"Sache Phansi Chadh di wekhe, Jhothey Mauj Manadi" WHY?

September 12, 2002

Hello Satish,

>>"The truthfull persons are seen in this world ofeten suffering like

a death sentence, while liers and blasphmiiers are found making

meeriment and rejoicing in this world." <<

What is suffering? When do you say a person is suffering?

Let's look at the following story :

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening

appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as

it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it

seemed to

stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it

could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the

butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the

cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a

swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to

watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the

wings would enlarge and expand to be able

to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the

rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled

wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and

haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the

struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening

were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into

its wings so that it would be ready for flight once

it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our

lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any

obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what

we could have been. We could never fly!

I asked for Strength.........

And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom.........

And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity.........

And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage.........

And God gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love.........

And God gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors.........

And God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted ........

I received everything I needed!

EACH AND EVERY ADVERSITY HAS A SEED OF

EQUIVALENT OR GREATER BENEFIT - NAPOLEAN HILL

----------

As Erica, and pyari_h said, the Lord is all Merciful. how then can an

all Mercifull confer suffering on His devotees? The very fact that we

think we are suffering is b'cos we do not have sufficient faith in

the Almighty. Can the Ocean of Kindness ever be partial and confer

suffering only to a select few and that too to His devotees / dear

ones?

That apart, if you have an ore of gold, it is practically useless

unless you purify the ore and separate pure gold from the dross.

Only when the gold is subjected to a lot of heat, can it be purified,

melted and made into a beautiful ornament.

People joining the military /army / navy undergo a lot of heavy

training. Only those subjected to harsh trainings can become good

soldiers / commandos / black cats etc.

So too these obstacles we face make us stronger, though it may not be

apparent at the moment.

When do we say we suffer? We say we suffer only when our desires are

not fulfilled. When there are apparent obstacles in our path to

achieve something we want, we say we are suffering. But in reality it

is only a purificatory / strenghtening process, that we construe as

suffering.

Just like how the caterpillar, may think it is undergoing great

suffering, and that its freedom is curbed inside the cocoon, but in

reality, it's undergoing an internal transformation process, so it

becomes a butterfly after the process is over. Now as a butterfly it

enjoys greater freedom than it had as a caterpillar. But so long as

it is in the cocoon, it must undergo the purificatory process.

So too, our suffering is only what we infer of the obstacles we face

in gratifying our desires. But in reality we are quietly getting

transformed internally. Our freedom seems to be curbed, but only so

we enjoy greater freedom eventually.

I conclude with the following story by Ramana Maharshi :

One day Sri Bhagavan 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."

Sri Bhagavan 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 Bhagavan 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.

Sri Bhagavan 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.

Hari Aum !!!

September 12, 2002

Dear Satishji,

Your question is very valid and has been asked by many before. The enjoyment and

suffering we see in the world is the result of our own past actions (Karmas). If

we were to take a mundane example of a person working on a monthly wage, he goes

to work daily and work hard all day but he is not rewarded for his hard work

every evening at the end of the day's work. He gets rewarded for the work done

on the 1st of the month only after a month. The law of Karma works something

like this example of the mundane world, but is under the total control of the

Law Maker, the Supreme Being, without any favor or discrimination. Have no doubt

about it, the people who take advantage of their position or riches and make

others suffer, cannot escape the rod of justice of the Lord. They are writing a

bleak future for themselves. The Nature is very ruthless. When death comes, no

distinction is made, between the beggar and the king, in His court of justice.

When an earthquake or a hurricane comes it levels every thing without any

distinction. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that the Nature (Prakriti) works

under my control, "Maiya Adhaikshena Na Prakritihi". Therefore the people

walking the path of righteousness should never give up their path by observing

the bad people enjoying.

There are two types of results of actions (Karma Phalas) viz. immediate and long

term. The immediate we realize in this lifetime itself and the long term in

future incarnations. For instance a doer of good actions will have peaceful life

and a tranquil mind where as an evil doer shall always live in fear and have an

agitated mind in spite of him looking happy and prosperous externally.

OM, radhakutir.

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