Ishwara is the set up!

[Guest guest]

Sairam brothers and sisters....

 

Each one of us has found ourselves in a difficult situation

many times in life. The situation or the set up is what creates problems for

almost everyone. It could be family, workplace, or society or any other network

we are in. When the people around us behave in a manner which we cannot accept

or deal with, there arises the so called `problems' in life. We feel we would

have been happier, healthier if we were in a different family, different office,

or in the midst of different people. We pray to God to pull us out of the mess,

or to make changes in the set up. That's why we constantly require others to

change, change their behaviour, change their perspective, which we conclude is

not right, just because it does not suit us. We overlook their individuality,

their need of their own space, and their freedom to be what they are.

 

We ask God to change the set up, as we think He is outside this set up, watching

the fun from up above. Swami Dayananda Saraswati says `Ishwara is the set up'.

Ishwara or God is not someone who has to change the people around us, change the

situation, or take us away from the mess we are in. He is the very Set up! He is

the very parent, spouse, or boss that makes one's life miserable. He is the

home, office or society we want to escape from. God is not an outsider who will

come running to alter things for us, when we feel we don't deserve to be in the

problem we are in. He is the time and space, He is the minute and hour, and He

is the very problem we face! Such a beautiful theory!

 

To do justice to Swami, is to do full justice to the situation He has placed us

in. Everything is His gift, His Prasad. You cannot possibly hate or dislike

something given by Swami as a gift. You cannot dislike the person who brings a

message from Swami, however bad the news may be, because 1) He is sent by our

beloved Swami, and 2) He is just a messenger who has nothing to do with the

message he carries.

People around us are like the postman. They have been sent by God to us to

deliver His message. Some bring us good feelings like love, and happiness, like

the postman sometimes brings good letters; others bring us feelings like hatred

and hurt and sadness, like the postman brings bad letters. How can we blame the

postman? How can we blame the friend, spouse, parent, child, boss, teacher or

colleague for just carrying the unkind message from our kind Lord?

 

He Himself is the creator, He Himself is the creation! He is the Giver, He is

the Gift! He is the problem, He is the ONLY Solution!

 

In Sai Seva

Meera