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Problems are nothing

Last Updated 08 July 2012, 19:21 IST

In life, something that stops or bothers you is a problem. Everyone has similar problems like those of relationship, job/finance, health, and lastly last big worries about the country.

The mind stuck in a problem is a disturbed mind. Its five indications are sadness, bitterness,restlessness in the body, lack of coordination in the body and irregular breathing. When you are happy your incoming breath is longer but when you are sad your outgoing breath is more prominent. Our mind is troubled because it is dwelling in duality and a divided mind is misery.

Problems will disturb your mind and make you unhappy if you lack the following: Tapa
(penance), Vairagya (dispassion), and Sharanagati (surrender). Tapa means agreeing with the moment, total acceptance of pleasant or unpleasant situations. Vairagya means I want nothing and I am nothing and Sharanagati means "I am here for You, for Your joy." If you are grumbling then these are lacking, because when you accept the situation you cannot grumble.

When you take it as Tapa you will not grumble; when you come from a state of dispassion ("I don't want anything") you don't grumble and if you are surrendered you will have no complaints. So, all three purify your mind and uplift you in joy. If it does not happen willingly it will happen in desperation. First you say, "Nothing can be done." Then in anger and desperation you say, "I give up, I want nothing, I have no choice."

However, you can solve problems by, firstly, not having the problem at all. Know that life is too short to keep solving problems one after another. Just wake up and walk ahead, problems will get solved by themselves. The second thing is to willingly accept the problem and see it as a challenge. When you think that a problem cannot be solved then it is no longer a problem; it becomes a fact.

For example: Suppose the problem is that the ocean in Norway is too cold. To solve this, you cannot heat the ocean. Hence this problem cannot be solved. Now, it no longer remains a problem, it becomes a fact. Only when you are searching for a solution is there a problem and so there is no problem that cannot be solved.

Things like doing spiritual practices, listening to people who have more problems than you, serving them can help uplift your mood. If all these do not help, then try going to the mental hospital. Look at the patients there and Thank God that you are not there. If that also does not work for you then go to a crematorium. Look at all the bodies that come everyday. Know that you are also going to end in the same way one day. So what is the point in worrying?

Third, know that the problem is a boogey man, it is not real. Fourth, know that nature has provided you the solution even before giving you the problem. When it snows, there are no bacteria since no herbs to heal you grow in that season. In the spring, the herbs come first and then the bugs. In the summer, the shade comes before the summer sun gets strong.

So, nature takes good care of you. And solutions will come to you when you are calm and collected, you use your intelligence, are active and have strong faith in the Divine law.
Problems help us move from imperfection to perfection. A seed contains the tree but the seed has to cease to be a seed to become a tree. Neither the seed nor the sapling is perfect.

It has to cease to be a sapling to become a tree. So, in life you can either see imperfection at every step, or you can see a movement from one perfection to another perfection. Every problem, once solved, becomes an experience and each experience completes you. In the progression of life, you will leave behind every experience saying, "This is nothing."

Anything that is completed loses its importance. That is to say it leads you to void or nothing. A sign of intelligence is how soon you arrive at this understanding. Examine everything in life and say "This is nothing”. What remains after all that is Love, and that is everything.

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(Published 08 July 2012, 19:21 IST)

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