The Excuse of Difficulty :

Refusal to do Sadhana on the score that it is difficult is just making a lame excuse. The loser is the person who refuses. It betrays a lack of will. It betrays a total lack of appreciation of the wholesome and immense benefits which flow from Sadhana.


Nothing is difficult. "The word impossible is not in my dictionary" said Napoleon. "What one fool can do, another can" says an anonymous proverb printed in the students’ calendar of a Madras college. Where there is a will, there is a way.


Is not life itself difficult? And what does life yield for all the worldly effort? Misery. And what does Sadhana yield? Health and peace. What does sustained spiritual effort yield? God.


Yes, Sadhana is difficult, but practise you must. You cannot write sugar on a piece of paper and lick it. Don’t you struggle to keep your health? To earn money? To win your girl? You are not ashamed to say, "Yes, sir. No, sir" in the office. You go to the airport to receive the wife of your office boss. You do so many despicable things to keep yourself in saddle, but when it comes to the question of doing Sadhana, you yawn and gape and drawl, "Oh...hh... it is dif...fi...cult".


To earn money, man slogs in field and factory all day long. To please the woman at home, he slaves all the time. To earn name and fame, he strains himself to the last drop of his energy. Even to get a Secondary School Leaving Certificate, the youngster has to put in hard work at school for eleven or twelve years.


Nothing comes by chance. Nothing is gained by accident. "No pain, no gain" says Swami Sivananda. How true!




Sri N. Ananthanarayanan


Next : God-Realisation Has a Price



To be continued ...