Question: I have been suffering so much physically and I am wondering if God is giving me this experience for a reason?

Sri Chinmoy: Once you enter into the spiritual life, you have to take each incident in life as a God-given experience. If we take it as a God-given experience, then we do not get angry at God because we know that God is full of Compassion and Affection for us. But if we say it is the negative forces which are giving us this experience, and we have done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve it, then we become angry with the negative forces and we lose our peace of mind. Whatever happens in our life, either God approves of it or He sanctions it or He tolerates it. For various inner reasons, something wrong may be happening in our life and God is just tolerating it. Since you are a seeker, you should always feel that if God is tolerating your suffering, it must be for a special reason.

In my case, I have been suffering with my knee problem for the last four or five years. I can blame the negative forces, true, but what good does it do? But if I am one with my Lord Supreme, I will say, “Is He not suffering along with me?”

I have two little dogs. When they suffer for some reason, on the strength of my oneness with them, I also suffer. God has created these little dogs, but I have established so much oneness with them that I feel miserable when they suffer.

In our case, God has created us. Naturally His Affection, Concern and Compassion for us will be infinitely more than what I can ever feel for my little dogs. So when we are suffering, we have to feel that God also is suffering. If my Beloved Supreme agrees to suffer with me, then I have to accept my fate as it is.

It is not that God has given us this suffering so that we can become a better person. God does not work that way. Only if it is something really good does God give it. But if something painful happens, then God may tolerate it. At that time, if we love God, we will say, “If God can tolerate this pain inside me, with me and for me, then I will have nothing to say against it. I will only pray to God for the fulfilment of His Will.”