Besides these three ways, there is the fourth way, and that is the way of temptation, in other words, the way of reward. For all the good one does, all that one does that is right, there comes a reward in some form or other, in the form of wealth, in the form of fame, in the form of success, in the form of popularity, in some form or other. In the form of sympathy, friendship, love, comfort, in some form or the other, reward comes. And that reward teaches you to keep on that path and not to go astray from there.

But at that time reward is most blinding. As soon as one thinks, "I am rich," one becomes intoxicated. And then it is quicksilver, it runs away quickly. And when one thinks, "I should have learned my lesson before," it is too late. In the same way one becomes intoxicated by friendship, love, sympathy, that is given to one. One abuses it; one does not value it; one does not appreciate it. The end is that it disappears, and then one begins to realize, "I had wealth, more than wealth, and then I lost it." And then it is too late.

Health is the same way. As long as one enjoys good health one never thinks what a privilege, what a blessing it is. It is afterwards, when it no longer exists, that one begins to realize, "What have I lost!" Life, as Omar Khayyam says, is a wine press, and every good thing that comes, comes just like a wine. It is a reward; but this reward may intoxicate a person, and a person may forget to appreciate it and to be grateful for it. With the mere fact of his forgetting that privilege, the reward is taken away from him, and then he begins to value it and appreciate it, when he is empty-handed.