Miscellaneous - Religion   

Repose faith in God

CHENNAI: By and large people do not count their blessings and have a litany of complaints about what life has dealt them. So in their prayer they seek redress of their woes from God without considering whether their wishes are justified or not. And, when their desires are not fulfilled to their expectations they even go to the extent of blaming Providence for their lot without being content with whatever they have got.

In his discourse, Swami Swaroopananda said that there was no limit to human desires, which could be illustrated by a hypothetical example. A lady took her small child to the beach and both of them had a good time playing near the shore. At first, the waves were mild and gently washed their feet. As they were enjoying themselves the mother did not notice that the waves were becoming stronger and her complacence was rudely shaken when her child was dragged into the ocean by a huge retreating wave. She started screaming and praying, and God indeed answered her prayer, for after sometime, miraculously, the child was swept ashore.

One can imagine how ecstatic the mother would have been! After she had examined her child the mother started complaining as she discovered that one of the sandals it was wearing was missing instead of thanking that her child was alive. Man’s state of mind is very similar for he does not stop to thank God for all He enjoys by His grace and only complains about what he does not have.

Just as an elephant’s might is in its trunk, so also human strength is in the faith he reposes in God. The mark of true devotion is absolute faith that God guides one’s destiny and acceptance of whatever one enjoys in life as divine grace. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna underscores the importance of faith, “I consider them to be the best Yogis, who endowed with supreme faith, and ever united through meditation with Me, worship Me with the mind centred on Me.” The saying that you become what you constantly think, which emphasises the power of thoughts, must be applied to strengthen faith in God.

The Gita is a very practical guide for day-to-day life and its teachings can be applied to life situations for finding solutions.

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