Antidote to Worrying

We worry about children, money, health and almost all other subjects. Sometimes we even worry about worrying!

Over two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ addressed his worried disciples and seekers in the same vein:

Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
_{Bible, Matthew 6:26}

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
_{Bible, Matthew 6:30}

We fear adverse circumstances and worry before things actually happen. Experience shows that most of the things we worry about never come to pass. Since we do not know our future, how can we prepare for it except to live in the Lord’s will? All the same, the vast majority of the problems are of our own making. Our expectations may be unrealistically high despite our limitations. It is also our tendency not to live in the present moment. We are full of regret about the past and worry about the future. Nothing can now be done about the past and who knows the future? Someone rightly observed, “Yesterday is history and tomorrow is mystery.” Resignation to the supremacy of the Lord’s will helps to moderate and mould our thinking so that we can come to terms with the events of life without losing our balance. In this connection, Maharaj Charan Singh says in Divine Light:

There is no use worrying about the past. Take care of the future now. Ups and downs do come in the life of everybody, but one should not lose heart. The Lord is within you and He is ever merciful. Turn to Him and He will shower his grace. Attend to your meditation most regularly, with love and faith. Whether your mind likes it or not, look upon it as your paramount duty.

Answering a letter to a person worried about his financial position, Maharaj Charan Singh in Divine Light advises:

I am sorry to hear of your deteriorated financial condition. But a satsangi should never allow such things to weigh upon his heart. Please do not fall prey to worry. Worry never did help anyone and it never will. Rather, it puts one in a still more negative condition and depletes one’s energy. You will get what is in your destiny, but you must work for it. No one has ever received more than his share, nor can one receive it before it is due; so why fret and worry? Apply that energy to some practical work, with the proper mental attitude. Real happiness and peace are within you, and not in outer objects. So, do your duty in this world and do not fail to carry on your bhajan and simran regularly, every day.

As disciples, treading the path of Sant Mat, there is only one thing that we should rightly worry about and that is the lack of regularity and effort in our daily meditation. Everything else is secondary. Due to our unclear thinking and lack of resolve, we are tied down with the dead weight of worry upon our heart, preventing our attention from rising to the eye centre. Without a doubt, life on this plane can be tough and that is why the gracious Master wants us to lay our worries aside and focus on experiencing the Shabd within. He has equipped us with the necessary means to fight the mind and gain mastery over it. Drawing from the army tradition, the following song was popular amongst soldiers during World War I:

Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
What’s the use of worrying,
It never was worthwhile.
So pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,
And smile, smile, smile.
_{George Henry Powell}

Without cymbals, without drums,
  The anhad jhankar is present everywhere.
Without a tune, without a sound, without a pause,
  The melody resounds, filling every pore of my body.
_{Mira Bai, as quoted in A Treasury of Mystic Terms}