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It is very important that we practice. What we are doing is not sādhanā for one day, one week, or one month. It is lifelong. And lifelong sādhanā should be done with great confidence. Never let any negative thoughts enter your mind. It doesn't matter what happens; whatever is happening to us in this life will remain here. It has no permanent significance. This is everyday life, and we are not working only for this life. We are working for that future which should remain forever in divine consciousness. Though many of us cannot imagine what that divine consciousness is. What is that really? And when we realize that divine consciousness, maybe we will be disappointed; we would not like it. What is then? Then you will say, "No, I want to have normal human consciousness." But we can only believe or trust the words of the great saints that there is something much better than this life. And this life should not become an obstacle for us to achieve that highest consciousness. Therefore, whatever is happening—anything in life—we shall analyze in a good way. Something is happening as an obstacle, and something is happening as guidance. The hard thing that comes in life is maybe guidance. And the pleasurable things that happen in life are maybe an obstacle. Humans have lost spiritual consciousness. Many humans are concentrated on material things. How do you ask anyone, "What is your target or your aim?" Then: to grow the business, the business goes better, money comes more, development, achievement. But this achievement is just like bubbles on the water. These bubbles are not permanent; they look nice, beautiful, colorful. But as soon as you touch them, hardly do you recognize that it is there—it is gone. So this life is that bubble, and you never know when suddenly it will explode. So what we were thinking is ours, it is not ours. Anything physical here in this world, what you think is yours, it is not yours. It's given to you to utilize in this life. But we would like to be the owner of that. The owner of it is only God, and God doesn't ask us to pay any taxes. God gave us this world freely; go and work for your self-realization. But somehow we don't understand, or we have forgotten. So the biggest obstacle which can come is that you lose your motivation. And that is like a chain is broken. There was a story. One person was meditating and practicing for 70 years. Well, 70 is quite a lot: everyday meditation, everyday prayers, everyday doing āsanas, prāṇāyāmas. For 70 years he didn't realize anything; he said that nothing happened. And you may think that also, but what should happen? Did you ask yourself what should happen? I would say something has happened; great. Which you don't know, and that is that nothing happened. Otherwise you will not be here. So it's always wrong expectations that something will happen, that you don't feel, you don't see. Even if you have self-realization, you will not feel that you have self-realization. And if you feel that you have self-realization, and you achieve the supreme consciousness, then you will be so unpleasant. All the time you think, "I am self-realized, I am self-realized." Through this you will lose your self-realization. Again, self-realization is like a diamond. Ask a diamond if the diamond thinks that it is a diamond. But we decide that it is a diamond. And similarly, we see that someone has divine light, spiritual light. And that's happening; you don't realize that it is happening. Therefore, just be, that's it. Just be there and do your sādhanā. So after 70 years, nothing happened. That man was meditating in the garden, sitting under the tree, and suddenly he stopped doing his mālā, his meditation. "Nothing happened these 70 years. I was repeating my mantra and prayers all the time, repeating the mantra constantly. I think 70 years I was chewing the chewing gum. Oṃ, Oṃ, Oṃ." And he was thinking to stop. Then he saw near the trunk of the tree one ant, and in the mouth of the ant, one grain of rice. An ant wanted to take this grain of rice up on the tree, somewhere she had a nest. After one meter, she lost her prize. She came back, found it, again went up, and after one and a half meters, again she lost her prize. And he is observing and thinking. It happened several times. But the ant didn't give up. Finally, she brought the rice, and between the branch there was a hole, and she went in backward and took the rice in. And several times, it fell down from her mouth; she couldn't enter the hole. So finally, she decided to go backward and hold it strongly. That practitioner, he said, "This ant is now my Gurū. Taught me, never give up. Sooner or later, you will be successful." And so it is in our life. We have a lot of expectations, and how when we hear one story, one is sitting self-realized and has a divine light and this. What ice cream! I want to have this, I want to have this. But it's good that we are inspired at least in this way. But it has to come, the final divine light in our consciousness, and that will happen. So don't celebrate the day too early; wait till the sunset is there, then it will be. So, in this way, it doesn't matter where we are, here or at home, we should never give up our practice, our confidence, and always we should be aware of our aim. And we should not be greedy enough. We should sometimes give something away. Also, many qualities which are not good we should give away. Many things that you are doing are disturbances for you. There is one story about one lady or a young girl. When Buddha left this world, he had one closest disciple. He was the emperor, and his name was Aśoka. Samrāṭ is an emperor. He began to spread the message of Buddha. And he had one daughter, his only child. But Aśoka was not satisfied with his work. His aim was to spread Buddhism throughout the whole world. It takes a long time, but he became old, and the time came that he is going to die. Many people were visiting him, sitting beside him, but still he couldn't die, because he himself said, "I can't die unless I have not fulfilled my mission." It means to bring the message of Buddha, the teaching of Buddha, to the world. But at the same time, he was very sad that he is no more capable to do it. And very soon, death is there. He is counting minutes and seconds. His daughter, her name was Saṅghamitrā, she came and she said, "Dear father, have you any last wish? Is there anything which disturbs you and which keeps you back so that you can't go?" He said, "Yes, my dear daughter. But you see, there are many, many people who are ready to take my wealth. They are just waiting for me to die, and they want to inherit. But there is no one ready to take my spiritual heritage. And that's why I am waiting." She said, "Father, I will do it." Father said, "Yes, my dear daughter. But you belong to somebody else. What do you mean? You will marry and you will go with your husband." She said, "Father, to carry on and fulfill your mission, let me be the next link in the chain. I will not marry. I will dedicate myself to the teaching of the Buddha." He died peacefully; he blessed her, that finally someone is ready to take this wealth of spirituality. Recording location: Hungary, Vep, Summer seminar