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Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva.

 

Recently we came across a nice thought provoking story. Once there lived a poor man Ramu who was serving a saint. Pleased by his service, the saint gave him a gift and asked him to open it whenever he is in utmost difficult situation. Ramu thanked the saint for the gift. Soon after the saint left, Ramu got a job in the king's palace. Years passed by and when it was time for retirement, Ramu wanted to give some gift for the king. He gifted the king with the same gift which he got from the saint and also told him what the saint had mentioned about it. He added that he never faced any such situation so far and hence he had not used the gift till now. But he was sure that it is very valuable as the saint had assured it. After some time, a neighbouring rival king came with huge army and attacked the kingdom, abducted the princes and the queens. There was a great war and the king almost lost the battle. The rivals were chasing him and the king rode on his horse and reached a hill-top. His horse was very tired and was unable to move any further. Standing on the hill-top, the king could see the vast army of the rivals at the other end. He was sure that his end was near. Completely exhausted physically and mentally, he did not know what to do and prayed to God. At that time, he remembered the gift given by Ramu. He opened it and found the following sentence engraved in a palm-leaf - "This too shall pass!"  Those words gave him so much solace and peace that he unknowingly fell asleep.

 

After a few hours when he woke-up, to his utter surprise, the rivals were unable to locate him and had left the place. He remembered the saint's instructions, thanked God, picked up courage and somehow made his way back to his kingdom, gathered the soldiers and then fought with rival and got back whatever he lost. Soon after his victory, the king arranged for a great festival to celebrate the victory. He was proudly boasting to everyone about his glories. At that time his old servant Ramu came to him and said, "O King, I forgot to tell you that the saint also mentioned that when we are in height of joy, even then we need to refer to his gift." Then immediately the king remembered the golden words - "This too shall pass!" Thanking Ramu for his valuable gift, the king stopped boasting and became sober. He realised that victory and loss in material world are all temporary and that he is just an instrument of Supreme Lord and everything is under His control.

 

Lord Krishna very nicely advises us in Bhagavad Gita verse 2.56

 

 

"One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind."

 

In his wonderful purport to the above verse His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada says, "Such a fully Krishna conscious person is not at all disturbed by the onslaughts of the threefold miseries, for he accepts all miseries as the mercy of the Lord, thinking himself only worthy of more trouble due to his past misdeeds; and he sees that his miseries, by the grace of the Lord, are minimized to the lowest. Similarly, when he is happy he gives credit to the Lord, thinking himself unworthy of the happiness; he realizes that it is due only to the Lord's grace that he is in such a comfortable condition and able to render better service to the Lord. And, for the service of the Lord, he is always daring and active and is not influenced by attachment or aversion. Attachment means accepting things for one's own sense gratification, and detachment is the absence of such sensual attachment. But one fixed in Krishna consciousness has neither attachment nor detachment because his life is dedicated in the service of the Lord. Consequently he is not at all angry even when his attempts are unsuccessful. Success or no success, a Krishna conscious person is always steady in his determination."

 

Normally when we are successful in our attempts of achieving some thing in life, when someone praises us we become very happy and elated and become attached to whatever we have achieved or to people who praise us. Similarly when we lose or when people scold us, criticise us, we become sad, morose, depressed, fearful and angry. The person who praises us today may spit on our face tomorrow or vice-verca. We may lose more than what we had won so far or gain more than what we had lost so far. In both situations unfailingly we give excuse of source of elation and depression as the reason for not performing sincere devotional service as well. But indeed in all those situations we should remember the golden words, "This too shall pass!". There is dawn after every dusk and dusk after every dawn. So rain or shine devotional service should continue always. Our beloved spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that we must always be ready to face the most unexpected thing in life. Seeing Krishna's hand in everything, we should stick on to our sadhana sincerely in all circumstances. Supreme Lord is eternal and devotional service unto Him is also eternal and everything else is temporary and negligible. So instead of being misled by these dualities and wasting our time and energy on temporary insignificant things we should utilise this life in Krishna's service.

 

I pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva, Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krishna, that I realise the above truth and focus my attention on the eternal Lord and on ways to serve Him.

 

Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,

Sudarshana devi dasi.