Digest #1232

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Message: 1

Tue, 27 Aug 2002 10:44:00 -0000

" neetadixit " <neetadixit

Re: Suffering

 

Hello All,

 

This is in response to all said about suffering. I am lost my baby

last week , she was just seven months old. I was a great worshipper of

lord shiva and hanuman , but all my worship and fasts went in vain,

for i couldnt save my baby. I really wonder what life is al about, and

when someone speaks abut suffering it pains me to know that people can

only sympathize with you but can't empathize.

 

 

Dear neetadixit,

 

Your message rends my heart. I have not had a child die, but my mother

did and so did my sister. My mother said there was nothing worse that

could be imagined than to have one's child die; my sister took to her

bed and refused to get up or to eat -- until my mother stood at the foot

of it and said to her, " Are you so selfish as to lie there feeling sorry

for youself when others need you? Get up! "

 

Lord Shiva and Hanuman see you and your child from a very high place,

where all suffering and all happiness join -- and only they can know

what each of us has to experience in this life. After living a long time

I look back on terrible suffering I have experienced and realize that it

was for a good purpose, that I needed each experience of suffering to

grow toward the ideal I sought. Not that I have reached that ideal, but

it is closer.

 

Please remember the story in the Buddhist tradition of the person going

from door to door to find someone who had not suffered the death of (I

believe it was a child). There was not one household which was free

from such suffering. (Perhaps someone on the list can offer this story

correctly, my memory is not complete.)

 

We cannot understand all the things of this world which we face. We CAN

hold onto the Strength of our strength which lies deep within. In

devotional language, Chaitanya said:

 

" A drowning man in this world's fearful ocean

Is thy servant, Oh Sweet One...

 

" Prostrate at Thy feet let me be, in unwavering devotion,

Neither imploring the embrace of Thine arms

Nor bewailing the withdrawal of Thy presence

Though it tears my soul asunder.

Oh Thou, who stealest the hearts of Thy devotees,

Do with me what Thou wilt --

For Thou art my heart's Beloved, Thou and Thou alone. "

 

And so is He the Beloved of your child. Your child is in His embrace,

there is no question about it.

Edith