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The most surprising thing in life is that nobody seems to be surprised. People take life for granted; otherwise everything is a mystery, everything is simply amazing. It is a miracle that a seed becomes a tree, that as the sun rises in the morning the birds start singing. It is a miracle! Each moment you come across miracles and still you don’t look surprised. This is the most surprising thing in life.

My answer would have been that people take life for granted – this is the most surprising thing. Only children don’t take it for granted. That’s why children have beauty, a grace, an innocence. They are always living in wonder, everything brings awe. Collecting pebbles on the seashore or seashells… Watch the children, with what joy they are running, with what joy they are collecting – just colored stones, as if they have found great diamonds; collecting flowers, wild flowers, and look into their eyes; or running after butterflies, watch them. Their whole being, each cell of their body is mystified. And that’s the most important quality that makes life worth living.

The person who loses his quality to be surprised is dead. The moment your surprise is dead, you are dead. The moment your wonder is dead, you are dead. The moment you become incapable of feeling awe, you have become impotent. To be born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad is the quality that makes life worth living – not only worth living, but worth dancing, worth celebrating.

An old farmer visited a circus for the first time. He stood before the dromedary’s cage, eyes popping and mouth agape at the strange beast within. The circus properly began and the crowds left for the main show, but still the old man stood before the cage in stunned silence, appraising every detail of the misshapen legs, the cloven hoofs, the pendulous upper lip, and the curiously mounded back of the sleepy-eyed beast.
Fifteen minutes passed. Then the farmer turned away in disgust. “Hell!” he exclaimed. “There ain’t no such animal!”

Rather than feeling surprised people would like to deny: “There ain’t no such animal!” That makes you at ease again, otherwise a restlessness arises in you.

I have heard about a general, a great military general who was posted in Paris. One morning he took his small son to the garden, just for a morning walk. He was very happy that the child was so fascinated by the statue of Napoleon mounted on a horse, a big marble statue. The child said, “Daddy, Napoleon is so beautiful, so great! Can you bring me every day when you come for a morning walk, just to have a look at the great Napoleon?”
The father, being a general, was very happy that the child is also becoming interested in people like Napoleon: “This is a good sign. Sooner or later he will also become a great general!”

After six months he was transferred, and he took his son for the last time to the garden so that he could say good-bye to Napoleon. And the son went there, tears in his eyes, and he said to the father, “I have always wanted to ask one question, but I become so fascinated with the great Napoleon when I come to the garden that I always forgot to ask the question. Now this is the last day and I would like to inquire. Who is this guy, always sitting on top of poor Napoleon?”

I was reminded of this story just a few days ago. In a press conference, Morarji Desai was asked, “If people want you to become the prime minister of India again, will you be ready?” And he said, “Yes, if people want me to ride on a donkey, even then I will be ready.” I was reminded about this story. There will be a problem: how will people know? “Who is this guy riding on poor, poor Morarji Desai?” And how will they make a distinction who is who?

That’s why in India, in a marriage procession when the bridegroom goes to the house of the bride, he rides on a horse. A small child asked his father, “Why does the bridegroom always rides on a horse? Why not on a donkey?”
The father said, “You don’t understand. If he rides on the donkey, then how is the bride going to find who is the bridegroom? A donkey riding on a donkey will be very difficult to make distinctions!”
Morarji Desai riding on a donkey! It will be a really great joy to see a donkey riding on a donkey!

If you look at life you will find everywhere immense surprises.

He was fifty and had spent the best years of his life with a woman whose constant criticism had driven him mad. Now, in poor health and with his business on the verge of bankruptcy, he made up his mind. He went to the dining room, fastened his tie over the chandelier, and was about to end it all. At that moment his wife entered the room.
“John!” she cried, shocked at the scene before her. “That is your best tie!”

A young man vacationing in the upper Midwest woods decided to write to his girl, but having no stationery with him, walked to the trading post. The attendant was a young, well-stacked girl with a sensual appeal.
“Do you keep stationery?” he asked.
“Well,” she smiled, “I do until the last few seconds, and then I go wild!”

Just look around!

A soldier disembarked in New York after two long years abroad and was met by his beautiful wife.
Alone at last in their room at the hotel, they were disturbed by the sudden clamor in the corridor and a cry of “Let me in!”
The rattled soldier jumped out of bed and panted, “It must be your husband!”
His distracted mate reassured him. “Don’t be foolish!” she said. “He is thousands of miles away somewhere in Europe!”

One just needs a clear perspective, and each moment you are in for a great surprise.

She was very nearsighted and very pretty, but too vain to wear glasses on her honeymoon and unable to wear contact lenses. When she returned from her honeymoon, her mother immediately got in touch with the oculist. “You must see my daughter at once,” she pleaded. “It is an emergency!”
“There is nothing to be excited about,” he reassured her. “She is nearsighted, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” repeated the mother. “Why, this young man she has got with her is not the same one she went on her honeymoon with!”

The only thing that is most surprising is that you don’t look surprised. And this is how your life becomes a life of boredom, a life of sadness. Bring your surprising quality back as you had it in your childhood. Again look with those same innocent eyes. Dionysius calls it agnosia, a state of not knowing, and the Upanishads call it dhyana, samadhi, a state of not knowing.

It is not ignorance. Ignorance and knowledge belong to the same dimension: ignorance means less knowledge, knowledge means less ignorance; the difference is of degrees. Agnosia, samadhi, is not ignorance; it is beyond both ignorance and knowledge. It is a pure state of wonder. When you are full of wonder, existence is full of God.