We believe that we are wise. In fact, we are sure that we are. But do we know that a higher, deeper wisdom exists? It flows in life’s vastness. It is intrinsic to existence.

When we express a desire and if it does not get fulfilled, we start complaining. We start wondering why this life does not fulfill our desires. We pray to our gods, our deities. We start expecting that through prayers our desires will be fulfilled. It may happen and it may not. When this does not happen, we get quite disappointed. This leads to our misery.

Well, in this way, we are really being unwise. Life is not obliged to fulfill our desires. Life gives us what we really deserve, or what we really need. It follows its own wisdom, unknown to us. When we accept this, we stop complaining because our hearts fill up with gratitude to life. Acceptance gives us happiness. For a truly religious man, total acceptance of whatever life brings is real prayer. He does not impose any demands or expectations on life. He lives in a state of let-go.

In his discourse on ‘The Sword and the Lotus’, Osho tells a beautiful story of a Sufi mystic Junnaid, who every day in the evening prayer thanked existence for its compassion, its love, its care.

Once, Junnaid was traveling. For three days, he and his disciples went from village to village, but people everywhere were very antagonistic and turning against Junnaid. They thought his teachings were not exactly the teachings of Mohammed. His teachings seemed to be his own. They said, “He is corrupting the people.” So from three villages, they got no food, not even water.

On the third day, they were in really bad shape. His disciples thought, “Now let us see what happens in the prayer. How can he say to existence, ‘You are compassionate to us. You love us. You care about us. We are grateful to you’?” But when prayer time came, Junnaid prayed as usual. After the prayer, his followers said, “This is too much. For three days, we have suffered hunger and thirst. We are tired, we have not slept and still you are thanking existence and telling it that it takes so much care of us that we are grateful to it!”

Junnaid said, “My prayer does not depend on any condition. Those things are ordinary. Whether I get food or not, I don’t want to bother existence about it. Such a small thing in such a big universe. If I don’t get water, even if I die, it does not matter. My prayer will remain the same. Because of this vast universe, it makes no difference whether Junnaid s alive or dead.”

Osho explains: This is what I mean when I say, don’t take anything seriously, not even yourself. And then you will see that anger simply has not happened.  There is no possibility of anger. Anger is certainly one of the great leakages of your spiritual energy. If you can manage to be playful about your desires and still be same whether you succeed or you fail, you will be happy. Start thinking about yourself at ease---nothing special, not that you are meant to be victorious, not that you have to succeed always in every situation. This is a big world and we are small people. Once this settles into your being, then everything is acceptable. Anger disappears and the disappearance brings a new surprise, because when anger disappears it leaves behind tremendous energy of compassion, love and friendship.

--Swami Chaitanya Keerti