The following is an excerpt from a satsang between the Gnani Purush and spiritual aspirants.

One Will Experience Happiness through Such Adjustments

One man told me, ‘I do not understand anything. Please give me your blessing.’ I placed my hand on his head and said, ‘Go. From today onwards open up a shop of happiness. Get rid of the old shop.’ What is a shop of happiness? It is a place from where you can give happiness to others the moment you wake up in the morning. There should be no other kinds of dealings. He understood this very well and started to practice this right away and became a happy man. When you start a shop of happiness, happiness will come to you and to those to whom you give. Would you have a need to buy sweets from someone else’s shop when you own one yourself? You will be able to eat them whenever you please. Similarly, if you open up your own shop of happiness, you will not have any problems.

 You can start any business you want. If you cannot do it every day, do it at least once a week, on Sundays. You will find customers for happiness. The law of vyavasthit is such that it will bring customers for you. Vyavasthit will bring you customers according to what you have decided.

People open a business of what interests them. Those who like sweets will open a sweet shop. What do people like? Happiness! So why not open shops of happiness, so that you can give happiness to others and at the same time have happiness at home? Eat, drink and enjoy yourself.

Do not invite miseries by thinking about the future. If a person receives a letter saying Chandubhai is going to visit him, he will start to have all kinds of thoughts, even if Chandubhai has not yet arrived.

This Dada is a Gnani Purush. How does his ‘shop’ run so successfully throughout the day? Because his shop is a shop of happiness, he showers happiness even upon those who throw stones at him. The person who throws stones does not realize that he is throwing stones at a shop of happiness and that he should not do so. He just aims blindly and throws them.

Even when you decide that you do not want to give unhappiness to anyone, will others not give you unhappiness? What will you do then? I will show you a way to handle such situations. One day a week, close your ‘post office’ and do not accept any ‘mail’ from anyone and do not send any ‘mai’ to anyone either. If someone happens to send you one, keep it aside and say, ‘The post office is closed today. I will deal with it tomorrow.’ My post office is always closed!

Why do people behave nicely on Diwali day? It is because they have a change in their belief for that day. They make a decision that they want to spend the entire day being happy and so their belief changes and that is why they are able to spend the day being happy. You are the boss and therefore, you have the power to make a similar arrangement too. If you decide you do not want to be rude to anyone, then you will not be able to be rude that day. You should practice and maintain this rule once a week. Close the post office for one day and relax. Let people complain that it is closed for the day.

Vengeance Is Eliminated and Happiness Increases

Only the intent not to hurt anyone in this world is considered true earning in this life. You should affirm such an intention every morning. Accept any abuse or insults anyone gives you and do not try to analyze what you may have done to merit such an abuse. If you accept it, then your karmic account will be cleared on the spot. If you do not accept it and retaliate instead, then that account will continue into your next life and that is what we call roonanubandha. Instead of settling all matters, people retaliate with four times the force. God tells you to give to others what you like to receive yourself. Do not give to others what you do not like to receive. If someone tells you, ‘You are a good man,’ you should tell him, ‘Sir, you too are a good man.’ If you speak in this manner, it is acceptable.

This entire worldly life is meant for settling past karmic accounts. Any situation that creates vengeance will have to be settled in your next life without fail.  The very people you bind vengeance with will avenge themselves through becoming your mother-in-law, a wife, a son, or even an ox in the next life. You may pay twelve hundred dollars for an ox and it may die the very next day. Endless life cycles have passed in revenge. Vengeance is the reason why you wander life after life in this world. That is why your liberation is impeded. The art of living is to not create enmity with anyone and to become free. That is the very reason some renounce worldly life and run away from their worldly problems. But one cannot run away from their responsibilities in this manner. From the day of birth, one’s life becomes a battle, which needs to be faced. Alas rather than overcoming life’s battles, people fall prey to enjoying luxuries and comforts of the world.

Maintain equanimity when interacting with those around you, whether it is at home, outside, office or in the public. At home when you are served food you do not like, accept it gracefully. Do not aggravate anyone. Eat whatever food is served on your plate. What is in front of you is an event and if you push it away, you will be the one to have to pay for it. Therefore, when I am served food I do not like, I take at least two bites. If you do not, you will start a conflict with food itself and with the person who prepared and brought it to you. The food will say, ‘What wrong have I done? I have come to you. Why are you are insulting me? Eat what you can but do not insult me.’ Should you not honor the food? Someone may bring a dish I do not like, but I honor it. Ordinarily it will not come to you but when it does, you have to respect it. This food is your own (account from your past life) and so when you find faults with whatever is served on your plate, will that increase or decrease your happiness?

Questioner: It will decrease.

Dadashri: Why deal with things in a manner that decreases your happiness? You should not conduct yourself or deal with situations in a manner that will cause your happiness to decrease. I am often served vegetables I do not like, but I eat them and what is more I say that the vegetables were very good.

Questioner: Is that not being deceitful? When you say you like something when you actually do not, is that not pacifying the mind unnecessarily?

Dadashri: No, that is not unnecessarily pacifying the mind. The food will go down your throat easier if you say you like it. When you say you do not like it, you will upset the vegetables as well as the one who cooked them and your children will pick up on your behavior; even your children will assess your worthiness.

Even in my own home no one knows of my likes and dislikes. Is cooking really under the control of the one cooking? The food that ends up on the plate is in accordance with the laws of vyavasthit of the one who is going to eat. Therefore one should not meddle with it.

So Much Luxury And Yet No Enjoyment

How much prosperity and splendor there is out there to enjoy! You get to travel in the double-decker buses worth hundred thousand rupees for only half a rupee! What comfortable seats! You do not have such seats even in your home. People have so much merit karma (punya) but they do not know how to enjoy, otherwise how can a person enjoy a hundred thousand rupee bus in India? When you travel by car, do you get covered with dust? No, because we do not have dirt roads anymore. Your feet do not get dirty. In the past we had dirt roads and even the kings would come home with dirty feet. People of today have more luxuries than the kings of the past and yet they do not know how to enjoy the luxuries, do they?