Friday, June 21, 2013

Obstacles


Hari om
Tonight is supposed to be the longest night in the year. It has been predicted that there will be an eclipse during September that will affect the whole world. It has started in India where complete buildings and bus-loads of people disappeared when the Ganges came down in flood – over the past three days. They've rescued fifty thousand people but thousands are still missing. We'll pray for them and start with the Gayathri Mantra.

We go through this life and on our journey through life we are confronted with many obstacles.  Some of us live all our lives just by listening to negative things which become our obstacles. Obstacles are there so we can become better people, better businessmen or teachers, but if we do not transcend the obstacles then we cannot become better people, mothers, fathers, or teachers. God sometimes tells us 'no' and we, in our own wisdom, think God does not know what we want. God always knows what you want. Therefore, sometimes when you think you have got what you want and it doesn't work out, the first thing you want to do is blame God for not directing you. Yet God gave you the answer of 'no' but you were too blind to accept the answer.

And we all sometimes get caught in these situations, but these situations can be overcome. I was just listening to TD Jakes on TV just now. He said that instead of just stretching our hands out in front of us, we must stretch them out to the heavens. And I think that's what we lack. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, “Surrender to me totally,” but we are not prepared to make that surrender, and as soon as there is an obstacle, we either want to blame God or ask God to help. But most of the time these requests are too late. You become entangled in those obstacles and you cannot find a way out.

As I sit here I, myself, am victim to many obstacles on my life's journey, but at no moment, at no time, did I ever blame God, my guru, or my masters, for the obstacles that were placed in front of me. I always ask them to help me transcend the obstacles so that I can become a different, better person. And every time that's exactly what happens. They help me transcend and I became a different, better person. Life is a challenge. And the only result of the challenge is your awareness of what's in front of you. Your awareness of God, your awareness of your being. Only that. And once you have that awareness, the result will be what you wanted. But if you are not listening to what instructions are given to you by your guru, by your teacher, your mother, or father, then you will get hurt.

Every obstacle is a lesson to be learned, and in learning those lessons we remember them throughout our lives, and know how to handle them when they appear again. This is the only reason God gives us these obstacles, or puts them in front of us. Daily, we should read the pages of the Bhagavad Gita, without expectation. Do not set a goal and then read. Just read the Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Koran, whatever your book is, honestly – and you will attain. Whatever it takes you will attain. You cannot sit in your office if you're selling insurance, and write 'insurance'. In the same way you cannot expect God to help you without you taking a few steps towards Him. You have to meet that challenge of getting up and walking towards God. And then you'll realise that you were the only obstacle – your physical body and mind. Transcend those and your obstacles will be gone.

You know, strangely, that we have somebody with us today who did not even have the slightest idea that they would go through university and improve by obstacles. And today, they have one step to qualification, that's all. Why? Because this individual transcended every obstacle. As an obstacle came along, this individual went past it, over it, through it, but did not become one with it. And that is where many of you have failed. You become one with the obstacle, you absorb the obstacle and become an obstacle to yourself. Transcend your obstacles. Drop your losses. Come out of these clothes and walk freely. Start life's journey with only one focus in mind, and that is God.
Hari om.