"Laughter is a spiritual tonic and has great cleansing power"

Is it possible to lead a life of bliss in this troubled world?
It is not only possible but your birthright. Anandam is your birthright as children of God. Each one of you is a son or daughter of God. God is the source of Ananda. He is an unending source of bliss. The moment I realise that I am a child of God, nothing is going to affect me. In order to live a life of bliss, all we have to do is to transcend the phenomenal, transcend what is happening around us.

What is the best way to handle difficult situations?
Our journey through life has been perfectly planned by Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom: there can be no mistake. Every experience that comes to us is just the right experience occur-ring at the right time to train us in the right way. So let us accept all that comes and never attempt to circumvent anything.
Again and again, we try to run away from what appears to us as an unpleasant experience, and try to avoid what we regard as difficult situations. We may succeed in keeping them away for a while, but we can never avoid them all the time, for they are, indeed, essential to our growth. God means us to face them and so develop our moral and spiritual muscles. If we avoid an unpleasant experience, it will return to us in due course with redoubled force, and we shall be compelled to take up the challenge until we have learnt the lesson it has come to teach us. The best way, therefore, to face difficult situations is to accept them and cooperate with their inner purpose, all the while fixing our mind and heart on Him who has planned for each one of us the glorious liberty that belongs to the children of the Spirit.

Does being cheerful really have a therapeutic value?
Laughter is a tonic - physical, mental, spiritual. It is a dry cleaner, which cleanses you from inside. It gives a new tone to your life. The day on which you have not laughed is a lost day, indeed. Victor Hugo said, "Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face." George Santayana said, "The young man who has not shed tears is a savage, and the old man who has not laughed is a fool." I would suggest, "The young man who has not shed tears needs to move in the company of the lovers of God, and the old man who has not laughed needs the company of the little ones."

Laughter is a medicine. It helps in building up moral muscles. It is a spiritual tonic and has a great cleansing power. % then you feel sad or downcast, look at your face in a mirror. It looks so tense, so ugly, so unlike the face you would wish others to see. The strain in the face is due to some negative emotion, which is playing havoc in the mind. One way of breaking the force of the negative emotion is to relax. Relax the whole body. As you do so, you will find that the part of the body to relax last is always the face: and of the face, the mouth is the last part to relax. So smile, and laugh! You will see how quickly the clouds vanish and you are happy again!

How can we cultivate silence, in this age of science and technology where we are sur-rounded by sounds and activity?
It is a fact that the great need of modern man is silence. To help us avoid stress and tension, the noted psychologist, Deborah Bright, recommends 20 minutes of PQT (prsonal quiet time) twice a day for mental well-being.

Just as particles of dust cling to our clothes, particles of noise cling to our hearts. Like we clean our clothes with soap and water, we need to take a dip in the waters of silence to cleanse our souls. Thus, it is necessary to practice silence every day.