is to valuable to spend in pains. And no pain is worth undergoing, please understand. No pain, no suffering is worth undergoing for anything. Life is not too big to be wasted in worrying. It is too small, too short to be spent in laughing. Understand all seriousness is just sickness. If you can learn how to laugh at yourself and at others. See laughing at others gives more understanding about the other person, laughing at yourself gives more understanding about yourself.

1.10.44mins.

# Laughing brings different understandings about others and yourself to you {#laughing-brings-different-understandings-about-others-and-yourself-to-you}

This needs to be understood deeply. Whenever you laugh at somebody, understand; new, different understandings about that person come to you, that is why you laugh. You have a rational, logical understanding about him then suddenly that rational logical understanding is broken, only then you laugh. Same way when you laugh at yourself, you get a new, understanding about yourself. According to me, laughing at others, your unconsciousness is enough, but to laugh at yourself you need consciousness and boldness. When you can laugh at yourself, you understand your personality, your being in a different way. Your experience about yourself becomes totally different. The power, the capacity to laugh at yourself is what I call, the capacity to contemplate or the power to scrutinise your own being. If you have the power to laugh at yourself, you’ll have the power to check yourself. You will have the intelligence, courage to analyze and correct your mistakes. The power to laugh at yourself means the power to look at yourself as an outsider. The capacity to witness yourself, the capacity to witness yourself is created when you can laugh at yourself. And one more thing, when you laugh at yourself, you will have the intelligence, understanding capacity to change yourself, your ideas your activities, you can update your understandings. The man who can never laugh at himself, he has always got an ego; whatever I think is right. He never looks at the things from the third dimension. If you have too much of ego, you can never laugh at yourself. To laugh at yourself you need a kind of innocence, a kind of intelligence. You need to look at yourself from the other side, from the other angle. If you have the capacity to look at yourself from the other angle, you can always win in the game.

1.13.15mins

There is a small story, a young lawyer always wins all his cases, any case he takes up, he wins. He goes to meet one of his friend. His friend asks him, how are you able to manage? How are you able to win in every case. I’ve not seen you failing even in a single case, what is the secret. He says, I’ve got only one thing to do, I just go to my house and present my case as the opposite person, as my opposite attorney and my wife gives all the points which I’m supposed to speak. I go to my house and start defending the opposite person and the moment I start defending him, I start arguing for him, she knows and she gives all the points which I’m supposed to speak. Now I know, I’m equipped with all the points, I win. The moment, you can look at the things from the other angle. Extraordinary intelligence happens to you. Even in the training of management, managing trainee courses. Even in the training seminar courses, they teach you to behave, or to imagine or to visualize yourself as a opposite person. They teach you a simple technique, you are supposed to visualize, imagine, you are the subordinate. If you are the boss, you should visualize, imagine that you are the subordinate, not imagine or visualize, you should behave as if you are the subordinate. They tell you this technique works miracles. Because the moment you can put yourself from the other person and the moment you can look at yourself, the moment you can witness yourself, a new intelligence arises in your consciousness.

In the mental plane, laughing, laughter can create the greatest transformation or greatest intelligence to your being. The greatest intelligence and transformation can happen to your being in the mental plane. Of course, next inter-personal relationships, laughter is one of the important thing, important ingredient which creates beautiful, happy, blissful inter-personal relationships. Ultimately, to the spiritual growth.

Almost all the Masters have certified the laughter as one of the important spiritual technique, the meditation technique. There is a small story, again from Zen Buddhism. Three Zen masters they lived in Japan. The only one thing they did throughout their life, that is laughing, laughing, laughing – nothing else. They don’t give any sermons, they don’t talk anything else, no preaching, no meditations, no teachings only laughing. All they do is only one thing, all the three will go to the center of the market; they’ll go to a new city, they’ll go to the center of the market, stand there and start laughing. That’s all. Only for one or two moments the people feel awkward. They feel surprised, but the laughter is such an infectious thing and especially when you laugh with the full being, it is such an infectious thing, it is such a deep thing, immediately people start laughing. In one circle starts laughing, the next circle, next circle, next circle. By one hour or after two hours, you’ll see the whole market laughing, the whole market laughing and after an hour or two, they silently escape from that place and go to the other city. Where ever they go, they just spread laughter, laughter, laughter. They say that is the greatest possible gift you can have from an enlightened master. Spreading joy and laughter where ever they go.

