Once you do what the Lord expects you to do, and keep faith in Him, you will derive unimaginable benefits, says AJIT KUMAR BISHNOI

There is mounting evidence that if you care to dig deep in your own personality, you will find that you are not really your own well wisher. I realised so myself. Yes, I am improving but this started only after I took shelter in God, who really is everyone’s well-wisher. What can possibly explain our getting in trouble, unknowingly? What explains disliking your life partner for small faults that the person has? Is anyone faultless for that matter? A few faults cannot disqualify anyone. If it was so, everyone without exception will be rejected.

It was upon this realisation that I started to become my well-wisher; I took shelter of God — the best and the ultimate well-wisher of one and all. This is the cosmic design. As you practice, you will agree that once you do what the Lord expects us to do, one will derive unimaginable benefits.

I realised that we, souls, are small. Whatever power or strength we may have is only temporarily with us. Take physical strength, for instance. We feel quite strong in our youth; we can do a lot of things, achieve many feats. But as we age, we are forced to slow down. Likewise, everything material with us is also temporary. It is taken away at some point, surely at death.

Having realised that I felt helplessly small. I turned to God, who is the source of everything opulent, effulgent or even energetic. (Bhagavad Gita 10.41) Now I depend on Him for whatever I need, like ‘atmabala’ — the strength of the soul... And He obliges, especially when I do my part, that is, do the requisite duties like spiritual practices. My Lord guides me on what my duties are at a particular moment. Don’t we frequently get confused about our duties? For example, when we go to attend a social function, our duty is to mingle with people, be nice to them, and so on. Instead, we indulge our senses; mostly the tongue, the eyes, the ears and even our mouths.

This is a small example. As a human being, we are supposed to cooperate with others. This is the cosmic design. Not being our own well-wishers, we tend to become selfish. As a result, we become very lonely. Not only are we supposed to cooperate with one another, but we are expected to make sacrifices for the others. One of the prime examples is a mother’s sacrifice for her child. Bhagavad Gita is full of instructions about various types of sacrifices. That, because God is our best well-wisher.

Now we come to our behaviour. We need guidance in this matter. (Bhagavad Gita 16.24) Whimsical behaviour gets us in trouble. Therefore, we need to be in constant touch with God, who is omniscient. He alone can see the big picture. For example, people argue endlessly about some future event; God knows. Why not seek His guidance; He is prepared to show us the way. We have not been left in the dark.

Turning to emotions, what emotions are natural to us? Lust, greed, anger, hate, ego etc. come to the mind readily. As a result,we come under the influence of the mode of darkness. (Bhagavad Gita 14.13) Our outlook becomes negative. We are easily depressed. Anxiety and fears are common to us. The opposite will happen if we seek shelter of God. He will guide us to embrace the mode of goodness (Bhagavad Gita 14.6), with its enormous benefits. Lastly, we will not lack anything. (Bhagavad Gita 18.75) The Lord provides all kinds of resources, various strengths like atmabala, mental strength, emotional strength and strength to tolerate. He also blesses us with peace, happiness, security, support and help, whenever needed. When we are well and truly dependent upon Him, he manages our lives too. I am getting a taste of it.

Bishnoi is a spiritual writer and can be reached at spiritual@ajitbishnoi.com