40. The True Meaning of Protection

After commencing an activity, we often find that numerous obstacles crop up, hindering the completion of the task. As such, anxiety that a task that we commence should get completed without impediments is but natural.

Impediments are much too common when it comes to noble activities that are aimed at doing good to people. We can attribute this phenomenon to the proclivity of humans to not only strive to earn fame for themselves but also to prevent others from earning a good name. As a result of this tendency, one desires the successful completion of one’s own activities, but when it comes to tasks commenced by others, this desire is reversed, for one resents others’ success. Since this mentality is seen in everyone, there will always be someone or the other to create problems in our path.

If a person plans to construct a temple, there will be people who think on the lines of, “I will send an anonymous petition full of complaints to the authorities concerned, and then watch the fun.” If you ask them what they gain from such destructive activities, they will nonchalantly reply, “We do it just for fun! Let us now see how he constructs the temple!” The philanthropist who proposed to build the temple would never have imagined that obstacles of this kind would materialize.

How does one tide over such unexpected obstacles that are placed on one’s path? Let us take the example of an institution with numerous employees. If there is a problem in regulating the activities of the employees or in enforcing discipline or rules among them, the way to solve the problem is to request the intervention of the Chairman of the institution, for, when orders are issued from the top of the institution’s hierarchy, the desired objective is achieved without ado.

This world is an institution. God, the Paramatma, is its Chairman. Instead of wasting our energies trying to appeal to mortals around us to stop creating impediments to our good deeds, we should approach God and pray to Him to remove all hindrances in our path. In response to our prayers, the Supreme Lord will thwart the wicked thoughts in the troublemakers’ minds by inducing a Prerana, which will cause them to muse along the lines - “It is true that we originally wanted to hinder this man’s activity. However, we now realize that he is actually engaged in a noble task. Rather than causing problems, why don’t we try to be of some assistance instead?” Only the Lord can cause such a turnaround in people’s thinking.

What does the statement, “Ishwara protects us” mean? Does it mean that Iswara handles us like a shepherd herding His cattle with a stick in His hand? No, what is meant is that the Lord protects us by entering our minds and inducing appropriate thoughts in them. The following prayer finds a place in the Vedas: “May that Supreme Lord, Who is the sole cause of the entire cosmos and of even Hiranyagarbha, the Creator, induce noble thoughts in my mind.”

Noble thoughts generate good deeds while sinful ones have harmful consequences. As such, it is clear that unhindered progress of what we have commenced is indicative of the presence of noble thoughts, which are in turn the effects of the Prerana induced by God, otherwise known as God’s grace. Hence, prayer to God before commencing any task is sine qua non. ❃❃❃❃