No Problem

We all face disappointments and adversities at some point in our lives. Life is not always a bed of roses; there are times when we find ourselves jumping with joy, moments when we cry and weep with sadness and periods when we simply experience the everyday problems of life.

Saints say that this whole world is full of sorrow, misery and sickness, which is why we can never find everlasting happiness here. We have read, ‘Whatever you sow, so shall you reap’. Whatever we have sown in past births, whether good or bad karma, we have now taken birth to reap the results of those karmas. The saints tell us that we have to live in the will of the Lord and pay for all those karmas without losing our balance.

So we have a choice – we can either give in to our despair and cry and lament and be miserable during times of difficulty or we can choose to put our faith and trust in the Master by living in his will.

Fortunate are the ones who refuse to be defeated and are able to deal constructively with life’s hardships. Success is not a matter of being the best but of being able to handle the worst. This can be done by thinking and living positively.

Our lives are greatly affected by how we think. Negativity keeps us trapped in our thoughts and prevents us from attending to meditation, making it more and more difficult to achieve our goal of going beyond the realm of the mind and merging with the divine within. Positivity, on the other hand, inspires a positive perception of a negative situation and helps modify the outcome for the better. So if we adopt a positive approach towards any obstacle we encounter, we will be able to rise above it, making it easier to focus on our meditation.

We have to train the mind by telling it to forgive and forget, to take things easily and lightheartedly, to laugh our troubles away and ignore them. No doubt, this takes great effort, determination, perseverance and most of all, God’s grace.

We cannot change the events of life but we can surely adjust to them. Destiny will play its part and we have to play ours by attending to meditation no matter what state we are in, whether we are elated or devastated. Saints explain that meditation will help us rise above our problems so that they will not affect us.

‘Problem’ is a relative word. Something may appear as a problem, but if we look at it from a different angle, it may not really be a problem at all. Saints say that if we attend to our meditation and are able to concentrate at the eye centre, and live according to the principles of the mystics, our willpower becomes very strong. This in turn helps us to face all the ups and downs of life. The bliss, peace and happiness that we build in meditation goes a long way in helping us confront these so-called problems and difficulties. We learn to keep our balance, and face situations smilingly.

A positive attitude gives us the ability to accept our condition and the inspiration to renew our commitment to meditation. We should let go of the problems of life and attend to our spiritual practice by adhering to the Sant Mat principles. We need to train ourselves to deal with the present and strengthen ourselves through meditation to be able to cope with the future. Then we will have no problems because whatever happens, we will remain in a state of balance, unaffected by the storms that are an inescapable part of the human experience.