Finally, one of the monks among the three died and he told them don’t give ceremonious bath to my body. The zen they wash the body after death. He said no, don’t wash my body. Burn my body directly, after death. Don’t change my clothes. I wanted to, I have lived throughtout my life totally pure there is no need to purify myself after the death, after the death. The laughter has made me so pure, so alive there is no need to bathe me, purify my body. Burn me there is no need to clean my body after the death. So after the death his body was put on the fire. The moment they put the fire they understood he was hiding crackers all over his body; the crackers started spreading and the people all have started laughing like anything. Because from the fire, from the fire you see so much of crackers coming out, nobody will expect from the dead body the crackers can come out, nobody will expect.Even at that moment laughing is possible. So he saw, the guys, the other two monks saw people laughing and the crackers coming out of his fire. These two monks said even after death he has won, he has won. What he wants, he has achieved, what he wants to achieve. So there are few people which make others laugh even when they die. There are many people who make others cry, even when they live, even when they live. So it’s your choice to choose what way we should live, what way we should live our life.

1.20.04mins.

With this small incident, I’ll end the discourse, just with this small incident which I have seen, which I was a witness. You see when I say this story, zen story. The three monks made every body laugh I’m not a witness to it but there is an incident for which I was a witness. Their was an enlightened master in Karnataka, I had the great oppurtunity to be around him when he was passing away. He was more than eighty. He’s an enlightened guy and he lived such a beautiful life, you can’t imagine. You can’t imagine. In his room ten clocks will be there showing all ten different times. When I went to his room, I thought maybe one is showing America, one is showing Bharat, one is showing US, one is showing the UK and various countries time, because he has got disciples all over the world. Maybe he wants to know the time of all the other countries so he can call or maybe he expects the time; that’s what I thought. I asked him, Swamiji are they time of various countries? He said, no, no, no, it is not that; whenever I feel that it should be eleven o’clock; I’ll take the eleven o’ clock as the authority. Whenever I want it should be twelve of clock, I’ll take twelve o’clock as the authority. So I’m not slave of the time, time is my slave. Whatever time I wanted it to be so I think that clock is the right clock. He lived such a wonderful life, the moment came for his passing away, he declared by today morning, actually he said that by tomorrow early morning, tomorrow early morning I’ll pass away. And he gathered all his friends and disciples. That day morning also came and he blessed all his friends and disciples and everyone was sitting and laughing, nobody felt he’s going to die because he’s so healthy and very normal. And he says, no, no, it’s my time, my time has come so naturally you’ll see that slowly I’ll relax from the body. And they are all sitting and joking and he made all the arrangements after his death what has to be done. And he has got a small orphanage and he told them take care of all those kids. After my death you’ll all be busy with me and nobody will serve tiffin for them, breakfast for them; arrange for their breakfast, everything he made all right. And he asked them did you bring banana leaf, for the kids? He made all the arrangements ready and he was just sitting and laughing then suddenly he told, let you start singing some bhajans, some divine songs.

