A Tibetan saying: A hundred persons start to seek the truth, and perhaps only one reaches. Ninety-nine get lost somewhere on the way. Either they become involved in some other business or they go astray from the point. There are thousands of ways of going astray and there is only one way of going into yourself.

Just a single inch’s difference and you are lost; you will not find yourself. Every thought is trying to take you astray. Every feeling, every sentiment – all the qualities of your mind are enemies as far as the discovery of your center is concerned, because they are all pushing you forward, outward: “Become a success, become prestigious, be more powerful.” And your inner being remains starving. You go on pouring your energy into the outside world, which is not really your home, and your real being is starving inside, waiting for hundreds of lives; hoping that one day you will turn back, hoping…how long can you go on missing?

I am reminded of a great king who was a lover of archery. He himself was an adept, a master of archery. He was passing from a village and he saw, on every tree, arrows stuck exactly in the middle of a circle. He could not believe his eyes, that in this village such a great archer lives.

He stopped his chariot and asked the people, “Who is this master archer?” They laughed and said, “Don’t bother about him; he is the village idiot.”

The king said, “Whoever he is, he is a great archer.”

The villagers said, “You don’t understand his strategy. First he shoots the arrow and then he makes a circle round it.” Obviously, he is a hundred percent successful; he never fails.

In the inside world, you cannot deceive anyone in such a way. Either you know your center and then you simply become radiant and fragrant, a dance unto yourself. And if you don’t know it, you may pretend that you are happy, but it is all hypocrisy.

Have you ever thought about all the stories that end up with the marriage of the hero and the heroine, with the sentence, “Afterwards they lived happily”? Afterwards! In every story…you cannot find a single story in which this “afterwards they lived happily” does not come because afterwards is the hell. It is better not to talk about it. All the pleasure is before the marriage; by the time the honeymoon ends, everything is finished. You will be fortunate if your love can survive the honeymoon – two weeks is too much! Two weeks together, just exploring the same geography….

[Sardar Gurudayal Singh gives a hearty laugh, then everyone else laughs.]

Look! You cannot defeat Sardar. He is really a nice fellow. He has lived many honeymoons; he is not laughing out of ignorance – he knows it!