Today, worry is the major block in our lives. It is a veritable black hole - all our energy goes into it, but nothing ever comes out. If worrying could have solved our problems, it would have been worthwhile worrying. However, as human beings, none of us have a right to worry because the negative energy that we generate when we worry aggravates our problems. If we have the habit of going to the temple to pray with worry gnawing at our hearts, God Himself gets worried when we enter the temple and says - “Oh, this devotee has come to place the same worries before Me again.” So, we should never do this. From today, whenever you go to the temple, just say - “Dear God, till now I was simply bombarding You with my worries out of sheer ignorance. Unlike me, You do not know what worry is because You are always loving, joyous and exuberant. So, give me Your love, joy and exuberance and I will drop all my worries and give You back the same love and joy.” This is how we should pray to God. Remember, the frog that keeps croaking continuously only attracts the snake which speedily swallows it. So also, if we go on thinking, talking and praying about our worries all the time, we will only attract a great crisis into our lives.”
“Most of the time, our feelings are chaotic and disorganized. Many times, we are not aware of the emotions and vibrations that flow from us into the world. We do not check to see whether they are good, bad, negative, positive or divine. When we generate all kinds of thoughts, emotions and vibrations in this way, we are also adding to the huge mass of negativity in the world. So, we should pray to our Guru for awareness by saying - “These are the kind of feelings within me, O Gurudeva. Please organise my feelings for me and reset my thinking patterns so that I emit only divine vibrations all the time.” Then, instead of re-organising our thoughts, our Guru re-channelizes them completely. Today, our lives are not powerful because our feelings are not powerful. All our inner power is drained away by our tendency to worry unnecessarily over trifles. The more we worry, the weaker our minds become.
Until we understand our own true inner feelings, our life is always problematic. As long as things go smoothly, we are happy and nice to everybody around us. It is only when things go wrong that we realise our own level of inner strength. When we are confronted by a crisis, though the people around us tell us not to worry, and try their best to give us confidence, we are still filled with anxiety and panic. Only when the Guru enters our lives and the name of the Guru reverberates constantly within us will we be free from fear. The more we pray, adore and worship the Guru, the more courage we get. Without the protective and rejuvenating Grace of the Guru, we get tired of battling with life.
When we stop worrying and pray for happiness, happiness does not come alone; it brings its shadow called prosperity with it. Prosperity is Goddess Lakshmi, the Giver of Abundance. The scriptures depict Her on a lotus which is soft, pure and beautiful. When our minds shed worry and become soft, pure and beautiful like the lotus, Goddess Lakshmi will come and enthrone Herself there. Today, our minds are hard and impervious to Her Grace. That is why we have to work so hard for prosperity. We think that the ambition to fulfill our material desires fills our life with zest and interest, but it only fills us with worry and unrest. We assume that experiencing the material pleasures of life will fill our lives with joy. However, this joy can never be constant. Life will continue to throw out its challenges at us, but we should not allow this to trigger the response of worry in us. We should all learn this art by watching and interacting with children. A child does not know what worry is. Even when something bad happens, he soon forgets about it and resumes his natural state of exuberant happiness. That is why children are such bundles of joy.
Sages and seers have established the truth,“Faith is the basis of all religions.” When we align ourselves with the will of Guru with complete faith and surrender, we will no longer resist any circumstance that comes to us. We will flow with life without generating any negative vibrations. Then, our minds become soft and pure. When we pray for the welfare of all beings, our love is freed from attachment and flows out to all beings. We may ask - ‘If we cannot unload our worries before god, then who will listen to our troubles and worries? That is why god sends the Guru into our lives. When we worship the Guru, it removes all the troubles, problems and worries from our lives. It makes our minds soften and melt with surrender.
So, have faith in your Guru and surrender everything to him. Then, god’s joy will encompass you. You will all experience this. You are born to experience this. Always keep your feelings pure, then the mind will also become pure. Then the tongue only utters words that are absolutely pure. Now from a state of worry and emotions, we cross over to the state of empowerment.
(This article has been written by Shri Shri Nimishananda Guruji. For more details visit www.shrinimishamba.org)