Question: I have gone through so many hardships in trying to build up my business here. I almost went bankrupt; somebody stole so much from us and the place was destroyed by a typhoon. Do we have to go through those experiences so that we will become stronger or did we do something wrong on the way?

Sri Chinmoy: From the outer point of view, life is a constant struggle; we are constantly in the battlefield of life. Everybody goes through hardship in order to achieve something, in order to arrive at the destination. If God has infinite Compassion, and if we are His children, why do we have to go through such hardship? He has everything; He has infinite Wealth. Can He not give us everything free of charge? Can He not inundate our lives with His Riches: love, light and prosperity?

The question we have to ask ourselves is: are we trying to be really happy? Are we longing for the happiness that will last forever and at the same time transcend and transcend, that will increase in infinite measure? Many, many times in the ordinary life, when parents are extremely rich and children do not have to do anything, the children misuse their parents wealth. Because they have got everything at their disposal, they do not value anything. [^4,2]

Similarly, God can give us everything, but we will not value it. Let us say you bring the most beautiful flower from the Philippines and give it to your daughter. First she will observe it, and then perhaps she will wonder how this flower has come into existence, how its petals were born. Some restless forces in her will compel her to examine it like a doctor or a scientist. She will start pressing and pulling the petals, and soon the whole flower will be ruined. Some forces inside her will not allow her to only appreciate, admire and grow into the beauty and fragrance of the flower.

If she had created the flower, if she had been responsible for sowing the seed and had waited for months to see the product of her seed, then she would never think of destroying the flower. She would try to become one with the beauty and fragrance of the flower. She would say, "Oh, how I wish I could become as pure, as beautiful, as lovely, as divine as the flower."

In our lives, many, many times we encounter hardships. Why? So that we will value the divinity within us that is compelling us, urging us to move forward, to fly upward, to dive deep within every day, consciously, soulfully and self-givingly to increase our divine qualities. God is always helping us. If we play our own role in this divinely ordained task, then we feel that we are worthy to be the choicest children of our Absolute Lord Supreme. That is why we go through these so-called hardships.

When we go deep within, we feel that it was not actually we who suffered while going through these hardships. Somebody else acted and suffered in and through us. We just became the witness. When we feel that we are the doer, we suffer so much. But when our consciousness goes higher, it becomes clear to us that God is the only Doer who performs every action in order to become the divinely supreme Enjoyer of His creation.

[^4,2]: 4,2. Original published “Everybody goes through hardship in order achieve something,...”