Find Balance in Everything

 

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Find Balance in Everything

Yoga does not advise us to fly away from our filial duties. It tells us to saturate ourselves with the thought of the divine while we do our part in this world where He has placed us.

If we desire a life of seclusion in the forest or in the mountains, thinking that in the freedom from duties there we will find God, we must have the will to sit all day, day after day, in meditation.

Certainly, that effort is commendable. But it is much greater to be able to be in the world but not of it — to perform our true duties for the benefit of others while keeping our mind on God. “By forsaking work no one reaches to perfection…. O Arjuna, remaining immersed in yoga, perform all actions, forsaking attachment (to their fruits)” (Bhagavad Gita III:4 and II:48).

We must think of greater and lesser duties in proper perspective. And don’t let one duty contradict another. In the Sanskrit scriptures there is a divine law, one of the most beautiful laws ever given to the world: “If one duty contradicts another duty, it is not a true duty.”

If we seek financial success at the cost of health, we are not fulfilling our duty to the body. If we are so crazy about religion that we neglect our material responsibilities, we are not balanced; we have allowed one duty to contradict our obligations to our body and family. If we lose sight of our duty toward God because we give all our attention to fussing about our family, that is not duty.

To speak of seeking God and material fulfilment together sounds good; but unless we meditate deeply and regularly so that we anchor our consciousness in God first, the world will claim all our attention and we will have no time for Him.

Without the consciousness that God is with us, our material duties usually turn into methods of torture. But if we have God with us all the time, and do our duties with the consciousness of God, we can be the happiest person.

There are various degrees of belief. Some people don’t believe at all. Some want to believe, others believe a little bit, and some believe until their belief is tested. We are so certain of our convictions, until they are contradicted; then we become confused and insecure. Faith is intuitive conviction, a knowing from the soul, that cannot be shaken even by contradictions.

In attunement with God, we will find the way to true success, which is a balance of spiritual, mental, moral, and material attainment.