Embracing Life’s Challenges with Faith
God and the Saints are omnipotent, they have unlimited power at their disposal. This is why it is said that they are free to do what they want, not do what they want, and do otherwise as well. Nevertheless, God and the Saints follow spiritual laws. Neither does God or any Saint, for example, alter his destiny, then what to speak of altering the destiny of others? A Saint endures the consequences of his destiny and does not experience any pain stemming from it. A Saint does not experience any sorrow due to loss, infamy, death, and so on. In other words, a Saint accepts his destiny and does not act contrary to the laws of God. In fact, even God Himself allows things to flow uninterruptedly!
The Pandavas, for example, were all Saints and great devotees of Shri Krishna, and yet they wandered in the forest for 14 years and suffered tremendous hardship. Lord Rama spent 14 years in the forest too, with His gentle consort, Sita, and they both endured hardships. But the Lord did not alter His destiny. Shri Rama did not nullify the boon given to Kaikeyi. He suffered His destiny too.
Jagadguru Shri Kripalu Ji Maharaj points out that the wise accept their destiny, whereas the foolish cry over it. A Saint endures his destiny happily, and we must endure ours gladly too. When someone murders somebody he understands that his actions will result in the death penalty. He is told, “If you murder this person, you will hang for it.” “Let them hang me,” he retorts, “what does it matter!” Knowing this, he then commits murder.
Similarly, we have committed an infinite number of sinful acts in our infinite past lives. When it comes time to bear the consequences of some of them, we must learn to do so happily. After all, to do any unsavoury action, we first turn a blind eye to the teachings of the Saints and ignore the scriptures. We say at that time, “I don’t care about that! I will do as I please.” Now, when the time has come to suffer the punishment for your actions, you try to beg God for forgiveness. Do you really think that God will forgive you just like that? Even a worldly government does not flippantly forgive people. Whether a person has committed one murder or 100 murders, he will hang for it. “But, your honour, I only killed 1 person. Please forgive me. I promise not to kill anyone again.” There is not a court in this world that would accept such a plea and free that person …
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