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People have faced death laughing and happy, but you sit with long faces, sad and miserable even as you face life. This is a wrong way. A person who is full of enmity cannot go on the spiritual journey. For the spiritual journey cheerfulness is needed; for the spiritual journey you need a spirit full of bliss.

So be cheerful all the time. These are just habits -- sadness is just a habit that you have formed. Cheerfulness is also a habit that you can form.To support cheerfulness you have to look at the aspects of life which are full of light, not darkness. If I tell you that I have a friend who sings very beautifully or plays the flute very beautifully, you will say, "Maybe -- but how can this man play the flute when we have seen him drinking in the pub?" If I tell you that this friend plays the flute very beautifully, you will say to me, "How can this be when we have seen him drinking alcohol in the pub?" This is supporting darkness. If I tell you, "This is my friend, he drinks alcohol," and you say to me, "Maybe so, but he also plays the flute very beautifully" -- this is looking on the bright side of life. Someone who wants to be happy will look on the bright side. someone who wants to be happy will see that there is one night between two days, and someone who wants to feel miserable will see that there is one day between two nights.

The way we look at life has a direct affect on what develops inside us. So don't look at the dark side of life, look at the bright side of life.

When I was small my father was poor. With great difficulty he built himself a house. He was poor and he was also ignorant: he had never built a house before. He managed to build this house with great difficulty. He must have done it without knowing how to do it, because when it was finished, before we could move into it the rains came and it collapsed. I was small and I was very sad. My father was not in town, so I sent a message to him that the house had collapsed and all the hopes we had of moving into it had turned to dust.

When he arrived he distributed sweets to the people of the town. And he said, "I am very grateful to God. If the house had collapsed eight days later not a single child of mine would be alive." We were supposed to have moved into the house eight days later. After that, for his whole life he was happy about  the fact that the house had collapsed eight days earlier. If it had collapsed eight days later it would have been a tragedy.

Life can be loked at in this way as well -- so much joy and bliss arises in the life of someone who looks at it in this way. It all depends on how you look at life. Life has no meaning on its own: it all depends on how you look at it. Your attitude, your way of looking at it, your understanding is what makes it or breaks it.

Ask yourself what it is that you focus on. Have you ever come across a person so evil that he does not possess even one saintly quality? And if you can find such a quality then focus on it -- that is the real essence of the man. In life, look for radiance and for light everywhere because through this, radiance and light will be born within you. This is joyfulness.

The third feeling is to become filled with joy. You become so full of joy that it negates death and misery. You become so blissful that death and misery shrivel up and die: you don't even realize that death and misery exist.

A person who cultivates cheerfulness and bliss inside himself will make progress in his meditation. This is very very important for the progress of meditation.

There was once a saint who was so happy with life that people were puzzled, because they had never seen him sad or in pain. When the time of his death came he said, "Now in three days I will be gone. And I am letting you know this so that you remember not to cry on the grave of a man who has laughed his whole life. I am letting you know this so that no sadness falls on this hut. It has always been blissful here, it has always been cheeful here. So make my death a celebration, don't make it into a reason for mourning. Don't mourn my death, make it into a celebration. "

But the people became sad, they became very sad. He was such an amazing man and the mroe amazing he was the deper was the sorrow of the people. There were many people who loved him. For three days they all started gathering around him. For three days they all started gathering around him, and until he died he was telling people jokes, making them laugh and talking to them with love. Then in themorning before he died he sang a song, and after finishing the song he said, "Remember, don't take all myclothes. Put my body with these clothes on the funeral pyre. And don't give me a bath.

Those were his last instructions, and then he died. He was burned on the funeral pyre with his clothes on. And while he was burning on the funeral pyre and the people were standing around feeling sad, suddenly they were shocked. He had hidden firewords and sparklers in his clothes, and when he was put on the funeral pyre the sparklers and fireworks started going off. His funeral pyre became a celebratin. The people started laughing and said, "He made us laught in his life, and he has also made us laugh in his death."

Life has to be transformed into laughter. Life has to be made a joy and even death has to be made a joy. And a person who succeeds in doing this will be blessed and filled with gratitude. A person who enters meditation in this space will move faster than one can imagine, he will become like an arrow.

Someone who enters meditation with a burdened mind has tied stones to the arrow -- then how far will the arrow go? The faster you want to go the more carefree and light your mind needs to be. The farther you want the arrow to go, the lighter the arrow must be. And the higher you wnat to climb, the more luggage you will have to leave at the bottom. And the biggest burden is your misery, your sadness, your enmity. Thereis no bigger burdenthan this.

Have you watched people? -- they walk as if they are being weighed down, as though they are carrying a hevy burden on their heads. Drop this burden and say yes to joy. Give a lion's roar of joy. Let the world know that no matter what kind of life you have, it can be made into a song, it can be filled with joy. Life can become music. Remember this third thing -- joy.

And the fourth thing is gratitude: gratitude is divine. In this century, if anything has been lost it is gratitude.

Do you know that when you are breathing in it is not you wh is breathing in? -- because the moment the breath does not come in you will not be able to take it in. Are you sure that it was you who was born? No, it was not you. You did not play any conscious role in your birth, it was not your decision. Are you aware how amazing the small body that you have received is? It is the greatest miracle onearth. You eat a little food and this small stomachof yours digests it -- this is a great miracle.

Science has advanced so much, but if we were to open up large factories and engage thousands of specialists it would still be difficult to digest a single chappati and turn it into blood. It is so difficult to digest a chappati and transform it into blood, and this body of yours is performing miracles twenty-four hours a day -- this small body, a few bones, a little flesh.  Scientists say that the body is made up of materials that would cost four or at the most five rupees. It is not made of costly materials. Such a great miracle is with you for twenty four hours a day and you are not grateful to it.

Have you ever loved your body? Have you ever kissed your hands? Have you ever loved your eyes? Have you ever realized what an amazing thing is taking place? It is very unusual to find someone among you who has loved his eyes and who has kissed his hands, who has experienced gratitude that this amazing things is happening without his knowledge and even without his participation.

I am  always  telling people  around my  household  not to be  so  negative i am  going to  hve them read  this,  this is  awesome!!!!  i  totally agree,  i have  told my  kids  not to  cry  when i die,  to throw  a party  and  tell  funny  mom  stories,  i  told  them this  a couple  years  ago,  i didnt'  know the  story  about the  saint,  i am  glad to  know  this  story  thank  you so much  for  this.  and  might i  ask  who  this  saint  was? i woul d like to  thank  him  too.