God's delicate balance in life

So beautiful is God’s creation that He has incorporated a delicate, fine and functional balance in nature, which occurs seemingly magically and naturally.

Several of life’s most intense mysteries are somehow cleared by God’s omniscient hand. For example, how does one explain that in some families only sons are born, in some only daughters are born, while in others, there is a mix of both sons and daughters, yet the balance of gender ratios is maintained. Perhaps, in this modern milieu, one may add that gender ratios are getting skewed, but they are wholly due to manmade reasons, like aminocentesis or female infanticide.

This “balance in nature” is seen also in various dichotomous opposites, like, for example, there are punya (good deeds) balanced by papa (evil deeds), atma and anatma, light and darkness, beauty and grotesqueness, debilitating pain and astounding success, despair and ecstasy, rejuvenating hope and despondent hopelessness, spring and winter, sweetness and bitterness, and so on.

In each of these sets of opposites, the good balances out the bad with perfect equanimity. How does this act of God’s balance benefit us? If one has not hit the nadir of despair, how will one ever be able to revel in the peaks of ecstasy? If one has not gone through a tunnel of utter bleak darkness and despair, will one ever be able to fully appreciate the value of light? Indeed, the famous quotations in P B Shelley’s poem, ‘Ode to the West Wind’ says it all, “When winter comes, can spring be far behind?” This implies that one will experience a relatively more hopeful spring only after one has undergone the debilitating nature of a cold, bleak winter.

In some instances, the same object can cause both positive and negative overtures, in different contexts. For example, in a scuffle between two men, one man got hurt as the other man was wielding a sharp knife. However, should one see a surgeon brandishing a knife to do a complicated surgery with his deft and dexterous hands, that would not raise eyebrows, as the surgeon is using the knife to, perhaps, cut away a malignant tumour or abscess, which, if not removed, could grow and fester. Thus, good and bad are like the body and shadow. Unless there is bad, one will not be able to appreciate the all-encompassing beauty of goodness.

Having written so much, how is one to deal with nagging, persistent pain? It would be judicious and prudent for one to discern that pain is a temporary phase between two bouts of pleasure, and that it being temporary means it will not last forever. 

Therefore, to get over it, one can tell one’s self that one should not overly grieve and succumb to despondency. Instead, one should tell one’s self repeatedly, “This, too, will pass”, and surprise of all surprises, it does! If one faces, endures and braves this painful phase stoically and with effervescent courage, one will then be in a better position to bask, revel and enjoy the ensuing bliss and happiness that follows!