Humor - Affirmations For Self-Healing

Hello friends,

Our topic for today is humour,

A very joyful topic indeed.

So let's begin by reading from Affirmations for Self-Healing by Swami Kriyananda and let's see what he has to say about humour.

A good sense of humour is an effective means of keeping a sense of perspective through the trials and difficulties of life.

By not taking things too seriously,

One develops non-attachment.

One should not laugh too much,

However,

Lest the mind become light and one's view of life superficial.

Thus,

One needs to achieve a sense of perspective where humour itself is concerned.

The best way to do so is to share one's laughter with God.

To laugh with the sense of His joy within.

Never laugh at people,

But rather with them.

For humour should be kindly,

Not sarcastic.

Laugh with pure delight and everyone will join you in your laughter.

Humour is one of those things which,

Again like a few other topics in this book,

Feel a little out of place.

After all,

Spiritual life is supposed to be serious,

Isn't it?

And I would say that was the folly that I had fallen into when I came on the path and when I came to Ananda Sangha.

And it was perhaps after one of the Sunday services,

The Sunday satsangs,

That I would see devotees having prasad and just joyfully smiling,

Mingling together,

Laughing at the top of their lungs,

Having a good time and sharing that joy with others.

And I used to think that shouldn't everyone be having their meals in silence?

Isn't this a time to go inward?

But I realised that the attitude that I was thinking is one of a good devotee was perhaps just a fantasy that I had in my mind of how a good devotee should behave.

Because I thought that a good devotee,

A serious meditator,

Should always be,

Well,

Serious.

And should always be serious about the path,

About following the techniques,

About doing everything correctly.

And while all that is true,

I realised that humour plays a very important role in the spiritual life also.

There's a saying,

I forget who said it,

But it's something that I remind myself often,

Is,

A sad saint is a sad saint indeed.

And Yoganandaji and Swami Kriyananda would often quote this,

Saying that the spiritual life doesn't have to be all grim and monotonous and strict and austere all the time.

That the goal that we are seeking ultimately is divine joy.

Swami Kriyananda said,

God is feeling.

And that feeling is sat-chit-ananda,

Ever new,

Ever conscious bliss.

And that feeling,

Ever existing also,

That's what I was missing,

Ever existing,

Ever conscious,

Ever new bliss.

And if we are seeking bliss,

It seems out of place that we don't have even a little bit of that bliss ourselves during the journey,

Isn't it so?

And the point here is that the spiritual path can become tough at many points.

There are many challenges,

Many obstacles,

And humour is a way to lighten things up.

To lighten when we fall,

To lighten the atmosphere when someone commits a mistake,

Whether it's us or someone else,

And to not take ourselves too seriously.

And most of all,

I believe,

To not take our faults too seriously.

Because God doesn't mind those faults.

God only minds our indifference.

That is what Yoganandaji often said.

And so no matter how many times we fall,

God isn't upset with us.

God loves us unconditionally and eternally.

It is we who feel guilty,

Who feel discouraged after we make a mistake.

And so humour is just a mechanism for us to lighten things up and to find joy even in grim circumstances.

Now I would like to share a few stories from Swamiji's life of how he found joy.

Towards the later years of his life,

Swamiji had a lot of physical challenges.

His body usually had one challenge or the other,

But he never allowed himself to identify with that pain,

With that suffering,

And never allowed his body to limit him from completing his Guru's mission.

And one of these times,

Swamiji visited a specialist doctor to complete a dental surgery.

So before that,

His dentist was asking him that,

You know,

First we have to assess your medical history.

So I'm going to now read from that account.

So the dentist asked,

Do you have heart problems?

Yes.

High blood pressure?

Yes.

Prosthetic surgery?

Yes.

Both of Swamiji's hips were replaced.

Other surgery?

Yes.

Because Swamiji had gone through bypass surgery and he had an artificial valve in his heart.

Then hearing loss?

Yes.

Diabetes?

Yes.

Arthritis?

Yes.

On and on this kept on going.

And then there was the last question.

How would you rate your overall health?

And Swamiji said,

Excellent!

Just excellent!

And that was just one example out of many examples of how Swamiji used humour to lighten the mood,

To overcome the challenges that apparently he was facing with his body to the point where Swamiji didn't even see them as a challenge to be overcome.

