Question

[Guest guest]

Whenever we are in distress, and we sincerely turn upwards for help,

help definitely comes in the most mysterious manner.

 

One example of it, is what Kathy said in her post, about she

mentioning about Amma to the lady at the drug store. God reminded

that lady in her time of utmost need thro' a customer (Kathy), in a

route she might have least expected.

 

But sometimes we find that no matter how much we pray, our prayers

remain unanswered. Why?

Who are we to blame when our prayers are not answered ? - ourselves

or God ?

What should we do when our prayers are not heard by the One Above?

 

I request all the members to kindly pour in your thoughts on the

above questions.

 

Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

Dear S V C S,

 

Sometimes it seem in life that we really receive answers, and in the

most unusual ways. I found myself telling that drugstore clerk, "you

are going to get well." It sort of just 'blurted' out of my mouth.

I think these types of things happen, and people very definitely can

be instruments of/for the Divine, or the 'mouthpiece of God'. I told

her how I was feeling "chills" at one point when we talked about all

this (Karumamayi's coming visit, Ammachi's visit a few weeks ago,

etc. etc.)and then we got into a conversation about how her friend

would say this, also. I told her I felt it was like the inner Divine

Spirit "validatiing" or moving within my being (may not be the exact

words, but maybe that is the gist of it). I told her someone might

say it was the movement of the 'Holy Spirit', etc. I was VERY HAPPY

to be used in this manner, to help bring her information that would

help her to go see a living saint (Karunamayi) in just a few weeks,

and surely Amma was opening another door for her!!

 

To respond to your question about when it seems God is NOT answering

your prayer, I quickly thought the words "dark night of the soul". I

have been there MANY times...where you really feel/think/believe that

God has abandoned you..maybe we can start a thread about this, with

input from other readers on their experiences of this?

 

Blessings,

 

Kathy

-- In , s_v_c_s <no_reply> wrote:

> Whenever we are in distress, and we sincerely turn upwards for

help,

> help definitely comes in the most mysterious manner.

>

> One example of it, is what Kathy said in her post, about she

> mentioning about Amma to the lady at the drug store. God reminded

> that lady in her time of utmost need thro' a customer (Kathy), in a

> route she might have least expected.

>

> But sometimes we find that no matter how much we pray, our prayers

> remain unanswered. Why?

> Who are we to blame when our prayers are not answered ? - ourselves

> or God ?

> What should we do when our prayers are not heard by the One Above?

>

> I request all the members to kindly pour in your thoughts on the

> above questions.

>

> Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

, s_v_c_s <no_reply> wrote:

> Whenever we are in distress, and we sincerely turn upwards for

help,

> help definitely comes in the most mysterious manner.

.......

> But sometimes we find that no matter how much we pray, our prayers

> remain unanswered. Why?

> Who are we to blame when our prayers are not answered ? - ourselves

> or God ?

> What should we do when our prayers are not heard by the One Above?

 

Today morning I heard the 4-year old child next door crying at the

top of her voice. Though it is not something unusual, I noticed that

the mother, for quite some time, did not answer.

Later, my wife told me the reason. Really the child did not want to

go to the pre-school today and she was crying on some pretext so that

the mother will grant her wish. But the mother, by instinct, knew the

reason for the cry and purposely avoided answering leaving the child

to continue crying. However, after about 10 minutes the child stopped

crying. Then the mother slowly attended to the daily chorus and the

child was sent to the pre-school.

Just because 'it appears to us' that our prayers are not answered it

doesn't mean that we are 'abandoned'. The 'un-answering' may be for

our better.

Umakanth

[Guest guest]

Excellent example!

 

I, too, tend to think of this situation as a mother

and her child. Children want cookies and sweets all

the time, but mother must put her foot down, knowing

that the child's stomach will ache with so much

sweets. Mother forces the child to eat his/her

veggies, but that doesn't mean she doesn't love the

child. I think it is quite the opposite; mother knows

what is best for her child. And thus, God knows what

is best for us. Sometimes our prayers aren't answered

in the way we feel they should be answered, but

prayers are all answered in God's way.

 

With love,

Erica

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Kathy,

 

I understand what you mean when you say "dark night of the soul".

There were several years where I felt abandoned by God, but when I

came to the realization that it was I who had done the

abandoning...well, things changed quickly.

 

As humans, I think we tend to feel like we have all of the control in

our lives. We feel that we can always "make it better" or "change

it", and get frustrated when we try our best to make something happen

and, no matter what, it doesn't. I'm sure these are the times that we

feel God has abandoned us. It is very easy to think that because

we're not getting what we want exactly as we had envisioned, that God

doesn't love us. In my eyes, the situation is completely the

opposite. We don't have control, and the more we try and have a power

struggle with our lives, the more resistence we will meet with. If we

give all actions and thoughts to God, then how can we go wrong? If we

live every day as God's day, and perform every action as God's

action...how can we ever say something is wrong?

 

With love,

Erica

[Guest guest]

God knows what is best for us.

