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When we understand that the Supreme Power knows better when to do what in our life, we will be able to face all the challenges cheerfully and harmoniously.

(Excerpts from Ma’s Q & A session during the 5th Global Bhagavad Gita Convention themed ‘Mental Harmony’)

Q : What disposition will help us navigate life’s challenges effectively?

Ma: Challenges are there for everyone, everywhere. We must take the challenges in stride and have an impartial outlook. Whatever comes, let it come, whatever goes, let it go. Whatever we have to act upon, let us act upon with full heart and mind, giving full skill and effort, but without any sanga (delusional clinging)—as Bhagavad Gita says.

Our attitude should be like an ocean – a vast body of water receiving all rivers with various kinds of water—pure as well as dirty. Does the ocean ever overflow or grumble? It remains as it is, quiet and unmoved. Some ripples will be there on the surface but deep inside nothing happens. Our real identity is like that, and this is how we should be—unaffected in the face of the challenges.

We all belong to the creator, the Supreme power. You can call him God, the Self, Supreme Lord, or anything. The fact is that there is a supreme power from whom the whole world manifests, wherein it is sustained and dissolved. Every one of us is a part of it in every aspect of our personality.

Can we control anything? No, we cannot. Nothing belongs to us– body, intelligence, senses, limbs, nothing. It is created by the creator, it belongs to the creator.  We do not possess anything.

We must do whatever comes to be done excellently, perfectly, not carelessly, with whatever faculties you have been given, working as an instrument of the Supreme Power. This is how we should look at life, with no complaints. We are not in control of anything in life, but if that same power brings challenges to us, what shall be our attitude?

When we were in kharagpur, there was a very big Banyan tree with long branches reaching close to our windows. There were many birds’ nests on that tree. By 4 am, all the birds would get up and start chirping, singing to the Lord. One night there was a huge thunderstorm. A big branch fell along with many nests. The birds would have been drenched in rain water, their nests destroyed, but you know, right at 4 am they were unfailingly singing the same songs.

The thought came that when we have challenges, when we are in trouble, we do not think of God. We brood and complain and say, “Why me?” Instead of that, we should always remember the Supreme Power who creates and sustains us.  And when we also understand that this Supreme Power knows better when to do what in our life, we will be able to face all the challenges cheerfully and harmoniously, just like those little birds.

– Vicharasethu–July 2022