The Crescent

The father carries his little girl on his shoulders on a warm summer’s night. He walks along the beach and admires the brilliant reflection of the moon on the shimmering ocean. “Daddy look up; God is smiling,” says the little girl. Her father looks up at the sky and sure enough there is a huge smile – a luminous crescent. He then looks into his little girl’s eyes – purity, calmness, joy and innocence shine in them – her eyes reflect the beauty of her soul. The words of the Gospel echo in his ears: “For it is to those who are childlike that the kingdom of the Heavens belongs.”

The Lord likes this childlike heart – filled with simple love, purity and innocence. A child is happy with the little joys in life. A child trusts his father without question, and a child’s faith is simply implicit.

We, too, were once innocent little children. We should rekindle the purity of this childlike part of the self.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
_{Bible, Matthew 5:8}

Life goes by too quickly and before we know it, just like a spider, we weave a web and eventually get entangled in it. Those days of childhood and laughter seem long gone. Now each step in life seems to be edged with trials and tribulations; and our weak attitude and lack of faith just drag us down further, sometimes making us wonder if this existence is nothing but meaningless.

Our biggest dilemma in life is not the trivial problems of life themselves but the lack of faith in God. Faith in God is like the crescent the little child sees and smiles at. If only we had the conviction that God is watching over us every moment of our life and His guiding hand is protecting us, then like the little child who trusts in his father implicitly, we would be free of the sorrows which we ourselves create.

Life itself is very simple. And our needs are very simple in this creation. We complicate our needs by our requirements. We create problems at every step and then we try to solve them.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Legacy of Love}

To overcome all our fears, doubts and uncertainties in life, we need to have faith in the Lord. Faith is our triumph over all these trials. And such faith, as the Masters stress, comes as a result of daily devotion to meditation. Our love and devotion for the Lord will build such faith. Daily practice is necessary because we are building on something concrete; then our faith will not waver with the little trials in life. We will realize that trials may come, but they are not here to stay! Rather faith should always stay with us – faith that is woven out of conviction.

If you try to pick up the thorns of the world, you can never succeed, but if you put strong shoes on your feet, no thorns will bother you. Similarly, we can never solve the problems of this world, but we can always rise above the problems.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, The Master Answers}

Meditation will fill us with immense love for the Lord and such devotion will strengthen our faith and purify us. Filled with these beautiful childlike qualities, we will feel the inner reservoir of calmness and an assurance of trust. As a result, all things in life will seem to flow smoothly as we will have the conviction that the One behind all life’s events knows better, that someone wiser has a master plan ahead – for the best is yet to come.

Faith is the most precious of gifts that the Lord can confer on a devotee. If one has little meditation to his credit but has full faith and love, his future is assured.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Quest for Light}

The crescent is indeed a smile from above – a reminder that He is always there because we tend to forget one too many times that His guiding hand is protecting us at every instant. Yet again, we fall at the slightest shake and He picks us up ever so lovingly and smilingly says: “O ye of little faith!”

God, saith He, has infinite treasure to bestow, and we take up with a little sensible devotion, which passes in a moment. Blind as we are, we hinder God and stop the current of His graces. But when He finds a soul penetrated with a lively faith, He pours into it His graces and favours plentifully: there they flow like a torrent, which, after being forcibly stopped against its ordinary course, when it has found a passage, spreads itself with impetuosity and abundance.
_{Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God}