Page 4 - NAMAH-Jul-2021

“The body is a very enduring servant, it bears the stress of
circumstance tamely like a beast of burden. It is the vital
being that is always grumbling and uneasy. The slavery
and torture to which it subjects the physical is almost
incalculable. How it twists and deforms the poor body to its
own fads and fancies, irrationally demanding that everything
should be shaped according to its whimsicality! But the very
essence of endurance is that the vital should learn to give up
its capricious likes and dislikes and preserve an equanimity
in the midst of the most trying conditions. When you are
treated roughly by somebody or you lack something which
would relieve your discomfort, you must keep up cheerfully
instead of letting yourself be disturbed. Let nothing ruffle
you the least bit, and whenever the vital tends to air its petty
grievances with pompous exaggeration just stop to consider
how very happy you are, compared to so many in this world.
Reflect for a moment on what the soldiers who fought in the
last war had to go through. If you had to bear such hardships
you would realise the utter silliness of your dissatisfactions.
And yet I do not wish you to court difficulties — what I
want is simply that you should learn to endure the little
insignificant troubles of your life.

Nothing great is ever accomplished without endurance. If
you study the lives of great men you will see how they set
themselves like flint against the weaknesses of the vital. Even
today, the true meaning of our civilisation is the mastery of
the physical through endurance in the vital. The spirit of sport
and of adventure and the dauntless facing of odds which is
evident in all fields of life are part of this ideal of endurance.
In science itself, progress depends on the countless difficult
tests and trials which precede achievement.”

— The Mother