Humour and appreciation

I eat with you, I talk with you, I mix with you, I joke with you, I do everything that you are doing. You should say, “Since Guru is doing the same things that I do, how is it that I can’t realise God?” Everything that you do, I do. But again, that very thing that I have, sometimes you feel you cannot get.

If I always remain serious, then everyone will be afraid of me. But I do enjoy the humorous side of life; otherwise I could not remain on earth. Humour is the salt of life, but we also have to know the other side: the serious side, the sublime side. Sometimes my consciousness comes down to enjoy humour, but even then another part of me — which is really the illumined consciousness, the divine consciousness — stays in the highest Height. It remains static, while the other part of me goes up and comes down. One has to know how much capacity one has. In the case of spiritual Masters there is no backward race. If spiritual Masters climb down the tree for their disciples, at any moment they can go back up. But for the disciples it is very difficult to go back up after they descend. It is easy to climb down, but hard to go up. Sometimes I appreciate the disciples and tell them that they are good and great but the next day, believe me, they fall like anything. After being at the top of the tree, they touch the foot of the tree. A disciple will be doing so well but then if I appreciate him and say, “Soon you will be a first-class disciple,” quite often on the following day that disciple starts his backward march. Then I say to him, “Instead of going backwards, just stand in one place at least.” But it does no good.

Sometimes the Supreme wants me to appreciate people. He says, “The person whom you are appreciating may fall, but others who are hearing your appreciation will be inspired to run forward. They will be inspired because they see that he is not different from them and they will ask themselves why they cannot make the same progress.” So when I appreciate someone, others can get much joy if they don’t become jealous at that time.