Joy is Light
 
A Question: I am so full of joy — and yet full of fear.

Give all your energy to joy, and fear will disappear. Ignore fear, don’t pay any attention to fear, because the more attention you pay to it, the longer it will linger on. Pour yourself totally in the direction from where joy is arising, and fear will disappear just as darkness disappears when you bring light in.
Joy is light. And joy is the beginning of a great pilgrimage that ends in finding godliness. So go on — without any fear, because existence always protects those who trust it. Relax, give yourself to existence and allow the joy to overwhelm you. Let it become your wings, so that you can reach to the stars.
A joyful heart is very close to the stars.
It is only the sad and the sorrowful and the miserable who are going towards hell. They are creating their hell. The joyful and the singing and the dancing and the celebrating are creating their paradise by each of their songs, by each of their dances.
It is in your hands whether to create paradise or to fall into a darkness, into hellfire. These are not outside you; these both are within you. It all depends what you choose to be.
Choose to be divine, choose to be more and more a celebrant, choose to be festive, so more and more flowers can blossom in your being, and more and more fragrance can become available to you.
And this way will not only help you, it will help all those with whom you come in contact. Joy is as infectious as any disease. When you see a few people dancing, suddenly you feel your feet are ready. You may try to control them, because control has been taught to you, but your body wants to join the dance. Whenever you have an opportunity to laugh, join; whenever you have an opportunity to dance, join; whenever you have an opportunity to sing, sing — and one day you will find you have created your paradise.
It is not that one goes to paradise; paradise is not somewhere in the sky — it is something that one creates around himself.
It is a good beginning. With all my blessings, go deeper, in spite of any fear. Never listen to negative things, because if you listen to them they can poison you, they can destroy your joy — keep it pure, unpolluted. And here are people who will dance with you, who will celebrate, because you have taken the first step towards existence.
And I want to remind you that the first step is almost half the journey.