“Life does not become accessible with birth. Birth is only an opportunity for life. Life has to be created, has to be embellished. Life is an art, the greatest art, the art of all arts. You have to learn to be alive, learn to live. Then the sound of your voice will have the freshness of a flower, and also have that which cannot be manifest even in the freshness of a flower.

“People learn a musical instrument, learn to sing. They practice for hours, years, before they acquire the art of touching the strings. Only after years does a tune, a beat, arise on the tabor. Only after years of practice does sweetness manifest in the throat. Although you have been given the sitar of life, you have not learned to play it. Who is to blame if only smoke is arising from your life, dark smoke, no flames anywhere, no illumination anywhere? Such music can also blossom on your lips; lotuses which have the beauty of the flowers, have the illumination of the stars.

“Very few fortunate people have learned to live. Most people simply believe that because they have been born, they have been given everything; nothing more has to be done. If they have learned to breathe, everything has been learned. Just by having eaten food, managed a shop, slept during the night, everything has been done. Nothing has been done, just an opportunity has been wasted. Nothing has been earned. There is so much abundance in this world, but you are collecting rubbish while diamond mines are available. This entire infinite universe, which has no beginning anywhere, belongs to you – and you are fighting over trifles.

“There are secrets of living where everything falls into place. There are secrets of living where nothing remains to be yearned for. The secret of all those secrets is hidden in such a small thing – open your eyes. The red sun has risen, the birds are singing, the flowers have blossomed, clouds are floating across the blue sky, tremendous beauty has manifested. Although you have eyes, you remain in darkness because those eyes are closed. You are in misery because you are in darkness. Darkness is nowhere; darkness is only there because you have your eyes closed.

“This whole world is luminous. Each and every particle of this world is full of light.