An extract from the book
“Glimpses of the Divine Vision” by Swami Ramdas – Section “Sorrow and Pain”
·
In the play of external nature, the so-called changes, losses and
failures are inevitable. If it were not so, the universal divine game would not
be there before you. Therefore, view all things as a dispassionate witness and
find your union and oneness with the all-inclusive swarup of God. Play the part
which God has set for you in the spirit of perfect submission to His will
through all the vicissitudes of life. The object of human life is to liberate
it from its self-imposed limitation and bondage, by mingling it with the
eternal and ever free Reality, taking all your activities as a spontaneous and
playful movement of the Divine shakti that works within you and everywhere. To
attain this freedom means to behold the same Truth revealed in all beings, creatures
and things in the world, which is at once manifest and unmanifest. Sorrow and
pain having been completely conquered, your life now becomes the very
expression and movement of immortal bliss.
·
Do not forget that you live and move in a world which is really a
passing show. Do not be attached to it, nor be in any way identified with it.
Take the whole world-game for what it is worth. God is the only Reality, the
only Truth-and to reach Him is the one principal aim of existence. When you
have sincerely struggled for and have ultimately attained Him, you will have
fulfilled the mission of your life. Keep up a constant and unbroken remembrance
of God, and dispel from your mind the darkening influence of doubt and sorrow.
·
Do not go over the past. The voracious time has swallowed it up.
Let the future not worry you, since what is ordained is sure to take place. In
the present, take heart, having perfect trust in the Almighty. Your faith in
God be the healing balm for the sharp pains of life. Faith is no faith if it
cannot grant you endurance, resignation and peace.
·
God is ever busy in freeing you from the tangle of worldly
friendship and attachments which are in their very nature unstable and
unreliable, and, therefore, bring you nothing but sorrows and anxieties. Let
this experience teach you that if there is one whom you can entirely trust and
for whom you should offer the love of an undivided heart, it should be the
supreme Lord Himself who has His eternal seat in your heart.
·
God is all merciful. Pray to Him. “O God, lead me from the unreal
to the Real; from darkness to Light; from death to Immortality.” When He makes
you pass through many a painful ordeal of life, it is only to awaken you to the
ultimate Reality. World is a great school of experience; but it is impermanent,
it is unreal. Kunti Devi, mother of the Pandavas, prayed for pain and trouble,
so that she may ever remember the Lord. Pain and sorrow purify your heart and
free you from illusions. Then it is that you are eager and earnest in your
quest for an existence beyond the tribulations of this world. Merciful and
loving God is, when He sets you on this quest; but the path leading to it is
fraught with severe trials, a necessary condition for the attainment of the
divine goal. Behind all this turmoil-acute pangs of misery, anxiety and
suffering-there is a spotless state of absolute peace. That is your goal. All
pass away, but He who is that absolute peace is eternal.
·
Suffering is the very spice of life. Suffering is the glorious dawn
that heralds the coming of the blazing sun and a brilliant day of absolute
freedom and joy. Verily, blessed is he for whom suffering is no suffering.
Surely he is now enjoying the very nectar of immortal bliss and peace.
·
Body is a queer instrument. It is subject to all sorts of
disorders. This is true in the case of everybody. Be conscious always that you
have a body and not that you are the body. This practice of dissociation from
the body will set the physical machine right.
