The level of distress for an infant, adolescent or adult is commensurate with their ability to deal with it—bracketing it as equal in its intensity
It started its journey millions of years ago, travelling through innumerable eras, ravaged and bruised by the onslaught of time—at times emerging a winner and at times stranded in the dungeons of failure. It’s all but a part of the game plan of ‘whether it got upgraded to the next level or not, and the bruising happens to be an integral, almost indispensable part of this code.’ This ebb and flow through mountains and valleys, through hell or high water and through endless seas of stormy waves is a test that helps ascertain its emergence into light.
‘It’ is all of us: It’s our souls. Our body is nothing but a medium through which our souls learn. This learning process is painstakingly difficult for our physical form, and we often hear ourselves hurl curses at the challenging situations we find ourselves in and bemoan our troubles with ‘What did I do wrong to deserve this’, or ‘When will my troubles end’, or ‘Why does it always have to happen to me’, and so on. The answers to decoding life’s challenges are simple yet complicated because that is exactly how life is: simple yet complicated.
The art of living an ideal life is a learnt one, and we are sent into this world to do so. No one is born knowing how to live the perfect life. Difficult situations are a part of the grand design and the powers of this Universe/God/Masters have it all planned out. Although deviations might occur, on account of our own failures, in the masters plan, but the basic sets of situations are what they present before us, and it is dependent on us in its entirety to steer it to the place where it rightfully deserves to be—beside the fountain of growth and learning. If we learn the right lessons from our experiences, we move closer to this fountain. Likewise, if we do not, we are faced with more challenges to enable us to learn the same lessons; ultimate aim being to push the soul towards enlightenment.
Each time we are introduced into a new physical body, we are awarded with a set of predestined situations, as mentioned earlier. For example, the family we are born to, our economic or social conditions, and so forth. As we grow older our situations become more dynamic, and we learn to adapt and change. We go through school and learn to handle our peers, strive to achieve, and acquire behaviours that are conducive to live in the society. Our adult years are perceived as more trying, more burdensome because that’s when we are establishing ourselves in our careers, relationships and thought processes. I will be comparing the body and the soul development simultaneously because on close examination you will find that it is much a replica of one another. Infancy of body, infancy of soul, adolescence of body and adolescence of soul, maturity of the body and maturity of the soul are stages that both the soul and the body go through. Challenges or struggles are their drivers for development. As far as the body is concerned, challenges are age-specific and as far as the soul is concerned the challenges are soul-specific, i.e. age of the soul.
This only means that challenges are in accordance with the ability of the body and mind to handle them. You face more challenges as an adult because you are capable of handling adult situations. An infant faces the same level of difficulty when suffering from colic. Similarly, a school child facing ridicule for not scoring well finds the situation deeply challenging. The level of distress for an infant, adolescent or adult is commensurate with their ability to deal with it —bracketing it as equal in its intensity. For example, an adult feeling colicky is neither a problem nor a huge challenge or if an infant is ridiculed /scorned, it is incapable of understanding its ramifications and is beyond its realm of even remotely learning life’s lessons through ridicule.
Principle is the same—the challenges that a young soul faces might appear insignificant in comparison to the challenges that the adolescent or the mature soul might face but given the threshold that each of them is on, their problems can safely be categorised as being equivalent in their intensity. For example, if a soul, in a certain lifetime, was meant to suffer mental turmoil as compared to physical turmoil, it will experience as much pain as a person who suffers challenges like poverty, disability, abuse, etc.
As we grow older our situations become more dynamic, and we learn to adapt and change. We go through school and learn to handle our peers, strive to achieve, and acquire behaviours that are conducive to live in the society
These challenges are an inseparable part of our being without which the light of knowledge and wisdom will always remain elusive. One can either emerge from these challenges or sink deeper into them; the difference is in the efforts each one of us takes to emerge victorious from our challenges and this is what this book is all about. How to ‘Emerge’.
By Rashmi