One swami started singing, he used to sing really well, not only he used to sing nicely; he has got too much of ego that he is a great singer. And we all used to give a small note of our favourite songs and then he will sing. Always the small note will be sent to him, mentioning our favourite song, then immediately he’ll start singing that song and he has got too much of ego also about his singing. At some one song, he showed his ego too much and expressed it in body language. Somehow when he is expressing his ego, he messed up the whole thing and this Swami sent a small note. And this guy who was singing, he knows he feels proud and this enlightened man never recognises the ego of that guy, of that person, singer. And the singer thought, now he has recognised at least, at the time of dying, he has recognised his singing by sending a small note. He was expecting that this enlightened Master would have written the name of his favourite song. He took the note and read the note and this guy who was singing; he knows he feels proud and this enlightened name never recognise the ego of the guy, that singer. And the singer thought, now he has recognised at least. At the time of dying, he recognised the song. He’s recognised his singing by sending a small note. He was expecting that this enlightented master would have written the name of a song so that he can choose that song and sing. He took the note and read; the note read; Please don’t sing at least after my death. Even at that moment, he can make comments. He can laugh, he can joke. And he laughed, laughed laughed and laughed, finally with all his laughter, he said,’Let the divine be with you all, let you live the life happily” and relaxed and he simply raised his hands and did namaste and relaxed and passed away. In few minutes, doctors declared, he passed away.

1.25.05mins

Life can be lived with and die with full of laughter. When you laugh, you can face even death. This is what I mean, laughing at the face of death. When you laugh, you can face, even death. When you laugh you can live your death, when you don’t laugh, you die even when you live. When you don’t laugh in your life, you’ll be half dead. Half dead are much worse than dead. At least dead people don’t disturb others and half dead are always disturbing others. Understand, dead people don’t disturb others; it’s half dead people who disturb others. Half dead people are continuously torturing and ruining others. You see masochists are always sadists. Understand, sadists are always masochists. If you are torturing yourself, you’ll torture others; if you torture others, you’ll torture yourself, because both are almost one and the same. You have only one mind, you torture others, you’ll torture yourself. If you torture yourself, you’ll torture others. If you know the technique of laughing, there is no technique in laughing. If you just know the laughing, you will see you know the life. The life starts happening to you, when you start laughing. By laughing, you can live, even your death. By forgetting the laughter, you die even when you live. So it is your choice between your life and your death whether to laugh or whether to not laugh. Let you laugh and live the life of eternal bliss, Nithyananda, thank you.

What time we are supposed to finish, what time we are supposed to finish. What time is your program? From seven to nine thirty. Still you have few minutes. So you can ask few questions and I’ve brought few jokes, good jokes for you all, I’ll read them, I’ll read out. So that the lecture will not be too serious. You see, just talking, talking about the laughter and not laughing is the foolish thing we can do. So let us not do foolish thing. Let you ask few questions, if possible I’ll fit these jokes inside the answers or I’ll read it out separately. We can all have few minutes of experience. Yes, no serious questions today, day after tomorrow serious questions.

# Question, Answer and Jokes session {#question,-answer-and-jokes-session}

Q)I’d like to hear the jokes, Swamiji

1) Straight to the laugh, straight to the jokes, that’s good actually, I was telling somebody if you are that dumb guy, you need to, you don’t even laugh when joke is told. If you are little bit understanding, you laugh when the joke is told, if you are really intelligent, you laugh even before the joke. Because when the energy overflows you are filled with laughter. So now I think without even questions, we will go for jokes. Or should we have few questions at least. Just as a ritual.

No questions! No questions!

Alright, one joke then we’ll go into questions.

Here is a small story, the whole family goes to theatre one night, but nobody wants to stay in the house to take care of the grandfather so they have to take him also with them. The play is nearing it’s climax, the cinema is about to end, the climax is about to happen. The whole row is disturbed by this old man, the grandfather is crawling around on his hands and knees, the whole row is getting continuously disturbed. People are not able to enjoy the climax. A small girl, she shouts, Grandpa get back to your seat, what are you doing? The grandfather says , No, No, I can’t I’ve lost my toffee. The girl says, keep quiet, don’t talk, sit in your chair, you are disturbing the whole theatre just for a small toffee; I’ll get you a big toffee when we go out, if you keep quiet. Grandfather says, no,no I want only that toffee. Girl says what is so special about that? No, my teeth are stuck in it. Sometimes your teeth are stuck in the toffee.

