One evening Vijnanananda pointed to the stars and said to his devotees: “They are my friends. How beautifully they are twinkling!” Soon after this a devotee asked the swami to tell a story. Immediately he said with a chuckle, “Am I your grandmother?” Then he continued: “Yes, everything is a fairy tale — really. If you can think of the world as unreal, how happy you will be! Trouble arises when you think of it as a reality.” In this connection he told the story of Diogenes, the famous Greek philosopher who considered the world to be a dream. One day some young students tied the philosopher’s legs and pulled him over the street. His body was covered with cuts and bruises. Then the students asked, “Do you still think that the world is a dream?” Diogenes replied, “Yes, the world is a dream — but a painful dream.” (Source: God Lived with Them)