This is a responsive post and an attempt to meet a friend's challenge.
Right, here goes the story:
One day, Adi Sankaracharya was walking along a river bank. He was stopped by a man in his early twenties. He bowed reverently to the Guru and spoke, "My name is Mimamsa, I have couple of questions on your Advaita Philosophy. With your kind permission, I shall ask them. Could you, Oh embodiment of Knowledge clarify my doubts and lead me to the path of knowledge?"
The monk smiled and nodded his head.
Thus with the monk's permission, Mimamsa asked the following questions:
1. If Soul is eternal, why do I need to take a human form?
2. Why should there be any sufferings?
3. Why doesn't god intervene whenever there is a suffering?
Thus replied the monk, "Let's start with you. Currently you're in a human form and alive. What happens when you're dead? A life form, let's call it soul, will leave your current body and sets on its own course. It takes a new body and starts to live in the moment again. The soul never dies. It's the bodily forms which perish. Depending on the past and current actions of yours, you may be born as a human or in some other form. So, no one but you and your own course of actions decide what you'll be. You're the creator of your own destiny.
To ensure all this is done properly, there is a Supreme soul, God. Like drops of Rain which shower on Earth, with an ultimate purpose to join its origin, the Ocean. The routes taken by each drop could be different but the destination is same. All souls, try and reach the Supreme Soul. The course could be different but ultimate objective is the same.
During the course of this journey, you'll face certain difficulties. These are like different check points. It is to ensure your learning. Imagine a class of students who are being taught sword fight by a Master. He will shower his knowledge equally on all the students, it is the ability to grasp and to practice the learning which separates leaders from the herd. A Master doesn't intervene when he is testing the capabilities of a Student or if he assigns a particular task with an increasing level of difficulty because he knows that, all the hardships which his student will go through will only make him better. In lieu of such students who earned full faith of master that they will finish a task, he concentrates on students who are faltering, he corrects their stance, teaches and concentrates more on those who need him. Sometimes Master lets the best student lead the class too! At such instances, students realize that they are no different from Master. In fact they are not different from Master but they are the Master (That which is I)
The better you deal with difficulties, the lesser you'll depend on God. The lesser you depend on God, you'll realize that you and God appear to be separate entities but in fact are the same.
During the course of this journey, you'll face certain difficulties. These are like different check points. It is to ensure your learning. Imagine a class of students who are being taught sword fight by a Master. He will shower his knowledge equally on all the students, it is the ability to grasp and to practice the learning which separates leaders from the herd. A Master doesn't intervene when he is testing the capabilities of a Student or if he assigns a particular task with an increasing level of difficulty because he knows that, all the hardships which his student will go through will only make him better. In lieu of such students who earned full faith of master that they will finish a task, he concentrates on students who are faltering, he corrects their stance, teaches and concentrates more on those who need him. Sometimes Master lets the best student lead the class too! At such instances, students realize that they are no different from Master. In fact they are not different from Master but they are the Master (That which is I)
The better you deal with difficulties, the lesser you'll depend on God. The lesser you depend on God, you'll realize that you and God appear to be separate entities but in fact are the same.
Well that's end of the story. For those who read the above and thought Wtf!?
Imagine you're playing a video game with 100 levels each with increasing level of difficulty. You're on level 99. How difficult should the ultimate level be? Not easy right? Here is where a quote from Swami Vivekananda makes lot of sense, "No knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside".. you have the knowledge of clearing 98 levels, so the summation of your current knowledge (1+2+3+..97+98) is much more than the knowledge required to clear level 99. When you failed initially during all the levels till 98, you haven't given up. Have you? Why should you give up now? Smile at the adversity and keep moving ahead.
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