A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the packed room of 200 people, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?"

Hands started going up and people started smiling, a little amused at this strange offer.

Looking very serious the speaker said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you – but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up.

He then asked the bemused audience, "Who still wants it?"

The hands were still up in the air.

"Well," he continued, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe.

He picked it up, all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands were in the air.

Now he delivered his message. "My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It is still worth $20.

"Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way.

"At those times we may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. You are special – don't ever forget it!"

When negative thoughts come into our mind it is important not to believe them, but hold onto our spiritual reality, which, through the ages, the saints and sages have contemplated on and exhorted us to discover.

“For the crop of life,” Swami says, “courage and confidence are the best manure, and the best insecticides.  Be like lions in the spiritual field, rule over the forest of the senses and roam fearlessly with full faith in victory.  Be heroes, not zeroes.”