The Wise Accept the Results of “Prarabdha”
All of us are searching for the correct path to carry on our mundane worldly existence, everyday and every moment. Each moment confronts us with a new question, a new problem whether regarding our duties, family, society, body or mind. Then we seek for an answer and a solution. No sooner than one problem is over, another unknown problem appears suddenly. Then we try to find out if there exists any correlation between our actions and these problems, only to find that in certain cases there is none. Then we start blaming someone else or the circumstances, since we imagine ourselves as the victim of the problems rather than being the creators.
For example, a car comes and hits one when one is standing in the extreme corner of a street; or towards the end of one’s life one has suffered form cancer in spite of all the precautions one had taken throughout one’s life.
Such a situation evokes the thought that if in this life one has not done anything which could have been the cause of troubles, then why do such things happen? Some people even think that if one is conducting so many prayers in the temple and feeding the poor then why is it that one’s child fails in the examination or one’s wife falls sick?
Unlimited numbers of such thoughts, like the waves of a sea, often arise in us and create mental turbulence. When one links devotional or religious activities, like visiting a temple with the failure of one’s son or the sickness of one’s wife so directly, it surely proves that prayers to the Deity or Guru are not with any other higher intention than simply to be saved from all the troubles and tribulations of life. Such limited type of devotion is an attempt to achieve desirable results and not spiritually experience the Deity or Guru.
Such people, at times, leave the path when their wishes are not fulfilled. They do not understand that the effects of the actions of the previous lives also manifest in this life. Particularly, the sudden and unforeseen incidents are the results of the “Prarabdha” i.e. actions of the last lives.
Unwise people do not want to accept the unhappy results of their own sinful actions. They aspire only for desirable and good results to all their actions, good or bad. When in distress, one feels miserable thinking that others are not facing the same troubles, but one forgets the brighter aspects of one’s life. Unhappiness creates such illogical thoughts in the mind. Such limited thinking is like an attempt to stand on the Earth and calculate the number of hills on the Moon.
Sadguru Sai promised that “I shall help you to bear the reactions to all your past actions easily, if your faith and patience in Me is unflinching”. Many such examples can be found in Shri Sai Satcharita.
Sadgurus do not break the laws of nature, but they manipulate the Natural Laws in such a manner, that their faithful devotees can face the ordeals of life rather easily.
Source: NEW YEAR MESSAGE (2002) by Dr. C B Satpathy