BRAVE ALL TRIALS

By Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Trials, difficulties, troubles and sufferings are necessary for your purification and to strengthen your will and power of endurance. Face them bravely and come out triumphantly. Press on. Strive on with all your will; only then is the grace of God bestowed. God helps those who help themselves. If bad thoughts enter your mind, simply ignore them. Offer a prayer to the Lord and substitute divine thoughts by studying the sacred books. The spiritual fire should be generated day after day. Hold fast to the ideal. Keep the flame of aspiration ever bright. Scorn mundane delights and strife. Dedicate your life to God.

Meditate. Scale the spirit's steepest height and reach the peak of eternal wisdom and bliss divine. Nothing is able to daunt the firm and resolute aspirant or turn him from a course which he considers to be right, or which he holds to be his duty. Be brave and courageous. You must pass with one breath over the mountain of difficulties. The atman cannot be attained by a life of weakness and error.

You have infinite strength within you. Be strong. Look within. Meditate. Tap the source. Have an indomitable will, backed by an abiding faith. You are bound to succeed in everything. God is the light of lights. He is knowledge. He is the knower. God is the same from age to age. God never changes; he is ageless. God has no opposite. God is truth, beauty, goodness. God has no religion; He is the source of all religion. God is one. God is peace. God is universal harmony. God is love and law. As a lamp cannot burn without oil, so man cannot live without God. Creation reveals that God is dharma (righteousness). God is the bestower of grace which is boundless and inexhaustible.
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