Marriages do not work out as we expect them to do because of the gap between the ideal and the strength and sacrifice needed to realise it. This is very much missing today in the fast food and utilitarian culture imported largely from the West. But the Divine is always willing to help us realise the Ideal. He is not the spoilsport to our happiness but the helper and guide and it is only rarely that he does not grant a sincere prayer, and only when He sees the harm that may accrue through it. The reason why relationships end up badly is not God but our incapacity to love. A love full of demands, expectations, wishes and desires based on the need for pleasure or happiness is not so much love but emotional and vital hunger. So too a love calculating gain and loss is a business and a marriage based on social benefits is a transaction. These are as good as failures even if it succeeds by outer standards. So grow in love and try to make it beautiful and sincere. That is all that is needed.

I remember once reading in Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the Isha Upanishad that one cannot become a Brahmin without first becoming a Kshatriya. I believe that I never had the Kshatriya element developed sufficiently within me, and it has always been a source of embarrassment and insecurity for me as a man. 💪🙏🏻🪷[…]
He said both are needed. But these are things ingrained within us. Brahmin and Kshatriya are not soul states, inner innate temperaments and not so much of outer actions. Nevertheless everything can be developed by practice. By taking the challenges of life, through vigorous physical exercises, by praying for strength, by reading …

