In adverse times, hold on to faith

Divine is beyond positives and negatives. Positives and negatives are merely a play and display of the relative. In the absolute, there is neither positive nor negative. Date and time are relevant, only when you are at some point on the globe, the moment you take off to outer space, there is neither day nor night, no time, no date, no year.

Similarly, positives and negatives are relative. Opposite values appear to be opposing, but in some way they are complimentary. Suppose if Ravana was not there, who would glorify Ram. The entire Ramayana revolved around vanavaasi Ram when he goes to the forest and fights with Ravana. Marich, Sugreev, and all these characters, which appear to be negative on one side, are in fact there to glorify the positive.

When I was in Hawaii, on the 14th floor, I looked outside, it was so dark but there were so many lights on in the city of Honolulu. A thought came to me, these city lights are fighting with the darkness of the new moon, still, they cannot win, they cannot vanish the night; the night was so deep and dark. 

On the other side, I contemplated how the night is giving a chance to all these millions of lights to shine, this is another way to look at it. There are so many stars in the sky, it is the night which is giving an opportunity for the stars to exhibit their glory. The night is glorifying the lights and the other way to look at it is that the lights are fighting the night. It is just how you see things.

Similarly, in life, any situation can be viewed from two points. One is to see how it is glorified; adverse situations glorify your qualities and help your beautiful qualities to come up. You cannot exhibit your goodness in a very pleasant atmosphere. When things go wrong, then you get a chance to exhibit your goodness. That goodness has some values. Goodness still has values when things are good, but it shines forth prominently in situations when things are not so conducive. So, compassion has value, your patience has value, your endurance has value when situations are adverse. And in adverse situations, you hold on to your faith, that is the real faith. That faith has real value.

 - Sri Sri Ravishankar