Guiding Light: What Do You Do When You Are In Turmoil?

What do you do when you are in turmoil? Saint Narada says, go into seclusion. Take some time off and be by yourself.

When you don’t have time to reflect about yourself, it creates problems. You are caught in a whirlpool of influences—so many people around you, all with their opinions: the media, television, newspapers. You are constantly bombarded by these opinions, and your mind starts sinking.

Have you taken time off from all this? Have you just relaxed for a while? Have you allowed your mind to move into its source?

We never have time to relax into the silent core of our being. Why are people put in confinement? So that they are away from their usual associations and influences. They have a chance to go back within themselves. The idea behind putting someone in jail is, in part, to calm them down and give them an opportunity to come back to their senses through seclusion.

There is a story.

A man renounced everything-his home, his wealth and his family. He said, “I am going into the forest to become a recluse.”

He had walked ten kilometres when suddenly he remembered that, when he was leaving, a silver cup had been left outside the door. So he walked all the way back to tell his wife to take care of the silver cup.

The wife said, “Though you have walked ten kilometres, you haven’t moved even one inch away from your possession of that little silver cup!”

Such seclusion is of very little use.

The fear of “What will happen to me?” binds your soul to matter. You are never able to truly let go. With this worry and fear, you can never really smile.

You have to drop this fear and feel free from within. All your actions are oriented towards gaining what you don’t have or maintaining what you already have. This is yogakshema.

You have a house, and you want to maintain it. You want to get a car, take an insurance policy and pay all the bills. Your worry is constantly about acquiring or maintaining.

Krishna tells us in the Bhagavad Gita: “I will take care of the yogakshema of one who does not worry about anything else but puts their mind totally in Me. It is my responsibility to make sure that they do not suffer.”

Once you have taken a step on the spiritual path, more than you can ever digest will come to you. Know that you will get what you need, and whatever you have will grow and continue to be with you.

That is real faith.