Make The Best of Circumstances

Nineteen years have gone by since I came here to America. When I see what I have been able to achieve I have no complaint, I have no regrets. But every bit of it had been hard work! This spirit cannot be had by weaklings. It is possessed only by the valiant. So be powerful. Before disease and poverty strike you down, make the most of the opportunity you have now. I am always thinking of what I can create- not that I want to be noticed by the world, but to please God. Each one of you can be like that. You can do good in hundreds of thousands of ways. God doesn’t expect you to do spectacular things, but He does want you not to be a lazybone. He wants you to use all the power you have. Otherwise, as His child, you desecrate His name. Whatever your present circumstance, make the best of it. No matter how many times you fall down, get up with the determination to be victorious. Whatever I wanted to accomplish, I made up my mind it was going to be, and it was! Try it. You will see how much power you have. You will see this power work. You will have a lot of fun with it.

We get what we merit in life. So if you want to be a success, you must create that success now. There are no limits to your mind. In every kind of work, whether religious or commercial, there are those who have done their upmost to bring a certain status to their lives. When such a person has worked his way up to become the head of a business or spiritual organisation, he highly respects those under him who can help on attaining the goals of the organisation. But those less successful tend to wonder why that person should hold such a big position, and why they couldn’t have had it instead. They forget that he was creative and worked hard. Some may feel that he got the job through “pull,” but the truth is that a successful individual has created that vibration of success during this life or previous lives. Otherwise, he couldn’t have attained his present position.

Wherever there is money, the vultures of envy and greed will come. So no matter how unselfish you are, there will be those who will be jealous of your accomplishment. Some people want to live lazily on the efforts of others. Be honourable enough never to hang on anyone else. You are a child of God. You have all the power necessary to take yourself where you want to go. Various ways I have had to try in order to support this work of Self-Realisation (Yogoda Satsanga) on my own initiative. Never beg; I have never done so. Don’t think that somebody else should give you a lift. The pleasure is in making a success of your life, not in getting things easily.

Extract from the book ” The Divine Romance” by Sri Sri Paramahansa Yogananda