Aiming to be trouble-free? Think again

None of us like trouble. To try to avoid it reflects not only a sound survival instinct, but also an alert intelligence. For example, if we are driving on a road and see a pothole ahead of us, we can and should avoid the pothole whenever possible. 

But suppose we are driving for an important meeting to a remote place that can be accessed only through a pothole-filled road. If we obsess over avoiding potholes, we may never get to our destination. 

What applies to a physical journey also applies to the journey of life. While we can and should avoid troubles in life whenever possible, there are many occasions when troubles are just unavoidable; not only that, such troubles may even be essential for our learning, growth and overall benefit. Trying to avoid those troubles may end up causing far greater trouble. For example, if a child refuses the trouble of learning language, the child on growing up will face all the limitations that come with illiteracy. If we refuse the trouble of practicing the things we are good at, we will end up wasting our talents and undergoing negative emotions such as disappointment, envy and self-loathing.

Knowing that troubles are unavoidable and that they multiply when we try to avoid them, we can stop avoiding troubles and choosing those troubles that when endured enable us to do better things and become a better being. Encouraging us to steel ourselves for such choices, the Bhagavad-gita (18.37) assures us that the things that taste like poison will eventually taste like nectar. 

One-sentence summary: 

The more we try to escape life’s necessary troubles, the more we fill our life with unnecessary troubles.

Think it over:

How can avoiding troubles impede us?How can avoiding troubles harm us?What can be a healthy focus for our life-journey?

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18.37: That which in the beginning may be just like poison but at the end is just like nectar and which awakens one to self-realization is said to be happiness in the mode of goodness.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image