Yes, you can get a question. Somebody wants to ask a question.He raised his hand, you’ve forgotten your question.The first person.No, you raised your hands. Oh there!, Oh! O.K. Actually, when you laugh, you forget questions because your mind has touched your being, you forget questions. Many people, somebody,I’ve seen many guys, they come to me and start talking. Swamiji please tell me about God, tell me about enlightenment, tell me about spirituality. How can I become enlightened? I suddenly somehow; I slowly change the topic and start telling some jokes;after they laugh, one hour two hour they will be around me, they never ask that question again. Always, if the question is superficial you can see that it disappears by laughter, so only when it is serious you recollect. Yes.

1.32.05mins

Q) Swamiji you did mention that almost all enlightened masters have laughter as part of their life, but every book that you see about Lord Mahavira, or Lord Buddha, you always see a very serious face and you hardly see any smiling or laughing face. So what is the contradiction?

A) Because books are written by disciples, statues are created by disciples. If Buddha would have created his own statue or if Buddha would have ordered his own statue; he would have surely created the statue of laughing. You think, if Jesus would have made his own model, he would have made it hanging in the cross? Poor Jews have put him for only two days, these Christians are putting him for two thousand years, for last two thousand years he is hanging, poor fellow. If he would have created his own statue, I’m sure he would have created only a laughing statue. You see the books are written by disciples.

A small story, the disciples are always intellectuals, not experienced ones. That is why, nowadays, in the modern days, we have two kinds of records. In the ancient days, we had record of only the outer world things. There is no record where is Krishna’s bathroom in Bhagvatha. There is record how he spoke, how he danced, there is no record how he spent his personal life. Intimate things are never done, intimate things are never recorded.

One thing, let me explain it in this way, you’ll understand. Only their professional face is recorded. The intimate face is never recorded as long as the ancient masters are concerned. Whatever they were expressing in front of the disciples, only those things are recorded. Never the life which they lived with their close inner circle. In the modern day, we are getting two views, see the modern day Masters books; Ramakrishna, Ramana Maharishi; and there are lot of Masters, J Krishnamurti; lot of modern day enlightened masters, Chinmayananda Swami. If you see the teachings or the reminenses of outside devotees – it all says serene, calm, Buddha face. No other thing. But if you look little deeply, the inner disciples reminenses, the close devotees reminenses, it is filled with laughter and jokes. We never got the insider view of a Buddha, insider view of a Krishna, insider view of Mahavir that is the problem. That is why we got only long faced Buddhas. The long faced scriptures. The serious things. The disciples are always intellectuals disciples are always serious, disciples are always pundits. Look at the all great Masters, immediately there is some disciple who will make philosophy out of him. All great masters are expressions of energy and immediately then you will see that some people make a philosophy out of it.

A small story, suddenly a person becomes enlightened; the whole heaven is celebrating the enlightenment. Ah! one more person has become enlightened we are going to have more people in our heaven, let us celebrate. Indra threw a big party, people are jumping and dancing and singing. Such a big celebration is going on. The other side, Hell, a big serious discussion; one devil is shouting, you fellow how can you make this guy enlightened, how can you allow this guy to become enlightened. You should have prevented him earlier itself. Anyhow, it has happened, do something. The next guy is shouting, yes, we must do something. We must see all the possible things to stop the enlightenment spreading. If the same thing happens, if all the people become continuously enlightened, who will come to our place? Where will we get the people and already slowly, slowly we are becoming less. The chief devil, the chief, he is very silent, calm, serene. He says, fools don’t you think I know what has to be done? I’ve already sent enough of intellectual disciples to him, they will take care. They will not let enlightenment spread. When intellectual disciples gather around Master, they act as a representative of devils, so that the enlightenment never spreads. Understand, one thing if the Masters themselves have designed means, they would have never designed these things.

