Today we are the product of our entire past plus ‘what’ and ‘how’ we have faced life during the last 24 hours. Tomorrow we will be ‘what’ we are now plus ‘what’ and ‘how’ we have faced the life’s challenges from now till tomorrow dawn. This is the law, the cosmic justice, the grand old scheme.
Act by act we are building ourselves. Each experience, be it pain or joy, is one more brick added to the individual personality structure. Real yogī is the one who has completely renounced his ‘I’ness and has entirely surrendered to Him who is the Lord of health and diseases!
Whatever He provides for the enjoyment of the yogī is to him honey! Let it be illness; let it tie him to his bed for the rest of his existence in this embodiment – if he but once knows that it has all happened in His will, then where is the loss?
Even illness, when it comes, has a benevolent sevā (service) to do for the patient. Illness may not be recognised as a blessing when viewed in the limited sense of the tiny present. But viewed in the larger scheme of the vast future, pain has a meaningful message. Both in pain and in illness, may we learn to watch for, and apprehend His intelligence!
Once our surrender is thus complete, He will have to take care of our sādhanā (spiritual practice), our progress and our final Liberation itself.
Whether we recognise it or not, whether we accept it or not, each one of us is in His hands. Śrī Nārāyaṇa (the supreme Lord) alone guides us all, through chosen sets of experiences to suit best the individual temperaments, faults and weaknesses that work in each one of us, until we reach His abode!
Thus whatever be our lot in any given moment, never, never, should we grumble or protest or complain. Call on Him. Beg Him to give us strength to face the day’s challenges and commission Him with love, to lead us ever through the śreyas path (the path of good).