How to Be Blissful and Happy all the Time
A talk by Paramhansa Yogananda
June 12, 1949, San Diego, CA
All human beings of this earth, down to all kinds of creatures and animals and birds, all are filled with that Divine Love.
[There are] those that are special reflections of God. That means if there are 100 cups filled with water and they are under the moon, and if the waters are stirred up or covered up, they do not reflect the moon. But if one cup is kept open and there is no agitation there in the water, then the moon is reflected fully. So are great Masters – those that fully reflect God. That’s why he said: “All those that received Him.” Don’t shut out His light. We are the Sons of God. So Jesus felt that his only food was the Word, because all his life he remembered [this], and didn’t depend on meat or fruits or anything, but that his life was directly coming from God.
Purpose in Life
So he said, “My life, my meat, is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish my work.” It means that everyone is destined to do a part of this job. Whether big or small part. Everybody wants to play king on the stage, but if everybody played king there couldn’t be a show. So, there are kings and queens and servants. And the little man is also very important because he is needed in the show; so don’t think that you are less than anyone else. Everybody has a job, but it is because of your desires that you do not know what job God destined for you. And that’s why the trouble.
So, the best way is to tune in with God or tune in with Guru, who is one with God. Then you will know that you came on earth for a destined purpose. And when you know that purpose you will do the will of God, and the work that you are destined to do to the finish. That’s why I was telling, I have lots of work to do yet. But I am always free. I never wish to live or die, because life to me is a bulge of the ocean, and death is sleeping in the bosom of the ocean. But I am with the ocean always, so there is no wish of mine but to do the will of God. Because your will is full of holes and imperfections. When you tune your will with God, then you will know what is right and know you should guide your will by divine will. Therefore, you must know that your first duty is to meditate upon God and to find and know him.
Find God
And if you find him, then you will know that your only meat on earth is to do the will of God; your only food. Because no life is possible without God. Your heart cannot beat.
You think food sustains you, [that] air sustains you. You forget that the beating in the heart is responsible. Once He has ‘wound’ the heart, then it has to beat 60 years. When it stops, all your engagements are cancelled. So, you are not dependent on anything else. You are directly dependent on God. Therefore, you must find God.
Commune with him through Kriya Yoga and meditation, and finish your work on earth. Then you will know what he wants you to do. Then you will know the cosmic plan, the perfect cosmic plan. Then you won’t mar the drama of life by your own desires.
You think you are here for yourself. That’s why you are in troubles. I want this. I want that. That’s the source of all your troubles. When you seek money it takes away all your happiness. If you seek happiness, money will be your slave as it has been mine. Even the least desires that I’ve wished God has supplied to me.
The Secret of Happiness
I was in San Francisco. I went on a very important errand and I had gone by train, and some others were with me, because I have to carry on the work with me wherever I go. Correspondence from India, and all over the world, I have to keep it up. So I thought, ‘why shouldn’t I, as God’s child, have a Cadillac for a little ride.’ So, when I heard $50 a day, I saluted; I said ‘not for me, goodbye.’
I said, ‘A Ford is good enough for me.’ So, had a brand new Ford for $5 a day, and had a nice time going around seeing Chinatown, and doing all the work that I wanted to do. My movement is for work and pleasure everlasting. I don’t seek any pleasure. I have the divine pleasure. My pleasure is not conditioned by anything. That’s the secret of happiness. As soon [as] you say you have to have a car or you have to have this, you lose your happiness.
Seek ye Happiness First
Now, I was given money that I could have ‘hired’ the car – instead, I gave it back to others for something very useful. Well, when I came back, shortly after, a brand new Cadillac was given to me. Now, what is given to me I couldn’t throw away. That’s the way it happens throughout. I have seen beyond my dreams; God has given me things. Always, even if I slightest wished. And that is true.
Why? Because I follow this motto: “Bread – the men of the world seek after;” Money is your motto, and it is strange you don’t get it. You are in position. I show you wherein money will be more and more scarce. It’s only a miasma.
