There are dark nights of the soul and your real test, whether you are an authentic seeker or just a superficial curiosity-monger, is not the beautiful moment. The real test is the moment when everything seems to be lost, when everything seems to be against…And if you can still smile and be thankful to existence, then things will start changing for you. Slowly, slowly, there will be smaller gaps of darkness and longer spaces of light. As your choicelessness deepens, the dark moments will disappear.

A day comes when there is no night any more. A day comes when it is always dawn and the birds are singing and the flowers are blossoming and you have a smile that is not an effort, hence you cannot be tired of it. It is simply there, just like the fragrance of the flowers. They are not tired of it. Or just like breathing – twenty-four hours a day, seventy years continuously – you are not tired of it.

Only after a choiceless state of consciousness, one comes to the moment when one can remain orgasmically blissful every moment, each moment. And that is our target.

I have been working with thousands of people. And the trouble is that when things are going well, they are very thankful. When things are not going well and I go on making them aware that there will be times when things will not be going well – it is just how existence functions, how existence creates a dialectic between the opposites for your growth – they become angry at me. Just as you are smiling and being thankful, they become revengeful, angry. And in both cases I am not involved at all.

When you are thankful, I am not involved. And when you are angry and resentful, I am not involved. It is just you in both cases. This has to be deeply recognized: it is always you. You cannot throw the responsibility onto me. But if I accept your thankfulness, naturally you will tend to throw the responsibility of your resentment on me too.

So I always feel a little hesitant whenever I hear the words: “Thank you, Bhagwan.” Then I know there is danger. I am getting into trouble, because what will you do when the smile disappears and tears come to your eyes of sadness, of depression?

There are valleys and there are peaks. The path is long. When you are on the sunlit peaks, you shout with joy, thankful. But when you are dark, deep in the valleys, completely lost, you start being resentful. Remember: it is always your experience, don’t project it onto me. It is better to be independent and take the responsibility. It will make you mature; and it will save me from the trouble of your resentments, your anger. I have no problem: you can be resentful, you can be angry, it is all the same to me.

Whether you are thankful or ungrateful, it is all the same to me. I want you to learn the art of choicelessness, so that it becomes the same for you, too. And the beauty of thankfulness, when there is nothing to be thankful for, is just a great miracle, magic, a moment of tremendous transformation. It needs great intelligence. I hope you will prove to have that intelligence. I trust in everybody that they have the right intelligence to understand the deepest mysteries of life.