Play The Game Of Life

Now, can you avoid death? No. For sure you know it’s going to, it will be. So as long as you die, as long as the death comes, you will be playing your role, your game. Then why to bother so much? Why to bother so much? Anyhow, till he comes I am going to play here. I am going to be here.

For example, you know around 12 o’clock in the noon, somebody will come to your house and pick you. Somebody will come, yours, ahh, you are in a, in a hotel, or in your friend’s house, or somewhere which is not your place, in a bus stand or somewhere, in a bus stand. If you know that till... by 12 o’clock, somebody will come with a vehicle and pick you, take you, will you start worrying? No. You’ll be quite relaxed. But in the same bus stand, if you don’t know that nobody, if you don’t know that, “whether somebody will come to pick me up or not?” If you don’t know what time people will come and take you, if you don’t know the next step, what do you think, you will be doing? Continuously worrying, “What will happen to this? What will happen to that? When will I reach? I don’t know.” All these things. Here for sure you know, somebody will come and pick you up. For sure, you can be, you can be sure about that. Nobody will be left here. Nobody will be left here. Somebody will come and pick you up. You know for sure. Then why do you bother? Relax. Till they come to pick us up, let us play our game.

If you are a mother, play the game of mother. If you are father, play the game of the father. Don’t internalize. But we have too many big, big words. We continuously internalize. We think, “It is too much, I can’t put up. How much I can bear Swamiji? It is too much.” There is nothing in the planet Earth too much, except the word “too much.” Actually, if you sit with the other 2, 3 people and talk about their suffering, if you know their sufferings, you will understand how safe and happy you are. Really. Actually I feel so happy when I see, when I come to know, the people are suffering in so many ways. Not that I am, I am feeling happy because of their suffering. I am feeling that I am blessed. I am blessed.

So many people, so much of suffering. But when you do not know others sufferings, you think you are the only person who is suffering. And one more thing, for example: you want some amount of space and freedom, whenever you want to go somewhere out, you wanted to have that freedom. If they give that freedom, it is not that you will stop there. Again you will try to expand your boundary. You are only going to continuously expand your boundary, till the other person fights with you.

You see, till the neighbour says, “it is my boundary,” you will go on expanding your boundary. If there is nobody who says, “it is my boundary,” simply you will make the whole thing as your land. That is what is the usual tendency. So naturally, you will end only where you find suffering, because you are in search of suffering. You will end, you will stop putting your fence, only when somebody else interferes in your, interferes and says.

And even if your boundary, for example: now you have 5 acres of space, 5 acre space, healthy. This much of freedom, whenever you want you can go somewhere. Whenever you want you can do something. You don’t stop with that 5 acre boundary, 5 acre space; you want not only that space, you want some, something more.

See now, maybe people giving, ah, your wife maybe giving you the space, with a little grumbling and grudging, just, alright. But you don’t keep quiet, you want their acknowledgement also. Then you tell them, “you also come to ashram.” Then you expect them to live as you want. You don’t understand, there are so many wives who never let them, let the husbands even come here. You don’t understand that. You have at least this much of freedom that you can come. But you don’t stop with this freedom, with this boundary, with this fence. You wanted your fence to be little more big. If they don’t tell you anything, then you want them also to come. That’s the next. Then you’ll say, then you wanted them to do whatever you want to do.

So, as long, only when they say, “No, it is my boundary,” then you stop. Till then, you go, you go, you go, you just intrude others space, in the name of your freedom. You continuously intrude till you hit your fence. So, you are in search of ‘dukkha’. Only when you find some opposition, some problem, you stop. Till you find problems and oppositions, you don’t stop. If you have 5 acres boundary, and suddenly somebody gives you 100 acre boundary, again you don’t stop with 100 acre. You go only near the fence and stand and shake the fence, to move the fence. You don’t see the 100 acre behind you. You are again hitting the fence. When it was 5 acre, you were hitting the fence and saying, “Oh, I have small space, small space, small space.” If you have 100 acre, again you are hitting the fence only. You are always hitting your head on the compound wall.

There’s a beautiful example, told by Ramana Maharishi. There was a guy, who was standing in a triangular wall, triangular shape of room. And he was in a corner, he saw the front two walls, and he was just hitting the two boundary, “Oh, I am bound, I am bound, I am bound, I am in a prison. Please save me,” he was shouting. He was shouting and shouting. Somebody said, “Fool! You’re not in a boundary, turn back.” He turned and saw, the other side there is no wall. 😀 The other side, there is no wall.

You always go to the end, go to the extreme, and stand there and wanted to expand again, wanted to push the boundary. If you have a 5 acres boundary, you go and stand near the boundary and you will continuously shout, “Oh, there is no space, there is no freedom. Only I have 5 acre. I have to expand my boundary.” Suddenly for some reason, you get 100 acre, again what you do? You go and stand near the boundary and start shouting, “I have no space, I have no freedom, what is this?”

