HOW TO HAVE JOY OUT OF LIFE - 7
Practical Suggestion No. 4. If you would have real joy of life, don’t remain idle for a single moment. Keep yourself busy all time. Two centuries ago, William Cowper said, “Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed!”
Keep yourself active. The best and noblest of all action is to bring comfort to the comfortless, joy into the lives of the sorrowing, struggling ones. The happiness we give to others comes back to us. Happiness moves in a circle. The happiness that moves out of us flows back into us.
A doctor related to me an incident which I cannot easily forget. He was called to see a pale, sad, seventeen year old girl. A number of physicians had examined her and unable to arrive at a diagnosis, had said that she was a psychological patient. When my doctor-friend saw her, she lay on a sofa in a small room which was filled with silk tapestries. Her eyes were half-closed, her head was bowed and she was pale like a marble statue.
The doctor easily guessed her sickness. She suffered in her gilded cage because she had never gone out to give happiness to those in need. The doctor asked her to get ready to go out with him and her father.
“With you?” asked the girl. “Where?”
In an undertone, the doctor said to her: “That is my secret. I can tell you that it is for your good and that of your father.”
The girl got ready and the doctor took her and her father to a quarter where poor people lived. They took with themselves many things in cash and kind. At the first house which they visited, the doctor had to help her to keep her balance, as she walked. At the second, she went ahead of the doctor. At the third, she almost ran. When the children kissed her hand the poor women thanked her, both she and her father cried for joy. That outing seemed short to her. And everyday, she searched for those whom she could make happy. She attained health, joy and happiness, which were not found in her palatial home but in the broken cottages of the poor to whom she gave the service of her generous heart.
Those of you who are frustrated with life, who feels unwanted, useless and bored, try this same medicine, and there will be no end of real joy for you.
Beloved Dada said to us:
“Did you see him on the road?
Did you leave him with the load?”
On the road of life are many who carry loads on their weak shoulders: and the loads are not merely physical. As you bear the loads of others, you will find that your hearts are filled with a wondrous feeling of happiness and joy.
Practical Suggestion No. 4. If you would have real joy of life, don’t remain idle for a single moment. Keep yourself busy all time. Two centuries ago, William Cowper said, “Absence of occupation is not rest; a mind quite vacant is a mind distressed!”
Keep yourself active. The best and noblest of all action is to bring comfort to the comfortless, joy into the lives of the sorrowing, struggling ones. The happiness we give to others comes back to us. Happiness moves in a circle. The happiness that moves out of us flows back into us.
A doctor related to me an incident which I cannot easily forget. He was called to see a pale, sad, seventeen year old girl. A number of physicians had examined her and unable to arrive at a diagnosis, had said that she was a psychological patient. When my doctor-friend saw her, she lay on a sofa in a small room which was filled with silk tapestries. Her eyes were half-closed, her head was bowed and she was pale like a marble statue.
The doctor easily guessed her sickness. She suffered in her gilded cage because she had never gone out to give happiness to those in need. The doctor asked her to get ready to go out with him and her father.
“With you?” asked the girl. “Where?”
In an undertone, the doctor said to her: “That is my secret. I can tell you that it is for your good and that of your father.”
The girl got ready and the doctor took her and her father to a quarter where poor people lived. They took with themselves many things in cash and kind. At the first house which they visited, the doctor had to help her to keep her balance, as she walked. At the second, she went ahead of the doctor. At the third, she almost ran. When the children kissed her hand the poor women thanked her, both she and her father cried for joy. That outing seemed short to her. And everyday, she searched for those whom she could make happy. She attained health, joy and happiness, which were not found in her palatial home but in the broken cottages of the poor to whom she gave the service of her generous heart.
Those of you who are frustrated with life, who feels unwanted, useless and bored, try this same medicine, and there will be no end of real joy for you.
Beloved Dada said to us:
“Did you see him on the road?
Did you leave him with the load?”
On the road of life are many who carry loads on their weak shoulders: and the loads are not merely physical. As you bear the loads of others, you will find that your hearts are filled with a wondrous feeling of happiness and joy.
(Written by: J P Vaswani)
-to be continued
