“By arguing you can come to the conclusion only by experience.”

By arguing you can come to the conclusion only by experience. This is the first answer. The next point: if you feel happy believing in him, is it right?

I tell you, whatever you know, whatever you think as you know is nothing but your belief. Please be very clear, you can't say some statement is true, some statement is wrong. For example, you can't be even sure that you are sitting in front of Me and listening this discourse. You can't be sure that this statement is truth. It maybe even in the dream. You are having a nice dream, who knows? In the dream also we see so many things and in the dream time, we simply believe it is truth. Am I right? We simply believe it is a truth and only when we come out of the dream, we understand it is not truth. So maybe suddenly tomorrow you may wake up and find the whole thing is just a dream. Who knows? We don't have any guarantee. There is no assurance that you are listening to Me is a truth. It is just your belief.

So, whatever you know as truth is nothing but your belief, whatever you know. Please understand, mark My words. Whatever you know as truth is nothing but your belief. So if this belief makes you blissful, why don't you have it? That's all and let Me tell you, all your fantasy is just belief which makes you blissful. In reality, it may not be so blissful but in the belief, you have a strong belief it is a blissful thing. So when you strongly believe it is blissful, you simply feel it is a truth, it is a truth. So here is a question: if you feel happy believing in him is it right? And I tell you, you believe only things which makes you happy and whatever you believe only you think as truth.

The ultimate truth can neither be believed nor be unbelieved. You can neither believe or….you can neither believe or doubt. You can't do anything about the ultimate truth. Whatever you know as truth, it is only what you believe. So there are so many beliefs in you which creates misery in you. Am I right? So why don't you have one belief which creates bliss, that's all, which creates happiness? Why don't you pamper yourself little bit? Why don't you pamper yourself? Why don’t you have at least little bit of consolation? So don't bother. If it gives you little bit of happy, start believing. Let you be little relaxed.

There is a next question: if people are happy with their lives, should they practice spirituality?

No. Please don't. If you are really happy, you are practicing spirituality. You are living spirituality. Bliss is what is all about spirituality. Understand for example, many people again and again tell you, you are supposed to practice spirituality only when you are happy. I tell you, no. It is like a they want to promote their ideas. See, if you have to sell some product, you have to make somebody feel the necessity of it. Same way, the people, the so-called spiritual business people, they make you feel that you need it. Then they sell their product. I tell you, if you are already happy, simply forget all about spirituality and just continue be happy and blissful, that's all. That's all we need. Don't be caught by any businessman.

You see, whenever I read that Sky Mall magazine, whenever you read that Sky Mall magazine, you just feel you can't live without that product. It describes so nicely and you just feel the life can't go without that product. And same way, the people who market the spiritual ideas or the spiritual products, again they create a guilt in you being happy is something wrong. Being blissful means somewhere you are doing sin. Something is going wrong. So it is just a technique to create guilt so that you will start feeling the need for that spiritual product for their market. So don't be caught by any spiritual products or any person who wants to market his ideas if you are already blissful. Being blissful is all about spirituality. If you have achieved that, you are spiritual. You are already living it. You just live with that same joy, bliss and happiness. Keep it up. That is enough.

(Swamiji reads a question)

If words stay in the ether forever, can't it be captured?

You can't capture the words. You can capture only the silence or the energy of the words. Then when you express it, it will become a words. You can only capture the silence of words, not the words itself. That's why we call Vedas or Shrutis ‘heard.’ Heard does not mean, and actually, even the word Shruti cannot be translated as heard. Shruti means experienced through ears, not heard. Heard is a poor translation. Heard is a poor translation for the word Shruti. So it is just an experience of great masters. You see, when these great ten gurus of Sikhism, whatever they experienced, they verbalized it and it became a book called Guru Granth Sahib. Whatever Guru Govind Singh experienced he verbalized it. It is not that he just heard as letters. He had a ultimate Enlightenment. That experience he verbalized it. So whatever you experience then you verbalize and that becomes an ultimate scripture.

Here is a beautiful question: No one knows about last birth or next birth. Why should we bother or even anyone knows about it? What is the use?

You are really intelligent person. I tell you, when you feel that there is no need to bother, no need to know, you are right and actually there is no need to bother. People come and ask Me, “Swamiji, please give me the past life memory.” I tell them, “Last fifty years memory itself is haunting your head. You are not able to sleep. You are not at peace. You are depressed. If you have that one more life, one more fifty years of memory, what will happen to you? Simply you will become mad!” So better to forget the past life memories. It is good as you say, there is no need. Simply no use.

(Swamiji reads a question)

Vivekananda has mentioned that Vedanta is extremely practical. How can I apply it in my life in this cut-throat world?

