The whole science and wisdom of what we refer to as “inner engineering” means not seeing joy as something that we could achieve in our life, but seeing joy as the very basis of our lives. Is this the only goal of our life? No. Joy is one of the goals of our life. Other wonderful things can happen only if this happens. Otherwise, you will live constantly with the fear of misery striking you.
Once a kindergarten teacher walked into the classroom and found a muddy puddle intentionally made by somebody. She asked, “Who made this mess?” None of the tiny tots opened their mouths because even at that age they had certain camaraderie about not squealing. The teacher asked again but nobody said a word. Then the teacher said, “Let us all — everyone including me — close our eyes. Whoever made this mess will get five minutes to clean it up. Nobody needs to know who did it.”
So everybody closed their eyes and suddenly the teacher heard the patter of feet, the noise of a bucket and some other noises. When everything was quiet, everybody opened their eyes to find one more muddy pool, and alongside it was written: “PHANTOM STRIKES AGAIN!”
How many times has this happened in your life? At every stage in your life, you think “Oh, if I get this job, this is it, my life is made”. But a few years down the line, the same job gives you diabetes and blood pressure. Or you think, “If I get married, that’s it, my life is made,” and you know what happens after that. So at every stage, you think “this is it” but life strikes back again and again.
Life strikes back because you are not in tune with your own basic existence and not because there is something wrong with creation. Joy is not because you know something, joy is not because you understand something, joy is because the deepest core of you functions and finds expression. When you sit with me, my energies are such that naturally your physical body, your mind and emotions get aligned in a certain way, so you feel joyful. It is like how an induction motor works — the flow of energy in one part induces an energy flow in another part. But even though the induction is from outside, the actual joy is always from within. To put it poetically, “I will shower joy upon you.” But we cannot shower joy on you. There have always been scholars, priests and kings, but a spiritually realised person was always held as the highest. They were held even above gods simply because just their presence was an instrument to set everything right. So one needs to understand that whatever you consider right now the source of your joy is just an excuse. Joy is the natural choice. You don’t need any teaching or advice or scriptures to make this choice. If you fall back into your original nature, joyfulness is the only way you will be.
