Problems and difficulties

We agonise ourselves in trying to make a problem vanish. God laughs at us. But as soon as we accept a difficulty as inevitable, ordained by Him, it slowly melts away until the day comes when we wonder where it has disappeared.

As soon as you have conquered a difficulty, you will find that it repeats itself on a higher and subtler level. It is the same essential weakness in yourself which you are made to face in a more refined form.

A problem exists only in our own consciousness. The same external situation becomes a problem for me but not for you. Why? Because it disturbs some element of my inner harmony, while yours is left untouched.

There is no other way to spiritual success than to sit at the feet of Patience, trusting to her lords, Time and Progress.

Adversity makes you dynamic. Adversity forces your eyes wide open. Adversity teaches you the meaning of patience. Adversity endows you with faith in yourself. Adversity opens the secret door through which you can see the ultimate future fulfilment of God’s Will.

Is there any way left for man to be free? Certainly there is. The moment he feels his mind to be a thought of God, he can be at large like a bird in the sky; his life, however fleeting, is a breath of his inner Pilot.

Aspiration can be raised to meet the Peace above; but Peace must be brought down to remove one’s difficulties.

Are you casting about for true happiness in life? If so, yield not to reason, yield not to fate, but yield only to the dictates of your Inner Voice.

Difficulty is often fed by its master, Distrust. What is the function of Distrust? Its function is to interfere with the action of the Divine Grace.

An absolute surrender to the Divine is the only strength that can help an aspirant to wrestle with all the outer and inner problems of life.

As our very existence depends on God alone, we must be independent of the values of others, the opinions of others, the demands of others.

Today properly guarded can easily escape tomorrow’s snare. It can even nullify yesterday’s stumbles.

To think that pain is a well-deserved punishment is wrong. To think that pain is an unavoidable heritage of karma is worse. To think that pain can never be surmounted is worst of all. Pain is a momentary experience of one’s limited self before it enters into the sea of Bliss.

Sri Chinmoy, Eternity’s Breath, Sri Chinmoy Lighthouse, New York, 1972