People remember God only when nothing else seems to help. In deep hopelessness they remember God. It is not possible to remember God in deep hopelessness. When you are full of hope, radiant, vibrating; when there is meaning in your life, when you feel the hands of destiny in your life, when you are riding on waves, when you feel at the top of the world – those are the moments to remember truth, to remember God, to move towards the way.

But Buddha says: It is difficult for the strong and rich to observe the way.

Why is it difficult for the strong? Because the strong thinks, “I am enough unto myself. What is the need to ask God’s help?” The weak thinks, “I am not enough unto myself so I have to need, I have to ask God.” But only when you are strong do you have energy to ask. Only when you are strong will your prayer have enough energy to reach God. Only when you are strong is there a possibility that you can touch higher realms. Out of impotence you cannot reach higher realms. You need an inner strength.

…difficult for the strong… to move towards the way. …But that is the only possibility. So if you are feeling strong, move towards the way, because these are the right positive moments; this is the opportunity. When you are feeling successful, this is the time to remember. When everything is going good, don’t miss this opportunity – this is the time to pray. Looks absurd, because our logic is this – that when we are happy, we never remember. We completely become oblivious.

A small boy was saying…I asked him, “Do you remember God when you go to sleep?”

He said, “Yes, every night.”

And I asked him, “In the morning?”

He said, “What is the point in the morning? In the night I feel afraid, in the morning everything is okay. What is the need? Why bother?”

This childish attitude seems to be the very common attitude. When you are ill, suddenly you start feeling very religious. When death is approaching close by and you are getting older and older and you start stumbling in life and your feet are no more strong enough to hold you and you are trembling, you start remembering God. People go on postponing God for their old age.

In India they say….If somebody young comes to me and I initiate him into sannyas, sooner or later somebody comes and he says, “This is not good; he’s too young to be a sannyasin. Sannyas is for old people.” When they are almost dead, when they are ready to be thrown on the junkyard, when one of their feet is already in the grave, then sannyas.

People go on postponing sannyas for the very end. God seems to be the last item on their list. They have a shopping list – “God” is the last. When they have purchased everything – consistent, inconsistent, relevant, irrelevant – when they have wasted all their energy, when nothing is left, when they are just exhausted, then they remember God. But who is going to remember God then?