One more thing, there are five photographs of Ramamkrishna taken, one photograph was brought to him and shown. He said, what, type of photograph has been taken, I’m not laughing throw this away into Ganga. And not only that, he took the negative also and threw it. And he says, I wanted me to be photographed, I wanted me to be seen by the people only as a laughing person. There are three photographs of him. In all the three, he is laughing and in one photograph he is dancing, he is dancing. When a real master expresses himself, he always wants this type of expression, but what to do the old documents or the partial documents. We don’t have the total documents, what to do. Now we are getting, both sides we are getting both the documents. Now you can see all the modern day masters, the insider views you are getting, the insiders view of proving masters are embodiment of laughter and joke. You can never imagine, Ramana Maharishi, laughing so much. They say, he is such a talkative person, the intimate reminenses say, he makes so much of funs and so much of imitating and mimickry; you can’t imagine that he is full of fun.

1.38.40mins.

Any other question? Yes, give the… if you want to share some jokes you are welcome.

Q) What about Mona Lisa’s smile?

A) Oh!, I have no idea; I’ve not seen her I don’t think she is enlightened. One thing I can be sure that she is not enlightened and one more thing what other view you are asking? What other way you are asking, you can tell me. Yes, one thing, the just smile is a polite way of behaving, polite way of showing that you are not interested in that person. You are not interested in that situation. You are not interested to laugh for that joke. You cannot be too straight, you see, you cannot be too abrupt, you cannot be to egoistic, it’ll be very impolite. So you just show a small smile and one more thing, if the other person; if his status is little more than you, if he’s little more rich man then you smile totally. If the other guy is little less or equal to you, you say, emm. The inches of your mouth and the bank balance go hand in hand.

A small story, one boss he continuously tells the same joke and all his subordinates laugh in the same way. It’s a everyday routine. The same joke he will tell, the same way these guys will laugh. One day one stenographer, she didn’t laugh, she was just keeping serious face. Boss asked, why what happened, you are not laughing? No, I got the other job, I got job somewhere else. So when your boss says the joke, you have to laugh. When you want to avoid, but when you don’t want to be impolite. When you want to show some politeness, courtesey, you give a smile. You give a small smile. So according to me, smile is method to, technique to escape from the laughter. I tell you, don’t bother about the joke, whether you understand or not, but don’t miss the laughter. Even if you miss the joke, don’t miss the laughter. Because it’s a wonderful chance, you don’t have to bother whether you understood or not.

There are many people who used to ask me, Swamiji I don’t know the language in which you are going to conduct the course. In Bharat, I conduct courses in the regional languages, so people come and ask me, I don’t know the language, can I attend the course. I tell them you are the right person to attend. You are the right person to attend, at least you will know ,you don’t know; other people will not even know that they don’t understand, they don’t know. You see when you know the language, you think you know, you don’t even know you don’t know. If you don’t know, you don’t even know you don’t know. If you know you don’t know, at least you know that you know. Nothing more needs to be done. You are the right person to enjoy the course, right person to attend the program. You don’t even know if you are understanding, whether you are able to understand or not, you don’t have to do all the intellectual gymnasium, whether to understand the words, directly or indirectly. This way or that way, all those things are not necessary after all meditation is about silence of your mind.

Sit silently, you’ll automatically become silent. That’s all you don’t have to do all intellectual gymnasium, that’s all. You are the right person to attend the course.

Here is a story from a book. A guy is leaning back in his arm chair in the new office, he has just opened. The door creaks open and a man comes in; Aha! Thinks the guy, a client already in. I must try and impress him immediately. He picks up the phone and starts talking, No Sir, I’m extremely sorry, I’m too busy, I cannot take up that project, can you call after ten days, I may be able to take up that project. No, no, no Sir, even if you give ten thoudsand dollars, it is too much, I can’t take up the case. I can’t take up the project, please give me a call after ten days. He sets down the phone and looks expectantly at the man who has just come in. And now, says the guy, looking at the man, How can I help you sir? What is the business you want to talk to me? The guy says, you can’t help me in anyway, I’ve just come to connect your telephone. Sometimes we miss the whole truth. What for the other guy has come.

