Day: May 3, 2025

Swami ji said…

Do we try to analyse, make an attempt to understand the causes which make us declare that life is not easy but difficult and challenging ? And, if so, are we honestly able to come to a few sound, logical conclusions – without showing any bias towards ourselves and defending ourselves by saying that – ‘life’ has become extremely stressful and that there is too much pressure to handle – which makes it difficult for us to face life’ ? Don’t we hear everyone around us say – ” मैं कोशिश कर रहा हूं , परंतु हर कोशिश विफल हो रही है… कुछ भी आगे नहीं बढ़ रहा है… बड़ा मुश्किल हो रहा है जीवन गुजारना…” And, most of the time, don’t we come across as morose, dejected and despairing individuals ? The cycle and ‘nature’ of ‘life’ has always been the same – but has man’s ‘nature’ and needs changed drastically over the ages? Have we become over – ambitious? Turned
blind to our limited capabilities, and, yet , envision a future that is close to being perfect ?

It is rather difficult for us to forget the proverbial saying…”Try and try till you succeed…” Isn’t it? And, thus, we continue to make one attempt after another; putting everything into that effort – body, mind and soul – and are left befuddled on meeting failure repeatedly. So deeply immersed are we in achieving the desired goal – that we fail to see that ‘someone’ up there – ‘ नीली छतरीवाला ‘ – ‘who’ knows what is best for us – will keep on denying us the realisation of that particular dream of ours?

What is it that makes us feel small and insignificant in surrendering before God’s will ? Does our ‘ego’ take the repeated failure faced by us as a personal insult and feels that it has to prove a point to itself, if, not to others, by attaining its target – no matter when and how ? However, if , we look at the positives – be it even in the most negative situation that we could find ourselves in – we will, without any doubt, not only see the skills of perseverance and resilience that have developed within us – but also become aware of the strength that has set its roots within us to accept setbacks and failures – which can break many a strong heart – and make us aware of the fact that we are to walk a path less travelled.

Man proposes, God disposes. That is the true essence of ‘karma’. Man must keep doing his ‘karma’. But , what he gets as the fruits of his labour, must be accepted by Him as God’s will. There will be times he will feel compelled to keep trying, only to find failure at the end. In that too is God’s grace – as it is God’s way of taking us on a path only he sees as best for us. We must learn to accept this. Even though at a certain moment, it might seem inexplicable as to why certain failures befall us, we must not give in to despair and believe that we are being carried by God to that ‘particular’ point or path – better suited to us.

What we need to understand about ‘life’ is that – a balance needs to be maintained by us between things and events that can be managed and controlled by us – and to ‘let’ go off things which were not meant to happen for us. We could have put in sincere, tireless effort – but ‘failure’ stonewalled us repeatedly. We have a
fixed notion in our mind that it is a sign of weakness to accept defeat. Buy the case is not so – ” हार मानने में हमें अपने आप को छोटा महसूस नहीं करना चाहिए…” All that we need to do is to learn to live between ‘effort’ and ‘surrender’-” हम बस कोशिश कर सकते हैं … हमारी कोशिश का परिणाम ईश्वर के हाथ में होता है…और समर्पण करने में हमें अलौकिक आनंद प्राप्त होता है…”