SAYS NANAK, HE IS WITHOUT A CARE, ENDLESSLY BLISSFUL.

He keeps on giving but expects nothing in return -- not even an answer. He keeps calling out to you whether you hear or not. He does not care, He does not worry that you do not listen. He never feels He should stop since you have turned a deaf ear to Him, much less would He cast you aside as a lost cause.

You cannot make God anxious. And for this very reason, a man who has begun to see the reflection of God within himself has no anxiety. He will be simultaneously concerned and unconcerned. He will care for you and at the same time he will be carefree. You cannot make him anxious or worried.

Here I am! God knows how many people I am concerned about and yet I am carefree. You come to me with your woes and though I am concerned you do not cause me worry or anxiety. I do not become sad with your sorrow or I would not be able to help you. Though I need to sympathize with your troubles and find ways and means to lighten your distress, I cannot be so concerned that your worry grips me too.

And I should not be displeased with you if you come the next day without acting on my advice -- which will surely happen. I don't feel: "I took so much trouble and you disregarded my advice." I still care, and through it all I remain carefree.

God is concerned about the whole world. He is forever ready to raise you up but He is not in a hurry. And if you wish to wander a little longer in fleeting pleasures, you are welcome to do so, by all means, but then He is carefree.

His concern is boundless and unaffected by you. He is always full of bliss -- or you can imagine what state Hewould have been in by now! He would surely have gone mad with all the people there like you, and what trouble they are creating all around. God is one -- and you are so many. You would have pushed Him into madness long ago; but existence is carefree, which is why it is saved from going berserk.

Carefree does not mean indifferent. Note the subtlety. His endeavors for you remain unchanged -- His desire to raise you, to change you, to transform you. But His desire is nonaggressive. He will wait. Every morning the sun and his beams knock at your door and your door is closed. The sun will not force his way in. He will wait. It never happens that he will be angry and turn back. Whenever the door opens, he will come in.

God is concerned about you; existence cares about you. This is bound to be true for existence creates you, has developed you; it has great expectations of you. Existence is endeavoring to become conscious within you, to attain buddhahood from within you. God is endeavoring to bring forth flowers within you. But if you delay, He will not be troubled, He will not be anxious; He remains unaffected if you do not listen to Him, or refuse to heed Him. If you can understand both these things together, then you will understand why existence is filled with bliss. God is bliss.

Nanak says, He gives commands, and shows the way, and yet He has not a care! He keeps evolving in supreme bliss. His flower keeps blooming -- always and always.

For us there are only two possibilities: either we care and that gives rise to worry, or we are unconcerned and there is no anxiety. This is why tradition has separated the sannyasin from the everyday world. If you stay at home you are bound to be involved with the family, then how could you be unconcerned and carefree? If your wife is ill you will worry; if your child has some disorder you will worry about his treatment and be filled with pain if he does not improve. But if wife and children are not before our eyes, we shall forget them -- out of sight, out of mind! So we run away to the mountains and turn our backs to the world, so that by and by we shall forget.

We see only two alternatives: if we stay in the world we cannot remain unconcerned, and if we are concerned we are bound to worry, then there is no way of being blissful. The other choice is to run away and become carefree and unconcerned, so without worry the prospects of bliss increase.

But this is not the way of God. Therefore Nanak remained a householder as well as a sannyasin. He was concerned and also unconcerned. And this is the art, the spiritual course -- to be concerned and yet free from anxiety. Outwardly you do everything required of you but nothing attaches to you inside. You educate your son, and take great care of his upbringing; but if he turns out useless, or does not study, or fails in life, you are not worried.

Until you combine the two, and be a sannyasin within the household, you cannot reach God, because that is God's way. He is in the world and yet not of it. His way should be yours, on a lesser scale, in order to reach Him.

If the child is ill, take care of him with all the medical care he requires but what is the need to be worried? What value is there in disturbing or destroying your internal carefreeness?

Outwardly be in the world, inwardly be in God. Let the outer physical boundary be in contact with the world but let the center remain untouched. This is the essence.

And this is what troubled people about Nanak -- that he was a householder but he wore the robes of a sannyasin. People could not categorize him. The Hindus would ask: "Are you a householder or are you a sannyasin? You talk like a sannyasin, your way and manners are those of a sannyasin and yet... this wife and child? If you plow the fields and look after your family, what sort of a sannyasin can you be?"

The Mohammedans questioned him in the same manner. They would say, "You dress like a fakir then why haven't you left your house and family?" At many places many gurus told him to leave everything and become their disciple. But Nanak did not budge from his path. He was constantly practicing the art of remaining outside of everything while remaining within everything, and that alone is the way of God; and that alone should be the way of the seeker.

People ask me: "What are you doing giving sannyasins' robes to householders!" But that is the way of God; He is in the world and yet not in it. And this should be your path too.

HE IS THE ORDAINER AND BY HIS ORDER DOES THE UNIVERSE TURN.

SAYS NANAK, HE IS WITHOUT A CARE, ENDLESSLY BLISSFUL.

He is cheerful, filled with bliss, blooming like a flower and yet He has not a care! He is concerned about you -- but He does not worry.

Put this experiment into practice in your life: work, mind your shop, but let there be a distance between your work and your being. Let your work be a play, a leela, and do not be the doer, that is all. Be an actor, let the art of acting become your life's thread; because that is the way of God and that should be your way, your practice.