Any other story? Otherwise, we will end the session with this last story, last joke. Any other question? Tomorrow where is the program? In Dayton. What is the title? Dance your way to God. Tomorrow’s title is Dance your way to God. You see, when I was giving the topics for the discourses, somehow I felt, Ohio so near, so close to my heart that is why I’ve given topics which I love to Ohio. This topic Laughing is a Meditation and Dance your Way to God is the topic really which I love to speak. Of course, because there is no time, I have to finish, otherwise if I have to continue, I don’t know when I’ll finish.

1.45.44mins

Anyhow, we’ll finish with this small story. It is midnight, in a dark place behind a pub, a fearless guy, maybe he’s a lawyer is walking, is wandering around. Suddenly he’s approached by a shabby looking guy who is wearing a large black overcoat, big hat and sunglasses. Hey, says that guy, Are you a lawyer? The lawyer just looks at him straightening up his tie, Yes, I am. Says the other guy, do you handle criminal cases? Yes, I do. Asked the other guy, would you help even a thief? The lawyer just brings his hands and adjusts his coat and says certainly Sir, the guy says, pulling out his gun, can you start helping me with your wallet. If you understand, understand. This is a last worry, I’ll finish. This story half of you may understand, half of you may not understand. If you understand, laugh, if you don’t understand, even if you miss the joke, don’t miss the laughter. You can go and ask about the joke, when you leave the hall, you can ask your friend, what is the joke, but laugh now itself. Even if you miss the laughter, even if you miss the joke, don’t miss the laughter because when you go out you can ask about the joke.

A rabbi and a father, both were living in the opposite houses. Not only they live opposite to each other, they are opposite to each other. If father does something, immediately within twenty four hours, rabbi will imitate. If rabbi brings rose garden to his house, within twenty four hours father house will also have rose garden. If rabbi paints his house in black, within twenty four hours you can see the father will also paint his house black. If father brings ac to his house, rabbi’s house temperature will increase and he will get a cooler. The same thing goes on, goes on, goes on. One day in front of rabbi’s house stands a new mercedes benz. Too much, it’s too much for father, in twenty four hours he managed a rolls royce and not only he managed, he was sprinkling the holy water. Rabbi said what are you talking, what are you doing, till yesterday night, you were all right. That’s ok. What are you doing? You got a new car that’s ok, why are you sprinkling holy wateron it. Father says, I’m a religious man how can I travel in a car which is not christian so I’m baptizing it. Now rabbi is in a big problem, how to convert the benz. That day evening he was seen cutting the exhaust of the mercedes benz with an oxy flame. So let you laugh and enjoy, thank you.

# Anand Sutras {#anand-sutras}

Just a simple understanding about the jokes, how they work and how jokes the make you laugh. Actually when you listen to a joke, slowly slowly, slowly your mind is tuned to a certain kind of rational thinking. You come to a conclusion. But the last word, the punch line is always something beyond your expectation. The moment you listen something beyond your expectation, your logic is put off, your rationality is relaxed, immediately you open and you burst into the laughter.

As far as laughter is concerned, according to my own understanding when ten people put r ten, ten volts of current, not only it becomes hundred, there is a new transformer which is called group consciousness that is created, converting even a hundred volts and collectively converting this to ten thousand volts. You put ten volts and you receive ten thousand volts. Group consciousness means a deep love and understanding among the whole group. When you laugh you show you are innocent, you open up to the new relationships. You show a positive sign to the next person.

All seriousness is just sickness

Laughing at others gives more understanding about the other person, laughing at yourself gives more understanding about yourself.

When you laugh, you can face even death. This is what I mean, laughing at the face of death.