Seeing her deteriorate is the most painful and I am struggling. I keep asking for Mother’s grace and Her help to overcome this situation and Her help to learn. I repeat the mantra in my mind as much as possible. I wonder why I face this situation again? Because I am so overwhelmed, I can not see and understand the lesson I am being taught through this and how do I address the root cause so that I do not have to face this again? Thank you for your time and guidance.
The lesson we are here to learn is simply this that we are living in an imperfect world, this transient, unhappy world, anityam asukham lokam, as the Gita puts it. To be attached to things that are in their nature transient is bound to bring suffering and pain. Blows do not come because there is something bad or wrong in us. They come to all because we are attached to things that are in their nature transient. After all, death, disease are nothing new and all kinds of people upon earth experience it one way or the other. The difference however is that some get too much affected and attached to their own personal suffering. But the few, those marked for the true spiritual life, do not waste their time on personal sufferings. They understand instinctively that to remain in a state of ignorance is to keep the doors of suffering open in one way or the other, today or tomorrow. Knowing this, they pick up the pilgrim staff of faith and set out on the journey towards the great discovery, the discovery of the true Self, of the Divine within us, around us. There is so much to discover, you see. Besides, until we do that, suffering in one form or the other will keep chasing us. And often the intensity increases when the time has come for us to make the decisive choice. It is as if destiny is pushing us towards the New, the Wonderful, the Divine.
Affectionately,
Alok Da