And that is why Swamiji writes here in the reading,

A good sense of humour is an effective means of keeping a sense of perspective and developing non-attachment.

So if we are able to find joy within difficult circumstances,

We learn not to be too attached.

We learn not to be emotionally disturbed when things are going wrong.

In fact,

After his second hip surgery,

Swamiji got up from the bed and he said,

Hip hip hooray!

Just another fun anecdote from his life.

And this is how humour can remind us of God.

You see,

True humour should always be God reminding.

It should not be just a habit of light-mindedness,

As Swamiji also mentions here.

And this reminds me of a disciple of Yoganandaji,

Devi Mukherjee.

And Yoganandaji told that disciple,

Because he used to joke around too much and get everyone else laughing,

Which was good.

But at the same time,

Yoganandaji told him the following words.

He said,

Don't joke too much.

I,

As you know,

Like a good laugh.

But if I make up my mind to be serious,

No one can make me even smile.

Be happy and cheerful,

Above all,

Inwardly.

Be outwardly grave,

But inwardly cheerful.

Laughing is false happiness.

Too much laughter riddles the mind and lets the peace in the bucket flow out,

Wasting it.

So if you have ever sat around the lunch table and,

You know,

Your friends are cracking joke after joke,

Maybe you also crack a joke in the flow.

And after maybe,

Let's say,

Half an hour or an hour of laughing and laughing,

Everyone feels just a little tired,

Just a tad bit tired.

And if you have ever experienced that before,

You will realize that too much joking really takes away energy instead of replenishing us or taking us inward.

So that is why Yoganandaji said that be inwardly cheerful,

That your humor should take you always to God.

It should take you inward instead of taking you outward and should make you realize really that God's joy is within each of us.

And when we laugh then,

We laugh with God.

We don't laugh at others,

We laugh with God and with others and we express that joy.

You know,

In some people's laughter,

You can really feel that divine joy and such was the laughter of Swami Kriyananda also.

If you see videos of him lecturing,

Where he is,

You know,

Laughing,

Or let's say you can go and see or hear him reading P.

G.

Woodhouse,

You will see that his laughter comes from the belly,

Comes from deep within him,

Which is expressing God's joy.

And that is the kind of humor all of us should learn to imbibe,

To not take ourselves too seriously,

To not take life too seriously.

And using humor to rise above our challenges,

To remind ourselves that God's joy is always within us.

I also remember one story which relates to Naya Swami's Jyotish and Devi and this was a time when the Ananda community,

Ananda village,

There was a fire in the village and all the houses except one,

I think,

Were burned down.

And at that point,

Naya Swami Devi,

She was coming from a doctor's appointment and as she got closer and closer to the property,

She realized that the fire had hit the land.

And as she was walking into the property,

Someone walked up to her and said,

Oh,

Your house burned down,

Your house burned down.

And then she kept looking for Jyotish,

Her husband,

And Jyotish ji comes and the first thing he says was,

Now this is because Naya Swami's Jyotish and Devi at that point,

They lived in a geodesic dome.

And that dome had all sorts of leaks and when the house burned down,

The first thing that Jyotish said to Devi was that,

Devi,

We don't have to worry about leaks anymore.

And at that point,

Both of them burst out into laughter and Devi ji was mentioning that moment was very important because they realized that everything could be taken away from them,

But nothing can take away their divine friendship,

Their love and devotion toward God.

And that's the only thing that mattered.

And using humor in that situation,

A dire situation where their house had burned down along with everything that was in the house and so did the house of everyone else they knew in the community.

But even in such a difficult time,

They could use humor to rise above the seeming challenge and remember that God's joy is within us.

So with that,

Let us practice the affirmation on humor by Swami Kriyananda.

And to do that,

Let's sit up straight,

Center ourselves,

Close our eyes.

And repeat after me,

First in a loud voice.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

And now we'll say it in a whisper,

Taking it deep into the subconscious mind.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

And now,

Gazing deeply at the point between the eyebrows,

Affirm mentally only.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

In laughter,

I recall my own mistakes.

Merriest am I,

When by laughing I include myself.

Let's also pray together silently,

With deep devotion from the heart.

I delight in life's comedy,

For it reminds me that true sanity exists in Thee alone.

May your laughter always remind you of God's joy within.

Joy to you,

My friends.