A man dreamed that he and God were walking on the beach through the journey of life. He told God, Oh Lord! I dreamed that you and I were walking on the sands of the beach. When I looked back at the trails on the sand, I saw that at times when life was most testing, at times when I had the deepest troubles, there was only one line of footsteps; the other was missing. How could you move away from me during those times? God replied, 'son! It was during those times that I carried you! Let me tell you from my own experience: in my days of wandering, I traveled more than 30,000 kms, out of which more than 2000 kms I covered by foot. I traveled with just two pieces of clothing and a vessel for begging food.

I took a vow not to touch money, and not to save food for the next meal. People ask me how it was possible. I tell you now: I simply placed trust in Existence and concentrated on my goal of attaining the state of enlightenment, and Existence took care of me; that is how it happened. When you hear me saying things like, Have faith in Existence, you may think that this concept is for yester-years of justice and saints. Not at all. I am talking from my own experience, from what has happened to me who is sitting right in front of you now! And I think I am the youngest in this gathering! So I am not talking of anything from long ago. Understand that.

Just try living with gratitude and watch the miracles happen. Existence gives, if you are ready to receive without a question, with just a brimming heart. A man dreamed that he went to heaven and that an angel was showing him around heaven. They walked side-by-side. First, they entered a large workroom filled with many angels. The room was bustling with activity. The angel guide stopped and explained to the man, This is the Receiving Section. Here, all petitions to God that are received through prayer are sorted out. The man looked around and saw that it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on different pieces of paper, long sheets, scrap sheets and what not. They were from people all over the world, in different languages.

Then they moved on and entered a second section. This section was also filled with many busy angels and lots of packages and papers. The guide angel explained, This is the Packaging and Delivery Section. Here, the graces and blessings that the people asked for, are processed and delivered to them on Earth below. They walked on and at the end of the long corridor they stopped at the door of a small room. To the man's surprise, only one angel was seated there, bent over the desk. The man asked the angel, How come this section is so quiet? Which section is this? The angel friend quietly replied, This is the Blessings Acknowledgment Section. The acknowledgements sent by the people for the blessings that they have received, are meant to be processed here.

We all ask and ask, but how many of us thank for what we have received? How many of us include gratitude in our prayer along with our asking? Try out this small exercise when you are by yourself: For two hours, keep aside your worries and needs, and focus on all that Existence has already given you. You will immediately think, If I dont worry about my needs, how can I fulfill them? Who will take care of my family? What will happen to my business? Agreed, you have to think about all these things. But just for the next two hours, take all this load off your head and do what I am saying. In any case, do you think your family or your business is running because of you? Let me tell you, things are running smoothly not because of us, but in spite of us! If Existence had to depend on our intelligence to sustain our families or our wealth, we would all be destitute by now! And be very clear: by simply worrying, nothing can be achieved.

I think we spoke enough about worrying earlier! So just for a few minutes, close your eyes and focus on what has already been showered on you, what you already have. Mentally go over everything your body, your wealth, the people who support and help you, your house, your luxuries, your vacations, everything. Enjoy all of them in a relaxed and grateful way. Take as much time as possible. Dont rush and go over it in a hurry. Just live all of it in your mind. Stay with that feeling. Stay with that wonderful feeling of fulfillment for a while. Feel yourself becoming filled with gratitude and overflowing with it. When you open your eyes, you will see that what you have is more than enough to run your life! And you will wonder what more you want! You have to just become gratitude! The best way to become gratitude is to learn to enjoy without a reason.

Enjoy everything that you see, everything that you hear, and everything that you do, with the supreme confidence that Existence is taking care. Life will then simply transform in front of your eyes and you will be overflowing all the time because you are always enjoying it. A small story: There was a man who was walking past a mango grove, which was overflowing with mangoes of different varieties. He entered the grove, looked around, studied it, took down some statistics and left half an hour later, with facts and figures. After a while, another man walked past the same grove. He entered it, plucked a few mangoes, ate them joyfully and left! Now, please dont stop by at any mango grove and eat up the mangoes.

You might get stoned for it! Try to understand what I am trying to say. Just learn to enjoy life without questioning, although I dont mean that you should drop all your work and only enjoy all the time. You need to work, no doubt. No one is going to give you everything if you only enjoy. I am only saying, dont look for reasons to enjoy, that's all. Simply enjoy everything without questioning. Let enjoying become your very nature, then gratitude will become your very being. Your profession may be anything, your social status may be anything, your economic status may be anything, but enjoying is something that every man can do irrespective of all this. The problem is that you always feel that there should be a causative factor for everything including enjoyment.

You have trained your mind with these kinds of thought patterns. This is also the reason why, you often feel, that others have been blessed with things that they dont deserve, while you have not been given enough for your efforts. You always think that you need to work hard in order to enjoy. No! Working hard is alright, but it has nothing to do with the capacity to enjoy. Drop this idea. This is the only way you can stop complaining or feeling dissatisfied.