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Accept Miseries As Gifts
Sadhana confers no distinction on us. We are not doing anything. All
that we are doing is not to go against His wishes; not to oppose His
will, not to place impediments to the work, of His powers but to accept
them passively, docilely, with faith, with love, that anything that
He does for us is for our good. When a child is born in the family,
we think it is a good thing; this is traditional; big hallabulloo is
made, cakes are bought, candles are bought, birthday party celebrated.
Some years later we regret having had that child because we have no
means to support it and it is running like a stray waif on the streets,
adding one more goonda to the existing gangs of goondas. So what is
good or what is bad, only the end can show, beginning can never show.
Cyclones come; trees are destroyed. Ten days later you find the city
is much cleaner, all the deadwood has been thrown out, all the rubbish
has been cleared away. It was a necessary evil. To say that it was a
necessary evil even, is wrong. It was something which we interpreted
as evil, but which ultimately we found is good. So in the course of
our existence, we find things happen to us. Something is lost which
we think is a loss. Something is gained which we think is a gain. Days
after, weeks after, we find what we thought was a gain is really a loss,
and what we thought was a loss is really a gain! So time alone can tell
us in what way, in what form a seed is going to grow and what it is
going to become.
When I get rich I am not getting rich, riches come to me; when I am
getting poor, I am not becoming poor, my money is taken away from me.
So it is like, you know, some thin people go on eating like anything
and they cannot get fat; some fat people are dieting all their lives
and they cannot lose half a kilo. So we are not in any way competent,
not empowered, not capable of interfering on our own personal life.
There is some force working which is outside our control, which knows
what exactly has to become of me and under its guidance I must go on.
Today I am fat, very good I am fat; tomorrow I am thin, very good I
am thin. Today I have friends, excellent. Tomorrow I am hated and reviled,
wonderful. It helps me to remember the Master even better. Because you
will find in our ten maxims of the Master, we are taught to accept all
these things; miseries and all should be gifts of God; because when
we are happy we never think of Him. Diwali comes, Pongal
comes, Ugadi comes, we only think of ourselves, our children,
of the 'payasam' and 'vadai' [kinds of sweet and savoury]
that we make, and of the stray friends who visit us; but let there be
an illness in the family, God forbid - a death, then comes the thought
of the Master.
So without having to go to extremes, there is a wisdom in God which
makes Him keep us on the negative side of the situation; a little poverty,
a little ill-health, a little misery. It is always good for us. Because
it has several benefits; if a man is a little below the optimum health
levels, he does not do all the things that a healthy man does. That
arrogance of the health, that pride in the health, that I can do anything
and get away with it, he will not indulge. Indulgence is the word. When
a man gets Rupees 99/- where he needs 100, he is careful with the money.
Let him get Rupees 101/- and he is a debtor. So it is not for nothing
that Master or Lalaji has outlined the three principles, the three very
great requirements for a person to be a saint - permanent poverty, permanent
illness, and permanent criticism. They have very great benefits in keeping
us within our limits, within our limits of arrogance, within our limits
of pride, within our limits of misuse of the body, the mind, the intellect,
they endow us with humility, they endow us with sensible attitudes towards
physical life, mental life, moral life and therefore they guide us through
the channels into that path which can ultimately lead to perfection.
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