Page 93 - Bodhayanti Parasparam Vol 6

Suffering is the root and results are flowers
unabated channel of worries and disappointments. Commandment No.5 states “ Be truthful. Take miseries as Divine blessings for your own good and be thankful.” Such is the attitude to be cultivated in order to achieve complete success in reaching our goal. Detesting the fate in such circumstances is even more counterproductive and will only allow our own soul wean away from us.
Sufferings and miseries should lead to Vairagya. This condition lays down seeds of love and devotion to God and enables a true seeker to turn his attention towards Divine purposes. His vision changes and he begins to think that all the things before him are transient and changing and only unchanging is The Ultimate. A seeker who remembers Master and maintains constant remembrance and Goal clarity even during the period of suffering is bound to make enormous spiritual progress and taste Divine effulgence. Each suffering or misery might cause tidings to reach higher levels of spirituality and ultimately realize the Goal.
The following passage from SILENCE SPEAKS, aptly explains the role of sufferings and miseries in the spiritual career of an aspirant and the ways and means to convert them to our advantage.
Since we came into the world we have never been free from miseries, nor shall we ever be till we have secured our return to the homeland. Even avatars like Rama and Krishna had to undergo miseries so long as they were on this earth. In fact deliverance from pain and sorrow is the main pursuit of life. Mahatma Gandhi is said to have once remarked, `The way to freedom lies through jail!' If we take this world to be a prison-house, the above saying fits in quite appropriately in the spiritual sense also. In utter despair people often wish for an end to life. But in my opinion it shall be far better under such circumstances
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