Faith and strength the soothing balm for the irritations of life

Swami Vivekananda

||Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam||

Aum Namo Narayanaya

 For one who believes that God has a hand in everything in His creation, I was not surprised when I walked into the satsangh at Head Quarters (Ramakrishna Centre) after a few weeks to be greeted by the Hanuman Chalisa recital 11 times. More especially, since Sri Ramachandra and Sri Hanumanji have been loitering in the corridors of my thoughts for a couple of weeks now.

This continuous enforcement of strength from my daily readings of Swamiji (Vivekananda) and of recent, the thoughts of Hanumanji completed the puzzle when I lucidly recall the events of Friday evening.

It was a wonderful autumn evening - characterised by the early withdrawal of Surya from the skyline and a brisk chill - inspiration and motivation enough to convince a nice walk to the temple as compensation for skipping gym for a few weeks.

The parking lot was teeming with activity - the youth were gathering in preparation for their Shakha session (Hindu games); whilst others made their way floridly adorned, wearing optimistic smiles and joy for the New Year (Tamil) that awaited them. The campus warmly received the guests and devotees with ornate lamps producing an aura of festivity as they flickered to the tune of the frigid breeze that flowed past.

The bells in the sanctum opened the proceedings punctually with the mantras and divine incenses competing for your attention. The stage was set as it were for the traditional reading of the almanac - a tradition where the priest would spell out the predictions for the New Year. It was not long into the reading when from the angle I was seated, I could not avoid noticing how the optimism gradually waned on many faces as he started to describe the Naandana Varasham (5113). He spoke of floods, earth quakes, corruption and tsunamis to mention a few of the predictions. To many it was like the winds of disillusionment extinguishing their lamps of hope. At this point, how I wished they had read Swamiji’s writings - the inexhaustible flame of inspiration and strength.

Words of power from Swamiji

Was there ever a time on this earth where what was mentioned above did not take place? Is there any scripture that guarantees that gold or oil will never finish and we will never have global warming? Is this corruption unique and new to our times? I think the questions are quite rhetoric. Once again, it was by no means co-incidental that during my morning readings of the Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna, that yesterday I read the page where Master spoke of this parable.

A lady who sold fish in a village at last came to her friend’s house who was a flower hawker. It was late so her friend asked her to spend the night. She made her bed in the room which was overwhelmed with the fragrance of flowers. The host noted that the guest had much difficulty in sleeping as she tossed about incessantly. The concerned host asked of her troubles, to which she said she was not familiar with the surroundings, and asked for her fish basket to be placed next to her. With this familiar smell of the fish from the basket it was not long before the guest was sound asleep. 

Why are we so afraid to embrace and entertain change? Motivational speaker and leadership trainer Dale Carnegie said: “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade”. Change in the world is inevitable; we must learn how to transform any situation for our benefit. In the business world this is called entrepreneurship; to the ordinary world I think realism would be the term to describe it.

These natural disasters, crime, etc. have been present all the time. The Bhagavad Gita teaches us in a nutshell that the past is the history and we can do nothing about it; the future is yet to come and we don’t know how it will unfold; what we have is the present and the now and we must make the most of it.

This whole creation is the cause of the Divine Father. Can we go against His will? The only thing we can do is make maximum use of the now. In a letter to His disciple in Madras, Swami Vivekananda explains:

My whole ambition in life is to set in motion machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and let men and woman settle their own fate. Let them know what our forefathers and nations have thought on the most momentous question of life. Let them see what others are doing and then decide. We are to put the chemicals together; the crystallisation will be done by nature according to her laws. Work hard, be steady and have faith in the Lord. Set to work. Therefore my friends, as one of your blood, as one that lives and dies with you, let me tell you that we want - strength, strength and every time strength. The Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world. The whole world can be vivified, made strong, energised through them. They will call with trumpet voice upon the weak, miserable and the down trodden of all races, all creeds and all sects, to stand on their own feet and be free. Freedom - physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are the watch words of the Upanishads.

Like how Eskom calls upon us daily to switch off nonessential equipment that puts undue stress on the electrical grid, let us not put trouble our minds with things that we have no control over. Utilise the now as Swamiji says by having firm conviction and faith in God to unearth the strength and divinity that is lying latent within us. Let’s awaken this power and harness it to create joy for ourselves and all around us with the attitude of service to the Lord Himself.

May we be victorious in this quest is my sincere prayer.

With love and prayers always

Yogan