You don’t [in actuality] seek money; You seek something else, which money represents. And you have forgotten that thing. It is happiness instead of money [that] you seek. And happiness includes everything. And if you had your motto as happiness, you would have everything.
And Jesus said that “Bread, the men of the world seek after” – money, food, and other things, people of the world seek after.
But, seek ye the kingdom of God; seek ye happiness first. Then divine happiness – which comes by meditation – and all things, will be added unto you; nor be ye of doubtful mind. Because that is true.
Everything is Eternal Life
I started that little mud hut and people laughed at me. Fifteen days I said there will be a big, palacious school, and there it was. I gave up my job. I was offered $2000 a month – it was a lot of money in those days in India. I gave up marriage; I gave up a big estate that I would have received as a dowry.
And God told me when I asked Him (you asked if this is true): ‘you don’t trust God, you don’t love Him. You love everything else, that is why you think God is a bugaboo sitting somewhere else and he won’t answer you.’
This is the truth: he will answer you to every move of your life. You can’t be without Him. Look at the flowers and weeds. Everything is that eternal life. Waves of eternal life. And you are unaware of Him because your desires are concentrated on things, not on the Giver. If you are the Giver, things are your slave.
I have seen that throughout life. So I sought the kingdom of God first, the kingdom of happiness. And God means when you are all the time happy, and that happiness is not an abstract state of your mind, but you feel that happiness is building you; then you have attained the purpose of life. Then everything is a slave to you.
A Little Incident
I must tell a little incident. I went to graduation of my nephew. I had to go all the way to Los Angeles. And I said, “Lord, I’ve got to see him.” And there were 4,000 students, so I saw one of those men with those square caps. I knew he knew him. A voice said, “Ask him.” So I asked him and he said he knew him very well, but [that] he is a needle in a haystack now and couldn’t find him. So I said, “Oh, oh, why did that happen?” But I knew it was a trick of the Lord’s.
So, somebody was holding me a seat. I sat there. Everybody stood up. The band came, but I was not there. I was with God. I knew when He would tell me, I would get up. Somebody said, “The people are coming.” Still, I waited. Another person said, just about when they were going to end, “People are coming,” and I got up. I got the answer.
The Lord had told me to get up now and I went. And there was a huge lady standing in front of me. And I said, “Lord, why did You make her huge? I can’t see anybody.” And there was a little lady and a man in front, and I was trying to go. Somebody said ‘you can’t do it, it’s packed.’ Lord said I shouldn’t move, so I stayed there watching this huge, tall thing in front of me with long, black hair. So I said, “All right, I will stay here.”
Once, I tried to get up on a chair that was very wobbly and the Lord said, “You will be down.” So I said, “All right, I stand here.” Patiently, patiently, patiently standing. And just a little while after the man came bolting out, and the Lord said, “Now move on.” I didn’t look. I moved, and in one minutes time he was in front of me. I said, “Hello, Arun.” And he turned back. And I had taken two mangoes – and they [had] said ‘you shouldn’t carry mangoes’ – and I was right, because I had the mangoes to give to him. So, if I’m not interrupted…
Guided by Spirit
Everything I saw there, and everything was over. Then, I forgot to tell the people to come early to pick me up. So I sat there in the chair, and I was there for one hour, and this professor was talking the most uninteresting things with his monotone voice.
Lord said, “Now get up.” So I went there – and in the corner I was watching – and I said, “Wouldn’t you send this party?” So somebody told my people who had driven me that it would be over at 430, but it wasn’t over until 630. They started late, and I came back driving. Everything you will find, guided by that Spirit.
First Motto
But first motto must be happiness. I’ll tell you why; I’ll tell you the reason for it. Why you should seek happiness first.
You are between two extremes, between industrialists and the communists. Communists borrowed the idea, “Greatest good for the greatest number.” The idea was given by Benton Mills. But they think of the greatest good by the greatest number with guns. Fifty-thousand communists and their leaders have control over everything. The rest of them have no control. If you don’t listen to them, they will shoot you down or send you to Siberia. If you want to be communist, I have one answer – you should live there. Right away we should raise some funds to send you there.
