Why does a happy moment always make me sad?
“This too shall pass!”
Once there lived a poor man Ramu who was serving a saint. Pleased by his service, the saint gave him a gift and asked him to open it whenever he is in utmost difficult situation. Ramu thanked the saint for the gift. Soon after the saint left, Ramu got a job in the king’s palace.
Years passed by and when it was time for retirement, Ramu wanted to give some gift for the king. He gifted the king with the same gift which he got from the saint and also told him what the saint had mentioned about it. He added that he never faced any such situation so far and hence he had not used the gift till now. But he was sure that it is very valuable as the saint had assured it.
After some time, a neighbouring rival king came with huge army and attacked the kingdom, abducted the princes and the queens. There was a great war and the king almost lost the battle. The rivals were chasing him and the king rode on his horse and reached a hill-top. His horse was very tired and was unable to move any further.
Standing on the hilltop, the king could see the vast army of the rivals at the other end. He was sure that his end was near. Completely exhausted physically and mentally, he did not know what to do and prayed to God. At that time, he remembered the gift given by Ramu. He opened it and found the following sentence engraved in a palm-leaf — “This too shall pass!” Those words gave him so much solace and peace that he unknowingly fell asleep.
After a few hours when he woke-up, to his utter surprise, the rivals were unable to locate him and had left the place. He remembered the saint’s instructions, thanked God, picked up courage and somehow made his way back to his kingdom, gathered the soldiers and then fought with rival and got back whatever he lost.
Soon after his victory, the king arranged for a great festival to celebrate the victory. He was proudly boasting to everyone about his glories. At that time his old servant Ramu came to him and said, “O King, I forgot to tell you that the saint also mentioned that when we are in height of joy, even then we need to refer to his gift.”
Then immediately the king remembered the golden words — “This too shall pass!” Thanking Ramu for his valuable gift, the king stopped boasting. He realized that victory and loss in material world are all temporary and that he is just an instrument of Supreme Lord and everything is under His control.
“One who is not disturbed in mind even amidst the threefold miseries or elated when there is happiness, and who is free from attachment, fear and anger, is called a sage of steady mind.”
Normally when we are successful in our attempts of achieving something in life, when someone praises us we become very happy and elated and become attached to whatever we have achieved or to people who praise us.
Similarly when we lose or when people scold us, criticise us, we become sad, morose, depressed, fearful and angry. The person who praises us today may spit on our face tomorrow or vice-versa. We may lose more than what we had won so far or gain more than what we had lost so far.
In both situations unfailingly we give excuse of source of elation and depression as the reason for not performing sincere devotional service as well. But indeed in all those situations we should remember the golden words,
“This too shall pass!”
