Uncertainty of Life
Condition
Recently I met a student in a bus who looked very wistful. On enquiry, she said, she had spent three years learning particular software, which by the end of her course had become outdated. She now needed to look in an entirely different direction if she wanted a good job. If we looked around us we find uncertainty everywhere. If fifty years ago one was sure of at least seventy percent success if one launched a business, today one cannot even be ten percent sure. There is such a rapid rise of competition that we are not able to cope with it.
There is insecurity at the political level in most nations. A change in government and its policies in one country is affecting every other country and each of us are in turn affected by these changes. Above all there is also emotional instability, because most of us are unsure of our relationships. We seem to break relationships faster than we make them. Values like lifelong loyalty and accepting each other as gifts from the divine seem to be out dated. Self centeredness and mistrust seems to be on the rise.
Cause
Why this sudden change in society and our own families and even ourselves? Why this growing insecurity in the lives of people?
Sri Amma Bhagavan says, “There are three reasons for this insecurity.”
Secondly there is the individual self, the felling of ‘I’ as separate from ‘you’. The ‘self’ constantly lives in fear of the other, fear of future, fear of being rejected. So long as there is the self, so long as you are not enlightened, all security soon becomes fear, all pleasure turns into pain, all entertainment soon becomes boring. Happiness and peace are never possible, so long as you live the life of the ‘self’.
Thirdly we need to recognize the hand of grace in our lives, which might come to us as a seeming punishment or an open reward. Take the case of Venkatesh Rao, an adept marine engineer working at the Chennai harbour. Considering the dishonest reports given by his colleagues the management suspended him for a week, without further investigation. It was a blotch in his fifteen years of unblemished career. “why did this happen? What is the lord’s intention behind this?” he muttered to himself. Fighting back with tears he don't know what to do and finally surrendered to his divine. When he joined office after the week long, he was informed the very next day of his suspension a fire broke out while shifting oil tankers and the person who substituted him for supervision was blown out without any trace! He realized how his divine had protected him and the grace engulfed him the same time the accident happened at his work place! The seemingly bad incident was actually a blessing. We suffer when we try to understand life and the will of the lord.
Sri Amma Bhagavan’s Message
Life is uncertain. Uncertainty gives rise to fear and suffering. There are two ways one would overcome fear – To live in the present or to live in the Presence.
Sadhana
Contemplate on how you are getting entangled in fear every time you tried to face a change. How bad you are at facing change? How badly you are clinging on to the unknown?
(Oneness University)
Recently I met a student in a bus who looked very wistful. On enquiry, she said, she had spent three years learning particular software, which by the end of her course had become outdated. She now needed to look in an entirely different direction if she wanted a good job. If we looked around us we find uncertainty everywhere. If fifty years ago one was sure of at least seventy percent success if one launched a business, today one cannot even be ten percent sure. There is such a rapid rise of competition that we are not able to cope with it.
There is insecurity at the political level in most nations. A change in government and its policies in one country is affecting every other country and each of us are in turn affected by these changes. Above all there is also emotional instability, because most of us are unsure of our relationships. We seem to break relationships faster than we make them. Values like lifelong loyalty and accepting each other as gifts from the divine seem to be out dated. Self centeredness and mistrust seems to be on the rise.
Cause
Why this sudden change in society and our own families and even ourselves? Why this growing insecurity in the lives of people?
Sri Amma Bhagavan says, “There are three reasons for this insecurity.”
- The accelerated speed of civilization.
- The limited sense of self, which constantly in fear.
- Lack of communion and surrender to the divine.
Secondly there is the individual self, the felling of ‘I’ as separate from ‘you’. The ‘self’ constantly lives in fear of the other, fear of future, fear of being rejected. So long as there is the self, so long as you are not enlightened, all security soon becomes fear, all pleasure turns into pain, all entertainment soon becomes boring. Happiness and peace are never possible, so long as you live the life of the ‘self’.
Thirdly we need to recognize the hand of grace in our lives, which might come to us as a seeming punishment or an open reward. Take the case of Venkatesh Rao, an adept marine engineer working at the Chennai harbour. Considering the dishonest reports given by his colleagues the management suspended him for a week, without further investigation. It was a blotch in his fifteen years of unblemished career. “why did this happen? What is the lord’s intention behind this?” he muttered to himself. Fighting back with tears he don't know what to do and finally surrendered to his divine. When he joined office after the week long, he was informed the very next day of his suspension a fire broke out while shifting oil tankers and the person who substituted him for supervision was blown out without any trace! He realized how his divine had protected him and the grace engulfed him the same time the accident happened at his work place! The seemingly bad incident was actually a blessing. We suffer when we try to understand life and the will of the lord.
Sri Amma Bhagavan’s Message
Life is uncertain. Uncertainty gives rise to fear and suffering. There are two ways one would overcome fear – To live in the present or to live in the Presence.
Sadhana
Contemplate on how you are getting entangled in fear every time you tried to face a change. How bad you are at facing change? How badly you are clinging on to the unknown?
(Oneness University)
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