But those that live here, please be loyal to the country you live in. But you are in such a fearful time. All the communists and all the people, they are prodding the laborers to charge more and more to the industrialists. And their downfall is coming soon. Little industries are all wiped away. I want you to see the picture. It is correct. Everything I am telling you, I have found out from one of the biggest dairies – they have been my students.
Simplicity Solution
In Encinitas somebody asked me for money. There wasn’t a single job. He said, “I have no job at all. What shall I do?” I gave some help. It’s a harrowing situation that you are going through. And yet, as Americans, you have to have nice dress; and new styles of dress.
Make your own dress! The dress you can buy for $7, you can make for $2. Go back to simplicity of living.
Money is not the standard of happiness. That’s why you are being crushed. Between the communists and the industrialists; little business is done, because nobody can have any help. The husband and the wife have to work to death in order to carry on fair living if they have a little land of their own. So what are you going to do? Where are jobs? We are going to give you jobs.
The Life Magazine had pictures of husband and wife, very happy, and a little baby. And all kinds of new machinery, but they were sitting in a graveyard of new machinery. Both had jobs. Both were working. They had to have a baby sitter to look after baby. Then both of them lost jobs and they owe to all different companies $2,000. Everyday they see the sign: ‘No Jobs.’ What is going to happen to such a person? And then the unemployment insurance lasts a few weeks. That was gone. How are they going to eat? How are they going to keep up their dress? How are they going to keep up their employment? How can you speak of their happiness? And what is the church doing? Asking for more donations from the poor. Building more buildings.
A Plan that will never Fail
I have a plan; a plan that will never fail. A plan that is the only way out if you want happiness. What [do] you want happiness for?
First, remember, happiness gives money; happiness gives health; happiness is good. First, keep the state of your mind happy, no matter what happens. You shall see that by so living, you can be happy.
You can be in a palace, and be a most miserable man. There are many millionaires who are my students. With the exception of a few who have renounced everything and followed this path, I think nothing of them. They are the most miserable people I have seen on earth.
Why are you dreaming that money is happiness? I have made money useless. And whether you believe it or not, I have gone without a bank book. Never it was missed. When I was out, somebody gave it to me. It was I who was ministering to all; so God ministers to my needs.
Live by ‘The Law’
The same when I was in Boston. When I had food on the window sill, a bottle of milk, and a little electric stove. And there was a little closet where there was a wash place, and there I bathed. But still, when I wanted to do so, I had always a banquet, because I lived by the law. Not by money. God was with me. I want you to follow this law. This law will never fail you.
Throughout the war we lived most successfully and prosperously and happily, because money was not our goal. What is the solution? I have the solution, and it’s working. I am very encouraged to see the health and happiness of men, women, and children who live in our two colonies, Mt Washington and Encinitas.
Live without worries
How could a Hindu mistrust? When I came here, father used to send me $200/month, and I stopped it, mind you! I said I wasn’t going to live by the money. It seemed very hard, but I never missed a meal. In fact, I had so many people ask me to eat that I was thinking of reducing!
And I had a little house. I was just a servant, but I knew that God would entrust me with a big work. But that didn’t mean anything to me except the people who have been happy through me, and through the Grace of God.
When I see the faces of people… somebody came in the Hollywood Church from San Jose and he said, “First time I see vegetarians that are alive.” Another person from South America, and he said, “I see the disciples of the order, they live like millionaires without worries.” That was the greatest compliment given. And without ill health; without disease.
Plain Living and High Thinking
Your motto must be changed. Happiness is the first thing you want. Next is food. You can’t go without food. I want you to see the purpose of life. Next health, freedom from disease. And then, freedom from the slavery of desires for what they have in the shops, and the machines they want you to buy. They rope you [in] and keep you a slave.
