Treat Your Family Life as Belonging to God
What is vairagya but discontinuance of desire to have this or not to have that? If a calamity comes, instead of wishing it away, we should remember God and pray, "Lord, do not let me ever desire to ask for anything." While you should not deliberately cause suffering to your body, if suffering does come in natural course, accept it calmly, ungrudgingly, cheerfully.
If one feels or knows that prapancha is unreal, is it not inconsistent that one should wish or expect it to be comfortable, or to relish it? Let it be as it may; let us do it only as a duty, as an actor's part in a drama. Do not arrogate to yourself credit as doer, whether in prapancha or in sadhana; for, while the former is the fruition of prarabdha, the latter is really the prompting of the sadguru. Worrying about either is therefore futile, and it is best to accept cheerfully whatever happens. The moment you give yourself up to the sadguru, your past actions and sins become his concern, and he takes charge of your future as well. So cease brooding over past sins, and give up all anxiety about the future; live in the present in joy and contentment.
Spiritual life is nothing but leading worldly life as a proxy-holder for God, the proper owner. To maintain constant remembrance of Him, to ascribe all ownership and doership to Him, to do everything only on His behalf, is true dedication. To say only at the end of an action or episode "I dedicate this to Thee" – does this not imply that I had been unmindful of Him the rest of the time?
So we should pray to God thus: "O Lord, call me Thine. I lay down my mind and heart at Thy feet. Let me never feel the desire to ask anything of Thee." Asking for anything but His name is like begging the King for a broom. If you pray to God in right earnest, He will surely guide you. As we walk in the dark at night, a lightening flash lasting only a fraction of a second may show us the entire way ahead; similarly, if we pray earnestly to God, He does not withhold His guidance. Assure Him that you will like whatever He bestows on you, and keep His constant remembrance. Can there be any other way to meet Him?
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