Our Faith in God should be Firm, Unflinching
A child crying for its mother will not cease crying until it is reunited with her. So, too, the individual soul will find no peace until it is re-united with the Cosmic Soul, or God. Our main care, therefore, should be to see how we shall attain God, and not how we can mend a rickety prapancha. We cannot rid ourselves of worry for prapancha unless we repose firm faith in God. If He is the protector of the universe, are we not ourselves under His protection? Remember always that everything that happens is entirely by His will and in His wisdom; then the difficulties and trials of prapancha will not bother you. Only see that your faith in God is unflinching.
We read in the puranas that one day, in the course of the Kaurava-Pandava war, Bhishma, the patriarch, vowed that he would kill the Pandavas. They, knowing that his vow would never be void and ineffectual, naturally became very anxious. However, Draupadi's faith in Lord Shrikrishna was unshakable. She referred the matter to Him. He said, 'Undoubtedly, Bhishma's vow can never fail. Still, let us try a stratagem.' He led Draupadi to Bhishma's quarters, where at night access was permitted only to women and sannyasins. Himself staying outside, he said to Draupadi, "Bhishma is about to fall asleep; you go in and bow to him in the traditional manner, but taking care to rattle your bangles," the bangles indicating that the one bowing was a woman with the husband living. On her doing so, Bhishma spontaneously responded with the traditional blessing, 'May you and your husband live long.' Then looking at her, he discovered to his dismay that it was Draupadi! He said, "Draupadi, somebody has evidently prompted you to do this!" and coming out, right enough, he discovered the prompter, Lord Krishna Himself. The task had been achieved, thanks to His help.
So have single-minded, unswerving faith in Him. If there is anything that militates against such faith, it is our personal pride, our vanity, our ego. It affects all, high and low, and sometimes becomes so unquenchable that God has to incarnate Himself to annihilate it.
The sovereign remedy to check and destroy this ego is nama-smarana, provided it is done with unswerving, single-minded faith, and with no object but nama itself.
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