Bodily Pleasures and Pain, and Spiritual Joy
You should, in your own interest, try to help others whenever you can. It will be fallacious to argue that you had rather leave them to suffer whatever God has ordained for them. That you cannot go contrary to His will is always fully true, but your attempt to help him is beneficial for your own self, because to that extent it wears down your 'body-am-I' feeling. What you do may or may not avail to the person concerned, according to God's will, but it will definitely count as your service to God. Suppose I ask you to nurse a sick person, you will do it very willingly, probably even enthusiastically, in obedience to your guru's behest. Why should you not take in the same light the illness or other troubles which God sends for you yourself? The difficulty is that you do not have the conviction that whatever He does is bound to prove good for you. Is it not highly improper to ask Him to remove the troubles that He has Himself sent to you? Also, since prarabdha cannot be by-passed, is it not wise to square the account right now rather than wish it to be merely deferred? Again, bodily pain and mental suffering being distinct from each other, the former should not detract from the mental or spiritual joy. Only he can live in peace who lives in God, that is, in nama-smarana. Therefore, one who wants contentment and joy should remain in ceaseless nama-smarana and anusandhana, that is, awareness of God. What is anusandhana, in essence? It simply means relating all your actions and thoughts to God; sleeping, sitting, rising, doing nama-smarana, reading, talking in earnest or joking, everything, in fact, including even breathing; this will bring you closer to God. One whom I have accepted as mine, I may help even in his prapancha, but certainly not to the extent that prapancha will engross his interest and strangle his ardor for paramartha. If I don't fulfill all his expectations, he may complain, may whine and whimper, even his faith in me may be shaken, but he will survive it all, and eventually come back to nama. The seed of nama-smarana is bound to sprout and flourish sooner or later. Awareness of God nullifies the snares of maya. Where there is maya, self-pride, God will not be found. * * * * * AUGUST 13
