Sometimes we ask ourselves: “What did I do to deserve this? Why does God let these things happen to me?”

A daughter tells her mother how everything is going wrong for her. She probably failed her math exam…. Her boyfriend just dumped her…for her best friend.

In times so sad, a good mother knows just the thing to cheer up her daughter…. “I make delicious cakes.” At that moment the mother hugged her daughter and walked her to the kitchen, while her daughter attempted to smile.

While the mother prepared the utensils and ingredients, her daughter sat across from her at the counter.

Her mother asks, “Sweetheart, would you like a piece of cake?”

Her daughter replies, “Sure, Mom, you know how I love cakes.”

“Alright…” the mother said, “Drink some of this cooking oil.”

Shocked, the daughter responded, “What?! No way!!”

“How about having a couple of raw eggs?”

To this the daughter responded, “Are you kidding?”

“How about having a little flour?”

“No, Mom, I’ll be sick.”

The mother responded, “All of these things are uncooked and doesn’t taste good at all, but if we put them together and mix them in the right proportion and bake…they will make a delicious cake!”

God works the same way. When we ask ourselves why does he make us go through these difficult times, we don’t realize the reasons as well as the purpose behind these events and experiences happening in our lives, since we perceive them in isolation, due to our own ignorance. It may lead us to a better understanding of life, because even the most negative events have something positive in it for us to learn. It will definitely help us to evolve as humans in general and as a spiritual seeker in particular. Due to our limited vision we may not be able to comprehend it.

For example, when a child is ill and is forced to have bitter medicine or painful injection, he can’t comprehend why his loving mother is putting him through this pain. The child doesn’t know that he is ill and the painful injection or bitter medicine, which is forced on him by his mother, is for his recovery. Similarly, only the loving creator knows the reason behind the so called negative events in our lives and it will ultimately be for our own good. We may be spiritually ill, perhaps, and may need this bitter and painful treatment for recovery. We don’t need to settle for raw ingredients. We need to trust Him and see something positive and life changing insight come out of it.

We suffer in life only due to our own ignorance about Reality. Moreover, our perception is finite and limited due to the instruments called the sense organs, mind and the intellect, through which we perceive, being finite and limited.

For example, though we know the sun never rises or sets, our eyes tell us it does. Similarly, the other sense organs, mind and the intellect have their limitations. Therefore, when an event occurs, due to the limited instruments at our disposal, our perception will be limited to one or two aspects of that event. It will not be a complete or overall perception of all aspects of the event. Hence, any conclusion we arrive at, based on the limited perception, will not be the right conclusion. Therefore, we end up labeling certain events and experiences as positive or negative. Moreover, our own past karma-s (action), whether in this life or past lives, plays a big role in all these.

We must learn to see the larger picture, to perceive events and experiences in totality – not in isolation. It will save us from being miserable every time a negative experience or event occurs in our lives. And if we don’t have the ability to do it, then the next best thing to do is to simply surrender absolutely and completely at the altar of our reverence and unburden all our anxieties, worries and sorrows at His feet.

God loves us so much he sends us flowers every spring.

He makes the sun rise every morning.

And any time we need to talk…He is there to listen.

He can live anywhere in the creation…

But He chooses to live in our hearts!