Sunday 24 November 2019

COMBATING THE ENEMY

Annie Besant in "Avatara-s", The Theosophical Publishing House, 2002, wrote,
Never does the spiritual teacher withhold knowledge because he grudges the giving. He is hampered in the giving by the want of receptivity in those to whom his message is addressed. It is not the withholding of the teacher but the closing of the heart of the hearer; not the hesitation of the teacher but the want of the ear that hears; not the dearth of teachers but the dearth of pupils who are willing and ready to be taught.
They are waiting, waiting, waiting with tireless patience in order to find someone willing to be taught, and when one human heart opens itself out and says, "O Lord teach me", then the teaching comes down in a stream of divine energy and floods the heart. Unlock the heart and throw away the key and you will find yourselves flooded with a wisdom which is ever waiting to come in.
It might seem that we are faced with numerous problems and obstacles and unending woes and troubles. We might ask why me too? If you notice well all these troubles come in a package one after another. If we consult an astrologer he would take a peek into our stars and tell us the reason that the planets are not favorable to us. All our past karma and its fruit and results are stacked in a domino fashion waiting accordingly for us to reap them. To facilitate the stormy weather and downpour of troubles at certain points in our lives and particular periods of our lifespan, they are well placed in place and distributed for the show to begin once we arrive then and there. The planets assist in this placement and in meting out justice. It is not that the planets are malefic but that they are tasks to mete out specified punishments or lessons for how else can our karma be dealt with in a systematic and organized way? The late Dr. Krishnan was the only astrologer who asks us to invite Saturn for he comes to pave the way for all our karma to be wiped clean as a slate giving us numerous hardship and misery during his tenure. We are asked to appease the planets then. By setting us off on a pilgrimage, pay respects to deities, asking to give out handouts and gifts, serve people, serve food and give clothing, etc we are forcefully brought to do puja and charity, which otherwise might not be our spoon of medicine. Burning us in the fire and heat of sufferings he leaves us more strong, polished and shining.

Annie Besant explains the reasons and brings us to accept duality in all things. 
How would you learn right if you knew not wrong? How would you choose good if you knew not evil? How would you recognize the light if there were no darkness? How would you move if there were no resistance? The forces that are dark, the forces of the rakshasas, of the asuras, of all that seems to be working against Isvara, these are the forces that call out the inner strength of the self in man, by struggling with which the forces of Atma within the man are developed and without which he would remain in Pralaya forevermore. Isvara must draw out men's forces by pulling against their strength making them struggle in order to attain and so vivifying into outer manifestation the life that otherwise would remain enfolded in itself.
Annie Besant says that "if everything around us was smooth and easy, we would remain supine, lethargic and indifferent." Just as Tavayogi tells us that we will never come to a realization if we did not receive blows from the whip, she too says that "it is the whip of pain, of the suffering, of disappointment that drives us onward and brings out the forces of our internal life which otherwise would remain undeveloped."
In this universe there is no evil; all is good that comes to us from Isvara but it sometimes comes in the guise of evil that by opposing it we may draw out our strength. Then we begin to understand that these forces are necessary and that they are within the plan of Isvara. There is only one will in the universe the will of Isvara and all must conform itself to that will, all is conditioned by that will, all must move according to that will. 
He has given his very self to be our self and our life. Ask him to accompany us in these troubled times. He will come.