Suppose we are walking along a road, and a sudden stormy wind knocks us down. Thankfully, no storm lasts forever – so, it can’t keep us down. As soon as it passes, we can rise and resume our normal activities.

Similarly, during our life-journey, storms in the form of pleasures or pains may knock us down. Pleasures may distract us or pains may dishearten us. But we don’t have to be distracted or disheartened for too long. Life’s storms won’t keep us down if we focus on our spiritual identity and purpose.

Identity: The Bhagavad-gita explains that at our core, we are indestructible souls (02.13). By thus contemplating our eternality, we can tolerate both pleasures and pains – they will come and go, as do summer and winter (02.14).

Purpose: When people have nothing worthwhile to do, they often complain about things such as weather and thereby justify their inaction. In contrast, when people have something worthwhile to do, they persevere in that purpose, without getting elated by good weather or irritated by bad weather. Similarly, if we can have a worthwhile purpose for our life, pleasures or pains won’t overwhelm us. Revealing an inspiring life-purpose, Gita wisdom explains that we are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution towards eternal love and joy. We can best evolve by learning to love the all-attractive supreme person, Krishna. To learn to love him, we need to practice bhakti-yoga and infuse our various roles and responsibilities with a devotional service attitude.

When we become steadily connected with Krishna, we access inner strength and satisfaction that make us less affected by worldly pleasures or pains. Staying internally balanced, we can keep contributing and growing.

By thus focusing on our spiritual identity and purpose, we can develop the resilience to bounce up from life’s knocks.

Think it over:

  • How does focusing on our spiritual identity help us become resilient?
  • What life-purpose does the Gita reveal? How can we achieve it?
  • How does focusing on our spiritual purpose help us become resilient?

 

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