Balance and discrimination

DAILY READINGS

Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.

Day 861

Happiness can also give you a shock and can kill you [through a heart-attack]. How? A man was very poor and he didn't know how to get out of it. He also had a little bit of heart trouble. He took a ticket in the sweepstake [lotto] and the ticket won. The message came to his wife – the lucky thing [given his heart condition] is that he wasn't at home 'We won!' she was told. The wife said, 'How much?' The answer: two hundred and fifty thousand Rand [South African currency]. She said, 'How to break the news to my husband [without upsetting his heart condition]?' So she consulted the doctor and said, 'My husband's just won 250 000 in the sweepstake.' The doctor said, 'Well, why don't you tell him?' 'You know that he has a heart condition' replied the wife. 'I know psychology, I'll tell him', said the doctor.

So the doctor came and sat with the husband and while having a cup of tea he said, 'Look here, say you won 250 000, what would you do?' The man said, 'I'll give you half.' And the doctor died from shock. [much laughter from the devotees. Swamiji chuckling] That's happiness. So happiness too, kills.

That's why in the Bhagavad Gita it is said that moderation is key, that anyone who sleeps a lot cannot realise God, anyone who does not sleep at all cannot realise God. He who is very [excessively] happy will not realise God and he who is very sad will not realise God. He must travel the middle path [of balance]. Therefore discrimination comes [into it]. This, not that – just like that. Calm. Quiet. Composed. Buddha said if you over-tighten the Sitar [pictured above] strings, what will happen? The strings will snap. When you under-tune it [have the strings too slack] what will happen? It won't play correctly. It must be correctly tensioned. So your life has to be adjusted 'just there' [balanced, correctly pitched] with the aid of Dharma [righteous activities and living]. And thus you will get Moksha [liberation from the cycle of birth and re-birth or samasara]. May that glorious Being that is seated in your heart and through various ways through either sadness, pain, misery, happiness, bhakti [divine love], urge you along to grow and realise 'That', [may It] bless us so that we will get bhakti at His lotus feet and realise Him. And that faith that you have in you, that conscience – may it always say 'don't do the wrong thing'. Don't kill it [the conscience] by ignoring it. Let it grow. That is Nachiketa. It will take you [to God]. You will become a blessing to your father and mother. It will take you to heaven also. And the same faith that is there already in you will make you realise the Atman [universal soul]. Hari AUM Tat Sat.