Life is a Challenge

"Bhagawan said that life is not one of continued pleasure or continual pain.  "Pleasure is an interval between two pains."  How can we jump from one pleasure to another pleasure, avoiding pain.  Whether we are ready or not, we must admit that life is a challenge.  There are challenges in every walk of life, whether it is business, education, commerce, science or technology.  In the field of agriculture and horticulture, there is no culture.  Therefore life is a challenge.  There is so much competition  If one country produces a big sized banana, another want to produce a bigger one.  Eventually both are tasteless.  Take the sugarcane industry.  They try to produce very much sugar from the bamboo.  Unfortunately you find that it is neither bamboo nor sugarcane.  So life is a challenge in every field - business, politics, agriculture, etc.  So why not in spirituality?  Why not in the field of religion?  We want paradise immediately.  We want a Concorde to reach heaven directly.  We want all quick and instant foods.  it is not like that.

Bhagawan said that it takes years to get educated.  You spend some years in the primary school, then in the secondary some more before you finally enter College.  So too in spirituality.  Bhagawan may ignore your or may not give you an interview.  You should not be disappointed in spite of all His tests.  You should be ready to take up the challenge whether He talks to you or not, whether He smiles at you or not, whether He recognises you or not.  You should continue to be His devotee and continue to  pray in spite of all the disappointments He chooses to give you."

(From the book "Divine Directions" by Prof. K. Anil Kumar)