Purpose of life is plain living and high thinking. I am not preaching primitivism; I am preaching Freedom. Because you have come to a place where civilization, between the communists and the industrialists, with all good intentions, places you in a position where you do not know where freedom lies, and where your next meal is coming from.
New Way to Freedom
How could a Hindu from afar, stopping the money that his father sent – his earthly father – how does he maintain 100 people now? You know the time you have maintaining your little family. God gave this monk a big family, and God is maintaining them. And I have no bank account of my own; that is true.
Some intuitively force money in my pocket, otherwise I don’t receive. I don’t ask from anybody. I have many wealthy disciples, but I told them all, “I don’t live by your money.” They all just jumped out of their skins. That is true. That is why I am showing you this new way to freedom.
And look at those who live at Encinitas and Mt Washington, how happy they are. All our people that live, my secretaries work day and night. They used to get $7-$8 a month, and now they get $10-$15 a month. But they live better than those who have $200 jobs.
You ask anybody, “Have you got money?” “Oh no, I am in debt.” Then what is the use of $200 a month and all the time being in debt and buying more? You think happiness is the will-of-the-wisp running away from you. Be happy now. That is the secret. By laughing off lots of desires, you can be happy.
Don’t be a beggar.
I told you about the opals. I have one of the largest and best collections of opals for the museum. We have a museum in Encinitas and another in India. We knew the Lord would give better and better to me, and he will give plenty more.
And when I heard of a large collection for $250, which was a ridiculous price, I went after it. And two days before it was sold, I said, “ Well, the Lord didn’t want to give,” so I gave up my desire and I was just as happy. But He told me to go after it again, and I found out that it had been given to a friend on consignment.
The original owner was so crazy about opals that many people offered him the money but he wouldn’t sell them. But he gave these to his friend without money, and that’s why I got it from the other friend for $50 more; thousands of dollars of opals.
The thing is this, if you follow that Law of God, the Lord will not only give to you, but fulfill all your desires, because you are his Son. You are not a beggar then.
Colonies beyond the city limits.
But there is a solution in your life: Colonies beyond the city limits. I tell you we have a place in the desert for boys. I have two or three places. Everywhere I go I seem to attract colonies. Fifteen acres of land with beautiful trees, a windmill, and plenty of water to have a swimming pool. There is no utility bill, and we get butane gas and a stucco home, very beautiful. All around are hills, and the climate is so marvelous. The boys go and have such a wonderful time.
Now, what do you think is the tax of it? $5.50. And I am going to keep it that way. They wanted to give me electricity. I refused it. They thought I was very foolish, because I could afford electricity, but I said ‘no.’
Put that colony in Los Angeles – 15 acres – they charge you right away about $150 in taxes. In Mount Washington we used to pay $50 taxes. All right, when fifty people used to live there, they used to pay $1/month for rent. Now it’s $150. Still they pay $3/month. And, you have your sweet little apartments, very nice, overlooking the tracks, and day and night trolley cars crashing through your bones. The commissioner of police in Chicago said if the noise was taken away from the city, people would live at least 10 years longer. Don’t live in cities.
25 acres of Land
Don’t seek jobs for money. Jobs mean work, happiness, and food, and freedom from sickness, and freedom from slavery from all these government plans that are tying your feet and keeping you enslaved.
Motto of civilization should not be money, but plain living and high thinking. You are not going back to primitivism; you are going to freedom. Get twenty-five acres of land beyond the city with a few select ones. Go there and dig. Produce your food. It costs hardly any money to start these colonies. And we have so much offering of land now, we don’t know what to do with it; we don’t know what to do with it. But, we are going to start quite a few colonies, and I want the younger generation there first. Then I’ll take those that want to organize.
Eat Right
You’ll have the finest food. Bread is not the staff of life at all. In fact, it causes a lot of allergies. Garbanzo beans are your answer. One of our boys used to eat meat, and when he first came, in a few weeks, he lost 11 pounds. I said, “You are not eating right.” I bought him a sack of garbanzo beans. Now, don’t eat a sack of garbanzo beans and go out to the astral world. Try a tablespoon first and soak them in water, and in the morning you eat them raw. Chew well and throw away the rind. He gained 12 pounds right away and didn’t have to eat any steaks. You’ll get away from the slavery of buying big steaks and getting disease besides. Your blood cannot assimilate the toxins in meat. It creates disease and keeps you enslaved to doctor bills. Freedom is the goal of life.
