Would you speak to us about the reason for adversity and problems in our life?

Adversity makes you dynamic. Adversity forces your eyes wide apart. Adversity teaches you the meaning of patience. Adversity endows you with faith in yourself. Adversity leads us inward to correct and perfect our march to life. Prosperity leads us onward to illlumine and imortalize our human birth.

In prosperity, our inner strength remains static. In adversity, our inner strength becomes dynamic. None can deny the fact that every step of progress which the world has made has come from both the smiles of prosperity and the tears of adversity.

One merit of adversity none can deny: it helps us to be stronger within. The stronger we are within, the brighter we are without.

When I have problems, I can not seem to really solve them. Even my friends and parents do not know what way is best.

There is somebody who knows what is best for you, and that is the Supreme. The Supreme is not a mental hallucination. You will be able to see Him, you will be able to hear Him, you will be able to dine with Him. He is not only your Father, but also your eternal Comrade. You have to give Him responsibility for yourself.

His Eyes have better vision than ours. His Ears hear more quickly than our human ears. We talk to human beings who have no time to hear us; they have so many things to do in the outer world. But we very often forget that there is somebody else who is eager to listen. The Supreme is always eager to hear from us, but we do not speak to Him.

If we know how to look at a problem, half the strength of the problem goes away. But usually we try to avoid the problem; we try to run away from it. To have a problem is not a crime, so why should we be afraid to face it? Our difficulty is that when something unfortunate happens in our life, we immediately feel that we are at fault, that we have done something wrong. We must know that there are also wrong forces, undivine forces, hostile forces around us.

By blaming ourselves and then trying to hide, we do not solve the problem. We have to face the problem and see whether we really are to blame. In order to solve the problem of myself, I have to practice the spiritual life and develop inner strength, aspiration and inner detachment. Slowly, gradually, I will become inwardly strong, and then I will be able to solve the problems caused by my own inner weaknesses.

As soon as you have conquered a difficulty, you will find that it repeats itself on a higher and subtler level. It is the same essential weakness in yourself which you are made to face in a more refined form.