As Is The Feeling,
So Is The Result.

Thandava And Christian Culture

Storms in life are inevitable and unavoidable, even necessary. Internal storms are more dangerous than seemingly external ones. Great and revered are those who can ride out storms to safety.

How do they do that? They do that by keeping their minds calm, preventing their minds from jumping about between elation and dejection, fear and faith, doubt and certainty.

The great ones are great because they maintain mental equanimity. Their emotions may rage or they may not, no matter, the mind of the truly venerable remains calm, deliberate, and careful.

How does this happen? Great personalities fix their thoughts on God and lodge their trust in Him. Excitement and depression the great ones reject as equally misleading and dangerous. Like anger and envy, these impulses disable discernment and jaundice judgement. You experience such impulses? Fine, you are human. But, to not allow your personality to be swayed by them is divine.

So, fix the mind on that which is good, loving, and beautiful. Fix it on that which is Godly and on God Himself. Do that with persistence, skill, and assiduity and you are guaranteed to succeed in banishing fear and navigating the storms of life through to safe harbor.

Storms in life are fleeting, both internal and seemingly external ones. They are always dangerous. But unless they are met with equanimity of mind, they are lethal and you will succumb to them.

So, repeat the Name of God most pleasing to you. Repeat the Name constantly. This is called Ramanam and, by St. Paul at 1 Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing. If you have trouble thinking or saying It, sing It. Make up a tune to go with it, or use a classic tune well-loved by you.

Think of God in all things at all times and trust yourself to His Wisdom. This way, you will know in any storm what to do and how to handle its particulars so as to emerge from it safe and sound. Skill at maintaining equanimity is your tool, your secret weapon for surviving the storms of life.

God cannot resist answering your sincere summons. He belongs to you as your birthright, the greatest of all treasures and the only one Who can accompany you anywhere anytime, even into death and beyond that bourn. You have only to really want Him for the ambrosia of immortality to be yours.

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Every being craves happiness; none long for misery. But everyone is set upon obtaining the things believed to give them joy. Those who know where one can get happiness are very few in number. Happiness is of three kinds. One type is of the nature of poison in the beginning but turns into nectar later. This is pure (sathwic) happiness, which is secured through the awareness of the Atma. That is to say, the sadhana of equanimity, control of inner and outer senses, etc., which has to be gone through, appears hard and unpleasant, and involves struggle and effort. When one succeeds in overwhelming the mind, one achieves the awareness of the Atma. This success can result only when one undergoes many ordeals and denials. The bliss that one earns afterward is the highest kind of happiness. As the fruition of all spiritual discipline, one is established in the perfect equanimity of unruffled consciousness (nirvikalpa-samadhi) and the bliss that one is filled with is indescribable. It is ambrosial, equal to the nectar of immortality.

• Sathya Sai Baba – Vidya Vahini, Chapter 11 /  Daily Email, Sai Inspires: Subscription

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