Live Outside
Now, the houses and big things that have been given, I can’t destroy them. But my next policy is that all my boys and girls live in separate colonies. They will build with small stones, small houses with little baths. And like Lottie Lehman, the big opera star and her companion – they live outside, I saw that. Outside was very cozy in Santa Barbara. Outside they have a little fireplace. She said, “This is where I write; this is where I sing; this is where I practice; and I get wonderful ideas. I go in at night, and I don’t eat even meat.” I said, “How marvelous – living outdoors.”
The Nicest Customs of all Nations
And we will have churches encircled with trees under the stars. We don’t need buildings that have to be plastered and painted, and then you say, “Nice building, but oh, I wish I didn’t have to plaster and paint it.” If they want movies, remember it’s only the nicest customs of all nations, and we’ll have movies there. One car will bring everything, but everything will be self-sustained so that we don’t even have to pay bills for care. Twenty-five acres for exercise; for stars; to be free of industrialists and slavery, gunplay of communists.
The Way to Freedom
This is the way that I am showing you, and this shall spread all over the world and nothing can stop the power that God has given me. And you’ll see colony after colony. There is one colony being started in Rio de Janeiro in South America. Several are carrying on in India. I have initially helped, but in my plan you will be free from money, which is the greatest slavery, free from movies. That is why the younger generation I am not sending to the movies.
I sometimes go to the movies to be in a trance, because I have so many telephone calls. Wherever they see me they have to talk to me. I have to play hide-and-seek. When I go to the movies, there are no telephone calls and nobody can talk to me. That’s the only place I have. Somebody asked me, “Are you seeing the movies?” and I said, “I am seeing the movies of the whole world.” And I am showing the way to freedom.
Keep Giving
I see those that have a little money in the colonies are always worrying what will happen about inflation. Those that haven’t money at all never complain or ask me. As long as a dollar remains in my pocket, I keep giving. I keep it empty, and I see they refill it. They say, “Oh, no, please keep it, please don’t give.” And they mean it, because I’ve trained them that way, to see that happiness is the first goal of life. And they are rich with health.
Cut Off Desires
God showed me that freedom is the goal of happiness. Cut off desires. As soon as you have a desire, say “I can do without it,” just as I did with the opals. If that man had not sold those things to a friend two days before, I would not have gotten them because he didn’t want to part with them.
Follow My Way
So you see, follow my way. Our church wants to give you jobs. Jobs mean happiness, food, health, freedom from sickness and freedom from slavery of [the] modern world, and the slavery communits want to give. Brotherhood colonies is the coalition. There are jobs for thousands of you, thousands. Bring you children to Sunday School, they will have first preference.
Freedom lies in Simplicity
I must tell you, I went to school during the graduation, and I saw that our boys and girls had the best countenance. But with the other boys and girls, I saw everything, and it almost made me sick. And all these boys and girls that were passing by me; I saw that they had nothing to look forward to. They had lived on the drinking plane and sex plane, so that most of them have nothing to look forward to, and they didn’t know what life was. When life becomes everything you do in your teenage years, there is nothing to look forward to.
The American institution of home life is breaking up. Why? Because three girls chase one boy. He is king. And when he gets married, he doesn’t want to get married; when he gets married, he wants to run around after somebody else. Freedom lies in simplicity.
Be Independent of the World
Have a small dwelling of stone that won’t need plastering. And one of our places is being given, it hasn’t gone through yet, and another one is in the offering. There are mineral springs there – and we will have the water and everything – but we will be free from the slavery of paying bills. And meals cost about 10 cents a meal. And we are growing most of our own vegetables. And milk is not a sustaining thing; milk causes a lot of mucus.
