Q. Would we receive the curses of people as well as the blessings? A. Yes. One should always think that life is an opportunity. Every moment is an opportunity. Sometimes one can do good by not troubling oneself much; it is just by seizing the opportunity. If one is attentive and brings some pleasure and happiness, it is not always that it costs. What it costs is attention, if one keeps one's attention fixed upon that idea, and one is constantly seeking where one can do some little good to another. By giving one's place in a bus or tramcar, by just having a little consideration for the aged, a little consideration for someone who is perhaps not honored or respected - if one can offer what a person is lacking in his life, without knowing, that is always a great help. To do good is the work of the sage. Sometimes people become over-enthusiastic, which does harm. It is a spell, a fit of goodness. That does no good. The real goodness is that which comes spontaneously. A thief is always on the lookout to rob something; so a good person is always looking for an opportunity to do good. He will always find it.

Q. Can you tell something more of the time that God grants wishes? A. God grants wishes at two times. One time is when your heart is free from every thought, or feeling, or emotion, in the most peaceful and tranquil condition: at that time every wish that is sown is just like a seed sown in fertile soil. If one had the patience and faith to wait, faith in the great power of God, whatever be the wish, it will certainly be granted. The other time when the wish is granted is when somebody is satisfied, has been made happy by you, and naturally, out of his heart, springs a kind of fountain which pours upon you a kind of blessing. It will be just like rain from above, which in time will bring its fruits and flowers.

Q. Has one the right to wish for oneself? A. Yes, as long as one's conscience says that the wish is right. But there is another stage, when a person has so advanced spiritually that he thinks, "God's wish is my wish. God knows better than me. I may wish something wrong." The one who gives his life in that way into the hands of God is greater still.

Q. When a man is poor, but can just live with the means he has is it then good when he gives away material things, and so makes himself dependent upon others? A. You, see, the question what is good is a very difficult question to decide. Good is peculiar to a person. It all depends upon what that person thinks. When he thinks it is right, it is good. That is the only question.

This is the story of Saint Alias. He was an ascetic, and for his food only a loaf of bread was enough every day. He would not keep anything for tomorrow. If he were given food for four people in one day he would distribute it. If he had still more, he shared it all. Next day he was without. If one said, why did he make himself dependent upon people for the next day? He would say that, "We live in this life interdependent. As long as I do not go to anybody, not force upon anybody, only people brought it, what does it matter? It is from Him. It is not depending upon others. It all comes from God. It all goes to the creatures of God. What does it matter?" It all depends upon the person, and how the person looks at it.

Q. The great creative spirits, who at this moment are so necessary for working in the world, if they have in their soul a longing for spirituality, how can they keep balance between their busy life and the concentration which is necessity for the spiritual path? What must they sacrifice? A. In the first place I should say if one object is the seeking of one's soul, and the other object is life's necessity, and if one object is to be sacrificed, it is better the one which is necessary, but keep to the soul's seeking.

There is another point of view: in order to become spiritual, we should not become unworldly. We can just as well be in the world and yet not be of the world. We can be active in our everyday life and yet be concentrative. A person who can concentrate well can manage the affairs of the world better. Those who have attained success in business, in worldly affairs, they had their concentration better. Therefore concentration is in no way a hindrance. A success gained through the power of spirituality is more secure and has a stronger foundation. Furthermore, there is one rule of life which must be understood. That the success is gained by two ways: by the right way and by the wrong way. Wrong way means which is against spiritual idea. And when a person has started by one path, he must keep to that path, in order to be successful. And if he finds that perhaps the other path will be better for the success, he will lose. A person who is going the wrong way, if he thinks that the right way will be better, he will lose. The person who is going in the right way, he will not lose. His success will perhaps be slow, but it is secure, and he will all through be successful. The other had no danger, but his greatest danger is going into the right path, that is his loss. God bless you.