Annamalai Swami: I have this desire to live in a place where nobody visits. I feel another desire to get food without any effort. I also want to meditate constantly with my eyes closed, without seeing the world at all. These desires often come to me. Are they good or bad?

'If you have desires such as these,' said Bhagavan, 'You will have to take another birth to fulfil them. What does it matter where you stay? Keep your mind always in the Self. There is no solitary place apart from the Self. Wherever the mind is, that place is always crowded.

'It is not necessary to close the eyes when you meditate. It will be sufficient if you merely close the mind's eye. There is no world outside you which is not in the mind.

'One who leads a righteous life will never make plans of this sort. Why? Because God has already decided what will happen to us even before sending us into this world.'

[Verse from Sivananda Lahiri which Bhagavan asked AS to memorise.]

One may practise austerities in a cave, or in a house, or in the open air, or in a forest, or on top of a mountain, or standing in water, or surrounded by fire, but what is the use? O Sambhu! Real yoga is the state in which one's mind constantly abides at your feet. One who has realised this sate is a true yogi. He alone enjoys bliss.