"Stress!"

From The New Yorker:

The Swami himself, wearing a white cotton dhoti kurta, walked to the podium and regarded his audience for a moment in silence.

“Stress!” he declared in a dramatic undertone, his hands clutching the lectern. The room hushed; the Young Presidents chewed their roast beef very quietly.

“Stress is entirely an internal phenomenon!” Parthasarathy shouted. “You are the architect of your fortune, you are the architect of your misfortune. Don’t blame the stars! Blame yourself! A man goes to his lawyer to divorce his wife and says, ‘What’s the fee?’ ‘Five thousand dollars.’ ‘How long it takes?’ ‘Six months.’ ‘I pay you ten thousand dollars, you make it three months.’ Another man is desperately waiting to marry the same lady! What’s this? The lady is the same who produces agony to one and ecstasy to another! Therefore I put it to you for your consideration: stress is in you. Period.”

The Swami said he would not... more>>