Further to my earlier reply, I wish to add that it is possible that

our requests are ALWAYS answered. But it takes time and effort

because one has to be 'in harmony' with God! By understanding over

time, and making effort to understand God, one can become 'in

harmony' with God. When a person reach that stage, his/her thoughts

travel in the same wavelength which the God intended it to be. A

person who has reached that stage will find that his/her requests are

ALWAYS answered.

Umakanth.

[Guest guest]

Umakanth's msg dated 19 inst. induced me to tell a short story (in

fact not a strory but an incidence, concerning Meher Baba, whome we

Baba lovers are convinced to have been Avatar of the age - same

ancient one as Rama, Krishna,Zoroster, Christ, Muhammad and Budha)

Once in the year 1952 or so,he wa at Haradwar. Many disciples used

to gathers to him for "darshan and satsang." Once two persons, one a

sanyasi and the other a Vedantic scholer went to see him. After the

satsang was over , every one began to bow down at Baba and Baba would

give fruits, sweets etc. as Prasad. That day Baba gave the sanyasi

and the scholer ( they shared a common room for stay) a very large

quantity of fruits, sweets etc. They were very much pleased firstly

because they had more than any one could get, and they were fasting

that day and could only take fruits and milk. Next day while going to

Baba's satsang, they bought a canvas bag and carried it with them.It

was just a chance that none brought anything for offering; therefore

Baba did not give a speck of any sweet or fruits.The satsang ended,

and they ( the sanyasi and the Scholer) began to depart gloomily. Baba

asked them, " are you both happy). The sanyasi told that they had

expected prasad in abandans, but they are sorry to commit a

foolishnes of buying a big canvas bag. To this Baba said

lovingly, "God gives you not what you "want", but what

you "need".Thus if God wishes to grace you, only then uyou get it,

not that if you wish and get it"

[Guest guest]

Thank you Umakanth, Kathy, Erica and Safar for your kind

contributions.

I would also like to add my 2 cents.

 

One day Ramana Maharshi was feeding the squirrels when a Muslim

devotee, who had been watching him, gave him a note in which was

written: "The squirrels are very fortunate because they are getting

the food from your own hands. Your grace is so much on them. We feel

jealous of the squirrels and feel that we also should have been born

as squirrels. Then it would have been very good for us."

 

Ramana Maharshi couldn't help laughing when he read this note. He

told the man, "How do you know that the grace is not there on you

also?" And then, to illustrate his point, he started to tell a long

story.

 

"One saint had the siddhi of correct predictive speech. This is,

whatever he said came true. In whatever town he went to, the local

people would come to him to have his darshan and to get his

blessings. The saint, who was also full of compassion, removed the

unhappiness of the people by blessing them. Because his words always

came true, the blessings always bore fruit. That is why he was so

popular.

 

"During his wanderings he came to a town where, as usual, a lot of

people flocked to him to get his blessings. Among the blessing

seekers there was a thief. He went to have darshan of the saint in

the evening and asked for his blessings. When the saint blessed him,

the thief was very happy. He felt certain that because of these

blessings, when he went out to steal at night, he would be

successful. But it turned out otherwise. Whenever he went to break

into a house, somebody or other from that house would wake up and he

would have to run away. He tried in three or four places but he could

not succeed anywhere.

 

"Because of his failure, the thief got very angry with the saint.

Early the next morning he went back to him and angrily said, 'You are

an impostor! You are giving false blessings to the people.'

 

"The saint very peacefully asked the reason for his anger. In reply

the thief narrated in detail how unsuccessful he had been during his

attempts to steal the previous night. Having heard his story, the

saint commented, 'In that case, the blessings have borne fruit.'

 

"How?" the thief asked with astonishment.

 

"Brother, first tell me, being a thief, is it a good or a bad job?"

 

"It is bad," the thief admitted, but then he defended himself by

saying, "but what about the stomach that I have to feed?"

 

The saint continued with his explanation: "To be unsuccessful in bad

work means that the blessings have indeed borne fruit. There are so

many other ways of feeding the stomach. You should accept any one of

them. To come to this conclusion it was necessary that you be

unsuccessful in your thieving work."

 

"The thief understood and informed the saint that in future he would

take up some other honest work. He prostrated before the saint and

left."

 

Having narrated the above story, Sri Ramana Maharshi asked the Muslim

devotee, "Do you mean to say that if everything goes according to

your desires, only then is it possible to say that the grace of a

saint has worked?"

 

"I don't understand," replied the Muslim.

 

Ramana Maharshi explained in more detail: "The blessings of a saint

perform the purificatory work of life. These blessings cannot

increase impurity. One whose understanding is limited will ask for

blessings so that he can fulfill certain desires, but if the desires

are such that their fulfillment will make the seeker more impure

rather than purer, the saint's blessings will not enable him to

fulfill the desires. In this way the seeker is saved from further

impurities. In that case, are not the saint's blessings a gift of

compassion?" The Muslim finally understood and was satisfied by these

words.

 

----------

 

What we WANT, may be different from what we NEED. God does everything

only for our own good. Thus He gives us all we NEED, and not all we

want.

(Btw, is there an end to the list of what we want?)

 

Hari Aum !!!