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REALIZE WHAT YOU ARE:.
which we live. We must not think, “I'm happy, why should I worry for the world?” We must know that if the society is not a happy one, we will not be happy. Sooner or later, the prevailing unhappiness is going to affect us all.
You might have heard the story of a lonely woman who was ill with an infection. A physician warned the village sheriff that if she were not treated with medicine, the disease would spread. No one took the doctor's advice or cared for her and gradually her body became so infected that she died. By now the germs which had killed her had spread all over the neighborhood. An epidemic broke out. In each household, someone contracted the disease. When the woman was alive, she was despised and ignored, but when she died, all the townspeople became her partners and shareholders in the illness! The story warns us that if you don't help a person in distress, ultimatelyyou are going to fall victim to the same problem.
We meditate and know how we can become happy, free, fearless, loving, and how we can rebuild society. The first thing we have to know is where happiness comes from. Do you think happiness comes from the accumulation of wealth or a whirl of social activities, or from name and fame? If inside there is sadness, if inside there is burning, if inside you are upset, you may move among society's elite, have name and fame and riches, but you won't be happy. You must get to the core of the problem. You are starting from the outside, but really you must start from the inside. If you are happy within, you won't care for name, fame and other extravagant things. If they come, let them come; if they don't let it be. I've seen happy people with few possessions, and I have seen people
