3 April 2015 - QA 1

Why is it that despite being on this path sincerely, an area of my life is not moving forward? I feel very unlucky. People who are around me, who are not on a spiritual path seem to be progressing well. Please advice, why is it so and how can I fix it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

These are two issues
1. Being on a spiritual path
2. Gaining success in whatever work you are doing
Don’t club them both. If you lose one, at least you have something else to hold onto. If you club them both, then you lose both. This is very important.

Many times people ask me, ‘With so much spiritual knowledge, why does India still have so many problems?’
I ask them, ‘There are so many hospitals, and still people are falling sick. So, are the hospitals responsible for people falling sick?’
If someone says that people are anyway falling sick, what is the need for hospitals? Will you shut them down? If you do, then you don’t know where you’ll be.
Similarly, when things are falling apart, if you think that in spite of spiritual practices things are falling apart, then you are not thinking right. If you lose that, you won’t even have the strength to go over the tough periods.
Just look at those people who have no knowledge of spirituality, or those who are not on the path, see how miserable they are. Just imagine for yourself that if you wouldn’t have had a taste of meditation, or the knowledge, where would you have been? You would have been much worse, isn’t it?
So, deal with them and trust that good things will happen to you. There is no doubt about it. This is a promise.
If you’re on the path, there is no way you will go down; you will only go up.