Facing Life’s Challenges
We live in this world, and it offers us lots of challenges. When we are thinking that everything is going fine, something happens, and everything goes off balance. Some of the great teachers have said there is no point in wearing different robes and going away into the forest and sitting in caves and meditating. We are in this world; we have to sort out this world’s problems first and we have to live in this world and face so many situations. It is important how we face the world.
The moment we think everything has been sorted out, something raises its head. It is normal and it happens to everybody. When we think that now life is all fine, we are enjoying it, there is something lurking on the other side. This is not to paint a pessimistic picture of life, but life is like that — these are facts that we have to accept.
Life is full of ups and downs. We do not have to be afraid of it but understand that when we are on a high, be prepared. There might be a low coming! We have to first accept that it is like this. Then comes the next step of how we can tackle this. Actually, this fact of ups and downs, cannot be tackled. We can get temporary solutions but there are no permanent solutions. Can anybody completely tackle death? Can someone tackle old age? One cannot tackle it or hold it. Death has to come.
There is no doubt that there is suffering in this world. But happiness is also there. There seem to be some people who are not so concerned about their own suffering, which is inevitable, but they want to help and save others from whatever suffering they can. Where does this feeling come from?
There is some dimension in the human being which is outside the clutches of the ups and downs, of happiness and pain. There is, in human beings, some part of one’s core, of one’s consciousness, something which is not of this body, and which is not affected by any of these things, which by its very nature, is a spark of the divine and which by its very nature is full of joy.
Unfortunately, we look for solutions outside — we are looking in the wrong direction. If the search can turn inward, we will find that the satisfaction which we seek is actually within us. It is the spark of the divine which is in every living being but all living beings other than humans cannot go back and find it.
When we understand this fact and say that in this world there is only one whom we can call our own, that is the Supreme Being whose spark is in us — we could call him God or nature or whatever we want. That is the only true friend we have. All other friendships can fall at any time.
It is not that the Supreme Being is not present outside. If it is all-pervading, it is everywhere but our contact is only through the inside and when the inside opens up then we become more and more selfless, the Lotus of the heart opens up, then everybody is our own. There is nobody who is not our own, whether the person is kind to us or cruel to us, it does not matter!
So, there are no permanent solutions — accept this fact and understand that the permanent solution lies within us — because within is divinity. So, while we work in this world, we should keep our mind centred inside — then we can tide over all the problems that we will come across.
