Day 29

Anywhere is appreciating the beauty in the spirit. Often, the mind takes interest in scandals. Somebody said something is wrong, somebody is not okay, “Oh, tell me what it is, tell me more about it. What about that person ? What happened to them? What did they say? How bad is the situation?” Good news is no news, bad news is the news. 

Where there is some fight or problem, you take more interest there. People seem to take more interest when something is going bad rather than when something is good. That is how scandals gain more importance than creative work. The interest of people is in negativity. 

Just see, if someone tells you something nice, how do you listen to it? “Oh, is that so?” You brush it off. But if someone tells you some problem, you take a deep interest “Tell me more.” Then what happens? Just observe. 

Observe in any conversation, when someone comes to you with some negativity, they make that negativity more concrete. The sign of bad company is when you go to a person with some problem and you come back feeling the problem is greater than you thought. 

The sign of good company is when you go to a person with a problem and you come back feeling that it is light, it is not as bad as you thought. People either blame the world around them or blame the people and see everything as horrible, everything as bad, everyone as a cheat. 

You don’t find anything good in the world, in society. It is not the sign of a devotee, of a lover. Do you want to get to your goal? Praise the Divine. Praise the Lord. And listen only to that. Grandmothers used to plug their ears if they heard anything bad about someone, “Shiva, Shiva, Shivaye -

don’t tell me anything bad about someone. 

Let these ears hear only good things. Let my eyes only see good things. Let my tongue speak only something which is benevolent to people, which will bring harmony, rather than break up people, society, our human body is made to bring heaven on this earth. 

The human body is meant to bring sweetness into this world, not spill venom. Uplift the Divine quality in other people. It is easy to put down anybody, but it takes some guts, some intelligence, courage to uplift people, to bring out the Divine quality in those around you. By bringing out Divine qualities in others, you will see the Divinity deep inside you. 

You will be able to recognize it inside you. And praising anyone is praising the Divine. All praise any way goes to the Divine. All worship goes to only one because the creator is only one. Unfortunately, this has been mistaken thoroughly. 

More than half of the world is under the idea that if you praise or worship something, you are not doing that to God. If you worship the tree, it is not adoring God. Who created the tree? It is God who created the tree. So when you praise the tree, is it not adoring God? 

A painter has painted something, if you appreciate the painting, whom are you praising? The one who painted, isn’t that so? Appreciating this world means appreciating the Lord of this world.