You have some problems? Look back. How old are you? Look back. Haven’t you had problems? You had problems at every level of life. When you were a kid going to school, you had a problem. When you went to college, you had a problem. When you got married or when you were in a relationship, there was a problem. And then the problems continue. In a job, there is a problem. With neighbours, there is a problem. With family, there is a problem.
If you keep looking at it, if you have a problem at this moment, you will say, “Oh, I can manage it. I will get over this.”
Somebody did research in Europe a few years back. Eighty-five per cent of your worries never manifest. And 14.5 per cent of the rest you can easily manage. Only 0.5 per cent of worries appear to be very, very tough. And at that moment, if you have prayer in your heart, if you have a deep sense within, you always get help.
So our worrying is simply draining our own energy, our own strength. Why do you have to worry?
This life on our planet is very short. There is not enough time to spread happiness around us. Isn’t it so? Suppose you live for 80 years. Forty years you spend in bed. Forty years you spend sleeping, half the time gone. Ten years, you spend eating in restaurants, at home, at the dining table. Ten years in the toilets and bathrooms. Five or seven years of our life in traffic jams.
If you see life, if you just do an economics of life-how you spend your time-you will feel that hardly three or four years of our life are spent in blissful, joyful, happy and loving scenarios.
The Art of Living is that which helps one to expand this time. Anything you do, you do it with joy. Anything you do, you do with serenity, dignity, happiness, and a sense of well-being deep within.
Most of what you worry about will never happen.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
