The Gift of acceptance

THE GIFT OF ACCEPTANCE

Perhaps one of the greatest signs of a true believer in God, is his capacity to accept, all that happens in his life, as true gifts of God, no matter whether they appear to his limited understanding, to be good or bad. This philosophy of acceptance, is based primarily on the undermentioned, criteria that form the basis of the foundation on which the true believer’s faith is built.

1. There is a God, who is the Creator of the universe and all that it contains, and this God is omnipotent, omniscient,omnipresent, and merciful.
2. Nothing can happen in this world without His permission.
3. Nothing that happens with the permission of an allknowing and merciful God can be bad.
When an event occurs in one’s life, which one can perceive with his limited understanding to be “beneficial” to oneself, there is no difficulty in accepting it as a true gift from God, though even in such cases, blinded by one’s own sense of ego, one is likely to apportion a good share of the credit for such
“beneficial” happening to one’s own smartness and forethought.

The real conflict of understanding begins, only when something happens to one, that one considers as bad. Such a happening could perhaps be, a loss of a dear one, or the loss of one’s material possessions or any one of a number of events that would normally cause distress of mind and desolation. It is at such times that one asks oneself, “How could such a distressful event take place under the sanction of a just and merciful God?” In fact, no less a person that Vivekananda, in his preenlightenment days, had said, when he was facing the agony of his father’s passing away, that if he had the powers of God he would certainly have created a much better world, where such painful events would not take place at all. Unlike in the case of the “beneficial” happening, one has no hesitation, in the case of a distressful happening, to place the entire responsibility, for the event at God’s doors.

This sense of frustration and distress, at the occurrence of a perceivedly “bad” happening will cease to exist, if one has unshakeable faith in the third tenet, mentioned above, and if one is able to see in its light, this socalled “bad” happening, also as a gift of God, in the same way in which one evaluated the “good” happening, earlier. This capacity to accept with uncomplaining reverence, any gift from God, whether it appears to us as good, bad or indifferent, is innately present in every believer. This will be clear, if one considers one’s readiness to accept any “prasad” that is offered in any place of worship, without questioning for a moment, the purity of the ingredients that went into its making, or the state of cleanliness of the person, who hands over the “prasad” to us. This ready and respectful acceptance of the “prasad”, is not because of any intrinsic merit in the “prasad”, but only because, one believes that it is a gift from God, which has been sanctified by the touch of His feet.
If one is able to truly and fully bring to bear the same attitude, when reacting to a so called “bad” happening in one’s life, and if one is able to see it also, as an event, that has been sanctified by the touch of God’s feet, then one will be able, to accept even, the socalled “bad” events in one’s life, not merely with resignation, but with gratitude and humility.