Change is the nature of this world. This is a simple fact, yet there is a part of the brain that, to make sense of this world, looks to those predictable things in life to help us to find assurance and order. Assurance that the world is safe, order so that we might navigate this world and find happiness. So, while certain parts of the brain are looking for order, change comes and upsets that looked for order—change that can make us feel shaken to the core.
When we enter the spiritual way of seeing things we seek to transfer our looking for assurance, safety and order from this world to our growing union with God. But, as Mother says, Rome was not built in a day, and neither does man attain his God-realization overnight. It is a process, one we seek to quicken—as Master said, not to go by the bullock-cart method, but to take the airplane route. Through deepened God-experience we recognize that the inner assurance of knowing God is the only constant in life—for everything that is born will die, everything that is created will one day disappear.
Then there are certain things that happen in life that shake us to our core. When Master came to America he enlisted the help of his friend from India, Swami Dhirananda. Dhirananda came and was a mainstay through the 1920s at Mt. Washington while Master travelled the length and breadth of America giving lectures and classes nearly non-stop. One day Dhirananda showed up in New York, where Master was lecturing, and said he was leaving the organization and demanded money from Master for the work he had done. Master agreed he needed money to start a new life and promised payments for years to come. However, the shock of this meeting took the wind out of Master’s sails, he even seriously thought of returning to India—permanently. Fortunately for us, he says Divine Mother took me by the ear, and told him to continue on. After some time spent in Mexico he returned to the work God had given him—even though a part of him simply wanted to wander on the banks of the Ganges.
Many “wake up calls” come to us challenging our attachment to the way we think this world should be, versus how it is in the moment. It may be illness, death, loss of job or relationship—this world can deliver some serious knocks and shocks. In my sadhana God systematically withdrew from me so many personal landmarks, first the mahasamadhi of my guru, then the loss of marriage, family, home, profession, taking me through two years of a “Dark Night of the Soul.” It stripped me to the bone, then ground the bones to dust and blew the dust to the four corners of the earth. I took a sabbatical from being a minister—for I, who was empty, how I could I serve others when I had nothing, not a thing I could give?
What we must know, these “wake up calls” come with a purpose—to wake us up! The Vedas say, Arise, Awake! When all we have is taken from us, then we must turn to God as our refuge, solace, comforter and guide. To not do so is to slide into darkness. Even then, so much darkness will eventually serve to awaken the Divine within—only, how much suffering occurs between slipping into darkness and doing the hard work of extracting ourselves from the deep well into which we have fallen.
Here is the good news, you may save yourself depths of despair by going to God now. Turn your attention to Him, in good times and in tough times. If illness creeps up on you, if pain of sorrow seeks to enfold you in its wings of separateness, if financial misfortunes weigh you down, if relationships betray you—then take God with you. Under stress we tend to close down. Do the opposite—open up to God. Breathe, open and allow the Divine Current to flow into you, allow the Divine Presence to glow within. Let go of the world, all things of time and space, all outer realities, and focus on God alone.
The Great Master said, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. (Matt. 5:4) Blessed are they that mourn—the reason you mourn is that you love, and love is the greatest gift of all. Love can be painful when you feel loss, but the Master says you shall be comforted. However, not all who mourn feel comfort. That is because in your loss you feel separated and bereft. But, there is a greater truth than isolation, a more profound way of being in this world. You are forever connected with God, and by turning your mind towards Him, that blessed Spirit comes into you and you into Him. This Holy Spirit comforts you, assuages the pain, makes you know you are never alone.
When Yogananda took the blow to the work he had given himself completely to for the previous decade, he turned to Divine Mother for comfort and guidance. And throughout the Dark Night of the Soul that God and Guru put me through, I somehow knew that it was Divine Will that was at work. To breathe, open, and allow your Divine Friend, Guide and Savior to gain entry into your innermost pain and aloneness means that you are on the pathway to wholeness, that you are growing in God—merging into Him even as He is merging into you. The path of the cross is the path to resurrection—from pain of separation to the bliss, light and wisdom of the Perfect One. This is the true assurance that we have so long been looking for—that God is with you always.