Challenges in Life

Challenges in life come as opportunities for growth. The material challenges of life challenge us in every way. They challenge our faith in life in destiny in the Divine. This is the spiritual challenge before us They challenge us psychologically by testing our endurance our perseverance, our ability to face failures without giving up, our ability to find new routes when old methods are blocked or obstructed. They challenge our ability to stand steadfast in the face of adversity with courage and compassion and continue to work patiently against all odds and even sure failure. This is the challenge of life itself and those who can face it and take it with courage and smile are those who will pass and evolve to the next stage of development.

See how our forefathers faced life even when affected with extreme adversity. Look at the life of Rama, of the Pandava brothers, of Harishchandra, of Nala and Damayanti. They all faced sever crisis of destiny leading even to heavy financial losses of kingdom and jobs and family and everything else yet they did not give up psychologically. Instead they gathered their psychological and spiritual strength and with that energy and inner power rebuilt their outer world. But we have become worshipers of the easy way. We have stopped depending upon our own inner resources and turn towards government and machinery and people in power to help us. Our will has slept and feels inadequate to the challenges of life because we never trained and strengthened it. We have forgotten the inner Shakti within man which if awakened can give us all that we need or will ever need. It is this sense of helplessness born of psychological weakness and lack of spiritual strength that is the real reason for these challenges. They come to remind us of our inner strength, they come to awaken us to this inner Shakti within us but we only turn back into a corner in search for quick success, easy money and comfort zones.

I have seen a rush of young students preparing for Medicine and Engineering or Computers as if nothing else existed in the world. But why? The first thing we need to understand, – and this we can understand only with an enlightened spiritual vision, that no job is big or small, no person is big or small. It is out attitude that is important than the money we earn, the size of our house and the model of our car. These are the illusions we must shed. Instead of feeling weak and incapable we must remind ourselves every day that we are children of the World Mother whom even death cannot defeat what to say of temporary failures or difficulties of life. In fact it is to awaken us to this truth within us that the outer material challenges come. It is to open within us a deeper inner door passing through which we can transform life into a beautiful and mighty spring that rejuvenates and a flame of hope that scatters much darkness.

So we can say that all challenges and problems of life are essentially spiritual problems. They may come in the garb of physical and material problems but their solution lies as much within our mind and heart and will and soul as in outer systems and agencies that come to help and serve as substitutes for these nobler elements within us.