You can get everything. And be independent of the world.
The ‘Church’ – East and West blended
I want 50-100 people in one colony – not more than that, and then we’ll move to the next. We’ll have hundreds, thousands of them all over the world.
That’s the kind of church we are going to build; the church Jesus Christ preached. Not under a church; it is not going back to primitivism. It’s a balance between East and West. We’ll have the finest books there and meditations. Cultivation of poetry and music, but free from the world. You won’t have to go out if you have 25 acres in which to move.
Self-Control and Moderation
Does the modern man have to walk? No! He comes and gobbles his food, sits there instead of exercising, doesn’t want to walk because there are too many people on sidewalks, too tired making money. Then he fights with the wife, or goes to the movies, comes home, sleeps with a heavy stomach and then wants to eat more. The only pleasure he has left are eating and sex. And sex devitalizes all the strength. He fights with the wife all the time.
Self-control, moderation – all these things contribute to happiness.
Self-Mastery
First principle of life is that you can be a master over everything you do. Then you will be happy. I eat what I should, and don’t eat what I shouldn’t. I am not compelled to do anything. I can cut off any desires. And remember, as soon as you have a desire, and you feel it unnecessary, cut it off. And don’t live in a place where you stir up desires.
I was riding in a Cadillac car on the second day, and I went into a trance and I said, “Lord, why did you do this for me?” I heard, “Because you are not attached. And you have to go from colony to colony.” I said, “Well, in fact when you go in a rickety Ford, you feel that you want to sleep afterwards, and I sleep so little anyway.” But that is not a condition of my happiness.
Colonies of Brotherhood and Love
The thing is this: what you need is these colonies if you want to wake up. Our church wants to give you jobs. Jobs mean happiness. The goal of life is plain living and high thinking and freedom.
Happiness is the first goal of life. Second, food; Third, health; Fourth, freedom from disease. Last, freedom from everything you have to pay.
And believe me, I am so encouraged when I see these boys and girls, men and women of all ages, happy and never a cross word. (Master knocks on wood and audience laughs). When I see them happy, I say, “That was the kind of church I wanted.”
The industrialist all the time has stress and fights. And if we had in our colonies all the time, strikes and fights, I would close it and go to the Himalayas. It is based on brotherhood and love. We don’t have gunmen. What I am preaching is far greater. The idea of brotherhood of men, and what is only possible when you have God.
Do It Now
Hitler thought he was great. He was going to conquer the world. He had everything. Where is he now? But Hitler was a boyscout compared to Stalin. He is using the name physical force – giant guns. But don’t worry; God’s with America and India, and never will forsake them, because they are based on ideals, and not on conquering the world.
India is getting far ahead by the spiritual method, but if they initiate the western way they will have jobs. But before they do, I am honeycombing India with the colonies. And you must come. It doesn’t require money. There is lots of land. Somebody brought me the rent free land which you can get by lease from the government. Money will be made useless. And when you have money, you want more money, and you want to keep it, and you don’t want to share it with others. Force cannot do it, but brotherhood will do it.
Why do I want to part with every dollar that I get, and never buy clothes? Always they are given to me. I never ask for them either. Only thing that I buy is my shoes. My robes are always made. They soak you in this country. I gave one to a tailor, and he said, “Oh, a hundred dollars.” I said, “Thank you, goodbye!” Somebody else makes the robes.
Make your own clothes, and see how little you can get along with. Keep your mind with meditation and happiness and health and exercise and good food. You can do it. When you have a nice apartment you have to pay nice money, and in order to pay nice money you have to work to death until you are dead. Why go that way? I am showing you a way that you can do it now. Right now.
The Immortal Solution
This solution for happiness is immortal. I have given the word in the ether. And I have so many applications offering my land and colonies, you have no idea. I’m not speaking of them, I am organizing two more now.
