Don't blame the path!

Broadly speaking, people enter the world of spirituality to get their desires fulfilled. They have a mindset, if I do whatever the spiritual practices, I will get what I want. Now, there is nothing wrong with this mindset.

Let's discuss this in layman terms. For a moment lets just assume, we know nothing about spirituality. We are completely new to this term. Now, lets take an example. A boy Pintu, wants to clear his exams. Say, he wants to top that exam. His exams are about 4 months from now. If he approaches you, and asks you, 'what should I do to clear this exam?', What will you answer? 'Pintu, just give your 100%, study well, focus, concentrate, work hard... etc. etc.'


There are 2 factors to success:
1) Handwork/Commitment/Perseverance/Giving your 100% (whatever name you wanna give)
2) Luck

If you are looking for success in any areas of life. It could be getting married, Clearing an exam, Promotion, Job/Finance, Health.. anything.. the above 2 factors are important.

The 1st factor depends completely on your efforts. How much efforts you put in. The 2nd factor, luck, is something which you cannot control directly. But you can influence luck to favour you indirectly. Regular Sadhana, Seva, Satsang, Being in Knowledge (complete relaxation and aware with eyes open) helps you improve your luck. And the best part is, while the 1st factor depends upon how much effort you put in, Positive influences from Sadhana depends upon how much effortless you are. Sadhana is all about relaxation, forgetting everything for those 20-30 minutes; complete relaxation. (I am nothing, I want nothing, I do nothing). If you are giving your 100% to meditate, then what you are doing is concentrating, its not sadhana. Give your 100% efforts to be regular in Sadhana (not in your sadhana). In addition to Sadhana, Seva is equally important. Doing something good for your society, for people around you (without expecting anything in return), helps you earn lots of blessings, which contributes towards your good luck. Satsang is sharing of knowledge, being with the right/good company (people), singing bhajans of the Divine, strengthens your faith. Without regular Satsang your faith starts shaking, doubt creeps in. Thus regular Seva, Satsang and Sadhana helps improve your good luck.

Interestingly, whenever someone wants something, their focus is on the end result, and not on the efforts. I am working hard, I am doing regular Seva, Sadhana, Satsang, then why am I not getting what I want? Immediately the next question comes, Is this spiritual path working or not!? You don't doubt your efforts, don't doubt if you are giving your 100% or not. You doubt the spiritual path, the techniques. Go back to our above example of Pintu. If you want to achieve something, just keep giving your 100%, don't stop.. keep trying.. keep moving, don't get stuck. Luck is just an addition to your handwork, its like a bonus. Shift your focus from the 2nd factor: 'These techniques/meditation is not working for me' to the 1st factor: 'How can I improve my efforts/How can I work smart'

Nothing will happen if you just keep waiting. You need to put efforts to make things happen. Similarly, only efforts won't always help you, Luck is also necessary.

Best Mantra of life is:
Whatever you can do, give your best efforts to do it
Whatever you can't just surrender that to the Divine/God/Guru, whomsoever you believe in.
Wise ones do it simultaneously. Surrender your desires, at the same time, give your best efforts to achieve them :)

When we do spiritual practices, we have our focus on a desire/set of desires. And we keep looking at that box of desires, to see, If I am getting what I want. What we are unaware of is, there are so many things, out of the box that are getting fulfilled in the process. We don't even know what is gonna happen in our next lifetime but the good karma that you gain with regular sadhana, satsang and seva, helps in your next lifetime. So even though you may feel, nothing is happening, in reality a lot is happening! :)

In life there are 2 things:
1) Destiny that can be changed
2) Destiny that can't be changed

You don't know and you can't know which can be changed and which can't. So the best thing is keep giving your 100% efforts. And if you fail to achieve what you want to, make sure you doubt the 1st factor and not the 2nd. Ask yourself, why did I fail? Can I do something about it? Which areas can I improve? Remember luck is always there, if you are regular in your spiritual practices, so don't doubt that. The only thing you can improve on is, the efforts that you give.

Balance is required in what you do. If you just do seva, satsang, sadhana, and expect to clear/top an exam, without giving your 100% to prepare for the exam, it won't happen. Plan it out, balance things. We have multiple roles to play in life. Keep aside some time to give 100% efforts for what you desire to have in life, some time for seva, some time for satsang.. sadhana.. plan it out.. and make sure you maintain the balance.

I did everything... everything... still I failed. What to do?
Before you say this statement, make sure you haven't given up. Don't give up trying.. Keep trying.. till you reach a point where you can't do anything. A situation where things are not in your control. Lets take an example of a couple, who want to become parents. They tried everything, they could, Doctor's help, Ayurveda, IVF everything. They are also regular in their sadhana, seva, satsang, still nothing happened. What to do then? Then just surrender. Just surrender that pain/disappointment/desire to the Divine, and move on. Accept that this is one such destiny which can't be changed, and move on. No one has to be blamed here. Just accept that this is best for me, and good that this has happened, with full faith that Divine knows what is best for me, and move on.

There are lots of things that we don't know. About our previous lifetimes, our karma. Have faith in the Divine that He knows what is best for us, and move on. But that doesn't mean you stop doing your seva, satsang, sadhana. Keep doing it, because just the way you do not know your past lifetimes, you do not know your next lifetimes. So keep doing the good work, without expecting what is the outcome.

Things start becoming clearer when you find out what is the purpose of life? Why did God send me to earth? What does he want from me? Continued in my next post.