Day 6
When they find someone very close to them, their confidantes (in whom they can confide things) - especially grandchildren, sons or daughters - have come home, then they will complain
“You know, your aunt is like that, she did this, she never even sent a Christmas greeting to me. I sent her three cards and she never even replied with one card”. These are the things that go on in their minds. They'll say all those things.
But, I tell you, don't imagine that they're stuck with those things. Sometimes in their minds, these complaints don't even come, other than when they are with you. They say all that and then forget the whole thing.
This is what happens as age advances. There is a nice story. A man earned a lot of money and then gave all his property to his son. When his son got everything, he built a small outhouse behind the main house for his parents and he told them.
"Now you have to stay there." So the old couple stayed there, while their son and his family started living in the big bungalow. One day, while playing, the grandchild came into his grandfather's home, where everything was old and in a very poor, pathetic condition - old utensils, old chairs, all the unwanted goods.
Things that could break at any time were kept in that house. So the grandchild came and told his grandpa, “Grandpa, be careful with your plate and your chair. Don't break them”. When he asked why, the child said, "Because tomorrow my father needs all this."
The child's father heard this and was shocked. That little boy saying, “Grandpa don't break it because tomorrow when I grow older, I'm also going to send my father here. So better save this”. One does not realise this fact.
You are also going to be old one day, and are going to be like them. You ask, "Dad, where did you keep your book?" He says, "What did you say? Nobody's at the door." You ask, "Dad, are you coming with me?"
He says, “What did you say? You want a cup of water? There's plenty of it there”. You will also get into such a state one day. They tell you, what you should not be doing in your life. Tomorrow, you had better watch that you don't start complaining like them, and better you start that today itself.
If you find that the grannies in your home are complaining, and you don't like it, you better not do it today, and if you see them as being so generous, so calm, so serene, so loving, you better start being that way right now.
So you can learn both ways. You can learn what you should be doing and what you should not be doing from elderly people. And I tell you, if you're on the path, in the knowledge, and if you keep doing your meditations and the Sudarshan Kriya, your aging reverses.
That enthusiasm to learn will exist and your alertness, focus, attention - everything - increases in life. You will not become cynical and senile as you advance in age.
If you are only focused, all the time, on pleasure, on what you will get, on how you can exploit others, or how you can enjoy, then you will see that the ability to enjoy, for your senses, is limited. Your senses will get so tired, and before that, they'll make your brain and mind tired, and you'll be in a "mumbo-jumbo mess".
We have to sort ourselves out and get out of this mess. Wake up. Wake up and see : "Who am I? What am I? What is this world? What do I want? What can I do in this world? What did I do this last year to the world? What can I do this year to the world?"
This zeal and enthusiasm, you have to create within yourself. Elderly people remind you : "Look. Don't become like me or you will follow in my footsteps". These are the two messages you get from them - either "you follow in my footsteps" or "you'd better not become like me"
If you see pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, when he was young, he looked like a "Most Wanted" person, who was wanted dead or alive in 27 robbery cases. But, as he became older, his smile became bigger because he started serving, he started meditating. His beauty increased everyday as he became older, because his quest for truth was so great.
So that fire in us: "I want to know the truth. My life is committed to Truth, to knowing the Truth. My life is committed to serving everybody in the world and to make a better world around me. “My life is committed to making myself useful to everybody”. This one thought can begin so much fire in you.