In cut-throat world only, Vedanta is extremely practical. Vedanta is not practical in the Himalayas. I have seen people thirty years spending in silence to practice Vedanta. The day they come down to Haridwar to visit, all anger and all emotions comes out. The day they come down from Himalayas, all their things comes out. It means what? Vedanta is not practical in Himalayas. It is practical only in the cut-throat world. Understand deeply in depth about the whole reality or nature of yourSelf and just be filled with that ideas. That is enough. Again and again I tell people, let these ideas be heard by you again and again and again. Don't make this as a part time job. Whenever you find time, use these CDs, use these literatures, use these DVDs, use these books. Again and again put these ideas inside.

Ramakrishna says beautifully, if a person is drunk, totally drunk, unconscious, you need to give him at least one fourth quantity of the rice water. If he has drunk one liter, at least quarter liter of rice water you are supposed to give. Only then it will come down. He will become alright. Same way, we are totally stuffed with the ideas from the world. So many ideas which gives continuously misery and suffering. Now at least one fourth quantity you should stuff the ideas of bliss and joy. So stuff these ideas at least one fourth. Naturally you will see the transformation happening. Take these ideas inside again and again through the audio discourses, through DVDs, through books. That can only change and transform your life.

(Swamiji reads a question)

I think happiness and sadness is a temporary state. It can last few days or moments. It may not last forever. Do You not recommend knowing spirituality helps improve the happy state for longer time?

I tell you, the moment you want the happiness to remain for a longer time, you are not spiritual. You are not spiritual. (Swamiji coughs) Sorry. I have always seen people asking Me, “Swamiji, in Your programs, we feel so much of bliss and ecstasy. How to hold it forever? How to keep it forever?” I tell them, “The moment you want to keep it, you have started losing it.” Bliss itself is choicelessness. Understand, bliss itself is choicelessness. When you are in the state of choicelessness, you are blissful. The moment you choose bliss, you have already entered into choice. You already disturbed the bliss. Bliss by its own nature is choicelessness. So when you choose choicelessness, what do you do? You choose choicelessness. You destroyed the whole bliss or you destroyed the whole juice of it.

So I tell you, when you try to hold the bliss, don't think you are spiritual. It's like a your hands are in a river. If your hands are open, the river will be there always in your hands. The moment you try to hold the river, if you let your hand, you will have only the empty hand. Same way, as long as you are open, you are ready to let go the bliss, it will continuously happening in your being. It will be continuously happening in your being. The moment you want to hold it, the moment you want to keep it for a longer time, you have started destroying it. So don't try to hold the bliss. Just allow it to happen and move. That is the real spirituality. That is enough for bliss to happen.

Here is a nice question: Why do You become Swami and how would You describe it?

Please you should understand, I Am a Paramahamsa. There is a different kind of subsect. I Am not Swami; I Am paramahamsa. Paramahamsa means a man who is liberated from the outer world and inner world bondages. Great Swan, paramahamsa literally translated, it means great swan. Technically the definition is a man who has liberated himself consciously from all the bondages, who lives just based on conscious, who lives just as He feels blissful. The liberation from inner world and the outer world is what I call paramahamsa means a person who lives with his conscious choices, not based on any rules, regulation or somebody's expectation. A person who is fulfilling his own conscious choice is a paramahamsa.

Swami means he has got rules. He is supposed to follow so many rules. I Am not actually swami. I Am a paramahamsa and you asked the next question: how would You describe it? I have already described. I have already described. I have not went for Sanyas. People come and ask Me, “Swamiji, should I take Sanyas?” I tell them, “No, don't take.” They question Me, “Why? You became a Sanyasi. Why are you asking us not to?” I tell them, “I never went and asked anybody should I became a Swami or not? I just felt I should become a paramahamsa and I became.” As long as you have the mood of asking somebody, means you don't have enough confidence. You don't have enough confidence about yourself. As long as you wanted to ask, never take.

So I tell you, swami is different and paramahamsa is different. Lovingly they call Me as a Swami. The title has been associated with Me but originally it is little more than a Swami. It is like a MBBS and MD. It is little more than a swami. Paramahamsa means man who has experienced the Ultimate or His being. Swami means man who is trying or working to experience. Swami is like a sadhaka; Paramahamsa is like a person who has achieved. So I never went to have sanyas in the spiritual life. I always went to only become enlightened or to become paramahamsa.

(Swamiji reads a question)

How can one evaluate spiritual progress? What percentage of the program is downloaded?

To say honestly, we can't evaluate till the complete enlightenment happens. Maybe to console you I can say, the more clarity you feel, the more bliss you feel, you can say the evaluation is the more growth is happening, more progress is happening but the ultimately, even if you have progressed 99% and the last one percent, there is always a chance of coming down to zero percent. There is always a risk. So it is better to understand that 100% growth is the real progress.