The truth is you are nobody. You are nothing. Yet you are everything. How can you be nobody and everything? Because, You're not one thing. Notice when I stop talking, how quiet it becomes, in your mind. This is the state I am referring to, the state in between thoughts, when there is nothing going on, in that second, in that moment, when the mind is totally quiet, the thoughts are not moving any longer. This is your true self, in that moment in between thoughts. Stay in that moment. Learn to put yourself in that state, whether you are in the market place or you are in a temple, wherever you are, learn to be still. It makes no difference what is going on around you. It makes no difference what other people are doing. You be still. When you are still, then there's peace. When you are still, there is happiness. Most of us have been taught that to be happy we have to receive something good. We have to have something nice happen to us to be happy, otherwise we are miserable. Yet the truth is, happiness is your very nature, unalloyed happiness, eternal happiness. You have to go way beyond thoughts, way beyond reasoning, way beyond anything and everything you have ever understood, to be consciousness, to understand consciousness. In order to do this, everything you believe must be dropped. Everything you have been led to understand must be transcended. Everything that you can think about has to go. Your ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, up and down, frontwards and sideways, all these things have to be totally transcended, totally removed from your thinking patterns.

"Will it be possible to see our image in a mirror completely covered with dust? Wipe away the dust particles and clean the mirror, then look and definitely you will see. Our true face is God. Clean away the impurities of the mind through spiritual practices and it will be revealed to you" - Amma.

Take the case of great yogis like Swami Vivekananda. They did not work for themselves but the amount of work which that man did until the age of 39 when he passed away, 100 people cannot do in 100 years. How did he do that? His inner energy that takes over; one becomes very resourceful in the selfless action one is doing. So one does not become foolish by doing yoga or meditation.

My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a General. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.” Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso. - Pablo Picasso.

Questioner: I have so much to do. I just cannot afford to keep my mind quiet. 

Nisargadatta Maharaj: It is because of your illusion that you are the doer. In reality, things are done to you, not by you. - from 'I Am That', Chapter 93.

If the idea that everything is destined suffocates you, then it is better for you to take full responsibility for your actions. If the idea of free will and taking full responsibility suffocates you, then it is better for you to let go and surrender to the unfolding play and flow of this life. Tune into what feels right, for that is presently the right attitude and understanding for you. It may or may not match what the so-called wise ones have to say. It is best to honor your truth and let others honor theirs. - Nithya Shanti.

Do not dwell in the past or worry about the future. Do not have expectations. Indulging in thoughts of making vast money; receiving abundant love, getting recognition and honor for a lifetime of work... if you think you will be happy when some of these dreams come true, you are chasing a mirage. Be happy as you are now and enjoy peace.

Buddha was once threatened with death by a bandit called Angulimal. "Then be good enough to fulfill my dying wish," said Buddha. "Cut off the branch of that tree." One slash of the sword, and it was done! "What now?" asked the bandit. Put it back again," said Buddha. The bandit laughed. "You must be crazy to think anyone can do that." "On the contrary, it is you who are crazy to think that you are mighty because you can wound and destroy. That is the task of children. The mighty know how to create and heal".

"On the screen, you sometimes see a huge ocean with endless waves; that disappears. Another time, you see fire spreading all around; that too disappears. The screen is there on both occasions. Did the screen get wet with the water or did it get burned by the fire? Nothing affected the screen. In the same way, the things that happen during the wakeful, dream and sleep states do not affect you at all; you remain your own Self" - Ramana Maharishi.

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruits near a tree and told the kids that whoever got there first wins the sweet fruits. When he told them to run, they all took each other’s hands and ran together, then all sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them, why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself, they said: ''Ubuntu, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?'' 'Ubuntu' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am, because we are".