and raising her hands towards the sky begged God to appear but he didn't. Tears rolled down her cheeks in desperation but there were still no signs of God. After months of search, she lost her patience and her perseverance got shattered. She decided to go back to her home, the comforts of which she had sorely begun to miss now. She began her journey back home lost and tired. As a collage of thoughts crossed her mind, her faith in the very concept of God took a beat. She began cursing herself for undergoing so much tribulation for nothing. ‘A painful journey for something that does not exist. Aah! I must have missed out on so much fun and real life at home. This life is perhaps my truth, the truth that I am seeking’, she thought. ‘Rest is either imagination or not achievable’. Her mind had wavered from the desire for God to the desire for materialism. And then she saw a sage sitting under the banyan tree preaching to a number of disciples on truth and God. One of these disciples was her sister, the other princess along with whom she had started this journey. She asked her sister to accompany her back to the kingdom but her sister wasn’t interested. She said she had found peace in the sermons of the sage. So the princess asked the sage about his belief in God. The sage smiled and said, “My dear child, there is no doubt about the existence of God because he exists everywhere. He is the greatest of all”. To this, the princess asked, “If he is so great and if he is present everywhere, why can’t we see him”? The sage said, “That’s because you can see the Almighty only with the eyes of your soul and not with the eyes of your body.” The princess complained, “I have traveled so far all alone in the search of God and yet I didn’t find him. If he is there, why didn’t he appear”? The sage answered, “But you have found me, I can become your guide if you want. I can show you the path to attain God. You can only learn it from an all knowing Master and not through your ignorant self”. At this the princess said, “Respected sage, I don't want to, because now I believe in my life back home. I have the desire to discover no more. God has not answered my call, and now I prefer to go back home and live my life”. She asked the other princess to come along too but she had found her truth
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in the shelter of her master. And so the princess rode back home alone and empty handed. And so the sage preached, “Our mind is like a ceaser if stillness is not attained. It makes us believe only in what we see with our eyes and ears open, in the external world. And it makes us lose faith in the internal world, the subtle world. The mind establishes our faith in the impermanent gross world, a faith that is very shaky, that dies and takes birth continuously. The entire thing is very sad and tragic. But that is the truth about the mind”. Vairagya based on mind is not permanent. The princess had momentary vairagya. Her faith was easily shaken by thoughts. On being tested by the arrows of time, patience and thoughts, her entire life and its purpose took a u-turn including her faith. Sadguru Sadafaldeo Ji Maharaj writes in Swarveda,
"Mana Shanik Vairagya le, Chade utung aakash, Turat raag mein girat hai, sadgun jeev vinash” If we continue to move in the direction of the ever flowing mind, our virtues will be lost and we will meet the fate of the princess. But if we keep faith in the Spiritual master and live our life as per his teachings, if we meditate regularly and gain control over our mind attaining stillness of thoughts, then our virtues will start getting polished. Our faith will grow stronger and stronger and then a day will come when it will be unshakeable. To have good faith, we simply need to be a good disciple. And then when Vairagya will arise, it will be a permanent one taking us to our goal. Unshakeable faith is established by being in the shelter of the master, by focusing in the inner world that is subtle and conscious, unlike the outer world that is gross and inert. Source: VYT Blogs