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.
