Golden Rule 2: My conscientious self, be firm in faith through life’s tests and trials.
The first rule concerns being consistent in our principles amidst tests and trials, and this second rule asks us, in addition to holding to our principles, to have faith and not give way to despair, because each new moment brings a new dispensation.
The poet Tulsidas said that Ravana, the demon king who abducted Sita, was Rama’s greatest devotee. Like Rama, we all face tests and trials of different kinds in our life and ordinarily we meet these challenges with frustration, wishing the problems would just go away. But if we look at our problems as tests and trials, we see that we are being provoked that we might respond in a manner that brings forth hitherto unrevealed dimensions of our own being. If all were ease and comfort, none of these qualities would ever manifest. If there were no mistakes or misjudgements, forgiveness and compassion could never be shown. So just as our limitation sets the stage for the Divine Forgiveness, so the ordeals that we face in life provide an opportunity for the embodiment of qualities of being that exist otherwise only in seed.
If one has been challenged, what would it mean to think of the person or the circumstance not as an enemy but as one’s greatest devotee? If someone provokes you, could you think here is a person who is asking to learn from what I might say or do? Of course when we are provoked, the one who provokes us generally expects that we will react in kind; with anger and resentment. But suppose that we disappoint that expectation and surprise our adversary with qualities of being that transform the very nature of the encounter. Then one’s adversary really becomes the student of the situation.
But then perhaps you have found yourself with one who engages in the conflict with such integrity that although your interests are different, you cannot help but respect that other one, and see him or her in some sense as a friend. So we might likewise strive to be such a one, that those who find themselves in conflict with us, while they might continue to pursue that disagreement, will be compelled to acknowledge the integrity of our responses.
What allows this integrity to show itself? There is a hint in this rule: to be firm in faith. Faith is hope; one does not pity oneself but feels the hand of the Divine protection and guidance always above one’s head, even when things seems darkest. Faith gives one firmness, strength, and resilience, however difficult the circumstances. Faith gives clarity of purpose so that one does not succumb to temptations. With faith one feels that this too shall pass and what is of utmost significance is that I face it with integrity, honesty, compassion, and good will. Faith assures me that I will master and embody those qualities that are being summoned forth in me and that I will be a channel through which the Divine Names can more and more reveal themselves in the world. Never mind fame and fortune, just let yourself be a transparency through which the Divine Life can more and more realize itself on earth.
My conscientious self, be firm in faith through life’s tests and trials.
