Where it is dark night for the sense-bound world, the self controlled man is awake. It is daylight for him. … And where the world is awake, the sage sleeps.” Where is the world awake? In the senses. People want to eat and drink and have children, and then they die a dog’s death. … They are always awake for the senses. Even their religion is just for that. They invent a God to help them, to give them more women, more money, more children — never a God to help them become more godlike! Where the whole world is awake, the sage sleeps. But where the ignorant are asleep, there the sage keeps awake. In the world of light where man looks upon himself not as a bird, not as an animal, not as a body, but as infinite spirit, deathless, immortal. There, where the ignorant are asleep, and do not have time, nor intellect, nor power to understand, there the sage is awake. That is daylight for him.
As all the rivers of the world constantly pour their waters into the ocean, but the ocean’s grand, majestic nature remains undisturbed and unchanged, so even though all the senses bring in sensations from nature, the ocean-like heart of the sage knows no disturbance, knows no fear. Let miseries come in millions of rivers and happiness in hundreds! I am no slave to misery! I am no slave to happiness!
What makes the value of anything in life? Not enjoyment, not possessions. Analyse everything. You will find there is no value except in experience, to teach us something. And in many cases it is our hardships that give us better experience than enjoyment. Many times blows give us better experience than the caresses of nature. Even famine has its place and value.