When you decide you do not want to have freedom, you don’t recognize your freedom. When you decide you do not want your space, you don’t recognize the space given to you. When you decide to live with sufferings and worries, you go and stand in the compound wall. I tell you, come and live inside the home. Why do you always stand in the compound wall? Why do you always hit yourself in the fence? So much of space here; whatever space is there, start living with it. But, because you continuously search for suffering... you see you want some definition for yourself, you want to define yourself. Only sufferings and fear defines you. So you wanted to have little bit of juice, sufferings and fear, you go and hit.

For example, if you have 10 lakh, you’ll be start thinking of 10 crore. “If I have 10 crore, I’ll have more freedom. Freedom to choose my sufferings 😀 or more space.” The moment you get 10 crore, you start thinking of, visualizing the 100 crore freedom. “If I have 100 crore, I’ll have so many bungalows and houses all over the world, wherever I go I can stay. I’ll have more freedom, more space. Choice for more sufferings.” 😀 So the moment you have 100 crore, you start bothering about 1000 crore. “If I have 1000 crore, it’ll be a... I’ll have more space, more freedom, more enjoyment.” You don’t stand and live inside your space, you always stand near your boundary.

So this is what I call mental setup of ‘mithya’, mental setup of ‘mithya’. There is a another one kind of mental setup, mental setup of ‘vithya/nithya’, recognizing your space, giving respect to your freedom which is there. Actually you don’t recognize what you have. You don’t respect what you have. Whatever has become yours, you start resp..disrespecting it. As long as it is not yours, you crave for it, you beg for it, you do tapas for it. The moment it becomes yours, simply you disrespect it, you don’t even care for it. It is there, lying in one corner.

So there are so many things which has become your being, which has become part of your Self. You don’t respect that. You don’t recognize all those things. You don’t respect them, taking it for granted. And actually, the moment you understand death as a liberation, the life becomes celebration. You have nothing. As long as you are here, play this whole drama, enjoy.

And never think you can make your children happy. Never think they will be happy because of your work, your responsibility consciousness. It is they who decide their life. And according to My experience, I tell you one thing, if you are irresponsible, your children will take the responsibility of their life. I always tell people, never give wealth to your kids. You will destroy them. Give them intelligence and little bit of suffering. Let them earn. Only when they earn, they’ll know the value of things. They will know the value of things.

You see, if you purchase a silver tumbler, you know it is 2000 rupees or 1000 rupees. Silver tumbler, silver, at least it will cost 1000 rupee. But if it is gifted to you, by your father, or as a ancestral property, what will you do? You do not know the value. If somebody says, “I’ll give you hundred rupees.” You think, “Ah, if hundred rupees comes, I can smoke today. Take it and give me. I can smoke, I can go for a party. That is what is immediate joy for me.” You do not know the value, when it is handed over to you.

Beautifully Bill Gates says - Bill Gates, the world’s biggest, world's richest man, world’s biggest ‘Lakshmipathi’, 😀 richest man on the planet Earth. He has written, he gave away all his property to charity, except a small amount. If he has got 100 crore, only 1000 rupees he has given to his sons. Very small amount, meagre amount, not even 001%. He is sitting on 400 million dollar hard cash. 400 million na?

Participant: 40 billion dollars

Swamiji: Oh, 40?

Participant: 40 thousand

Participant: Billion!

Participant: 40 thousand

Swamiji: 40 billion dollars! 40 thousand million then? 40 thousand million dollars hard cash, on that he is sitting. Only 10 million dollars he has given to the sons. The whole thing he has wrote a, he wrote a will to the charity, to charity. He has given away to charity.

People are just shocked. Somebody interviewed him and asked him, “Why did you do this?” He said, “just because they are born as my son, they have no right to enjoy this wealth. Just because they are my sons, they have no right to enjoy this wealth. Only when you earn, you have right to enjoy the wealth.” According to Me he is a Buddha. In his understandings he is a Buddha.

Actually, when you don’t give wealth to your kids, you make them man. You make them matured. Never give wealth. Never give them wealth. Even if you have to give, write as a will, let it go after your death. Never give when you are alive. When you are alive, let them earn, let them work.

I have seen many rich people, when they hand over the wealth to the, ah, next generation, within one generation the whole thing will vanish, disappear. If the father is a wealthy guy, be very clear... if the father has earned, son will take birth just to spend. If the father doesn’t give any money, he will simply create a kingdom. You will simply create a kingdom. You will create a kingdom, because you will start knowing the value of wealth. You’ll start knowing the value of wealth. When you acquire freedom, when you acquire space, when you acquire this new mental setup, you will know the value of it. You will know the value of it.