So, I want first young people. And marriage. Tell them to get married. And how are they going to raise their children? The earth is overpopulated now. Now is to build character first and don’t get into trouble. They don’t want to marry anyway. I’ve asked boy after boy. Marriage means responsibility. The first thing you have to show is happiness, rest God will take care of. Those that want to follow God, let them follow Him, for the purpose of life is to have God, and to do his Will. That’s the first thing: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things will be added unto you. Nor be ye of doubtful mind.”
God Consciousness (will not be televised)
When Bhagavad Gita said in the beginning, the blind king was sitting there. And the great sage, Byasa, came, and there was a man that came, and he gave him the power of television. So, five hundred miles away, he was seeing this battle that was being fought between the sons of this blind king and another party. Everybody discounted that, but now you have seen miles away exactly as in your own room. That’s what the saint said: “That I see visions of saints and what they are doing in the ether.”
A few days I played with the television, but I was so busy televisioning here (at the spiritual eye), that I forgot all about television. This television is marvelous because you can see everything that is going on in the world; in the universe of God. It is not just earth and stars and nobody there. If you could see the Gods and Goddesses, how they are roaming around, managing this world, you would be astonished. This is a stupendous universe, and God eternal is Master of them all. And he doesn’t speak because He is so great, and because He doesn’t think anything of Himself.
He who is little is always telling people he is great, because he has plenty of time. He is not busy being great. Those that are great, they are so busy being great that they never have time to say it. That’s how God is. God-consciousness, and that happiness in God-consciousness, are identical.
When you meditate more, you will be happy and cut out all your desires. If you have a desire, cut if off, you’ll be happy right away. I have done that all my life. God has coaxed me and thrown things in my lap. I say, “I can do without these. If you want to starve me, that is all right. I’ll meditate on you.”
God can make you miserable. If thy hand prevent thee, cut it off. If you are a slave to movies and money and buying things by the installment plan, cut it off. Once in my life I borrowed for my own person, in Boston, under the Morris Plan, $100. You know what they did to me? They gave me $70, and I was too dumb at that time to understand about financial matters. I said, “But it’s $100 I am borrowing.” And they said, “Take it or leave it.” I had to take it. It was $70; they took $30, and made me sign that I had $100. I said, “This is dishonest.” “That’s business.”
Well, it may be business, but I didn’t understand. I had 30% interest, and believe me, for three years it lay just a like a stone on my chest. When I got rid of it, I said, never again. And I never borrow for myself. If I borrow from a bank sometimes for backing things, I always know where the money is coming from. Otherwise I go without. Don’t borrow. And the best way to understand the value of money, borrow it and you will find out.
And I once heard an advertisement on the radio: “Seaboard Finance Company – all on a budget. Ready cash. No embarrassing questions asked.” (Laughter)
We give plenty of trouble to each other. If there are fifty people who want to gossip about each other, each will have forty-nine of them to tackle. That’s the way to teach that. But we won’t try that; we want harmonious people.
The Plan
This plan – don’t forget. Each one of you can do what I am doing, and the work needs you, and you need the work. And this way of freedom I am telling you, church, nor country, nor anyone has given you. This has come from inspiration. Gandhi gave a part of it to India, but he didn’t live long enough to apply his law. But he was too much one-sided. He always used motor cars, still he always condemned them. But, the thing is this. I don’t condemn. I don’t say that I am greater than Gandhi, but I have learned by his mistakes, and I have been in the West to take the best of East and West.
Have a Mud Bath
I don’t want you to go in rags. I want you to be clean, and if you have a mud bath, you don’t require any soap.
Do you know that mud has greater soaping power than soap? If you have a mud bath, and then wash and dry, you have a far greater feeling of cleanliness than soap does. Have a mud bath. These are the plans. I have worked them out in detail, and I will give you the ideas and you will be able to have the experience of a lifetime.
How can you do without money, and live better than a millionaire? And any of you who have any ideas, don’t write me any visionary ideas. You don’t need to beg from anybody. I didn’t beg from anybody. I went on by the grace of God.
So, East, West, North, or South, and everywhere; building these colonies. Help free America from the terrible inflations that are coming. And God bless you, and Dr Lewis will say a word.