ADVERSITY
Adversity is affliction or misfortune or calamity. Adversity is a state or condition characterised by untoward, harassing circumstances, severe trial or affliction. lt is opposed to prosperity. Adversity is an event or series of events which oppose success or desires. lt is a state of unhappiness.
Adversity is a blessing in disguise. Sweet are the uses of adversity. lt strengthens the will power and the power of endurance and turns the mind more and more towards God. lt instill dispassion or Vairagya in the heart. lt is the first path to truth.
Adversity is a virtue. lt makes the idle industrious. lt draws out the faculties of the wise. lt puts a man to the necessity of trying his skill.
The crucial test is your conduct under hardship and adversity. The storms of adversity rouse the faculties and talents of an individual and generate prudence, skill, fortitude, courage, patience and perseverance. Adversity makes one think, invent and discover.
Adversity is the only balance to weigh friends; prosperity is no just scale.
Adversity will mould you properly. lt is your great teacher. lt is the best and severe instructor. Great persons and saints have been tried, smelted, polished and glorified through the furnace of adversity.
Do not weep when you are in adverse conditions. Adversity strengthens your nerves and sharpens your skill.
The best thing in this world is pain or adversity. During pain only man remembers God. Pain is the eye-opener. The quest of God begins from pain. The starting point of philosophy is from pain. Had there not been pain in this world, man would never have attempted to get freedom (moksha). He would have been satisfied with mundane life only. ln trying to get rid of pain, he comes across Truth or the abode of Peace, Parama-Dhama. He starts prayer, Japa, charity, selfless seryice, study of religious books, etc. Bhaktas always pray to God, “O Lord! Give us sufferings always so that we shall ever remember Thee.”
Adversity develops power of endurance and will-force. Adversity develops fortitude and forbearance. Adversity melts a stony heart and infuses devotion to God.
BENEVOLENCE
Benevolence. Latin: Benevolentia a good feeling; bene – well, and volens – to wish. Benevolence is the disposition to seek the well-being or comfort of others. lt is the desire to alleviate suffering or promote happiness. lt is love of mankind or kindliness of heart or charitableness.
Benevolence is the all-inclusive virtue. ln order to attain the perfection of benevolence itself the moral judgment of men requires all the other most cardinal virtues both of will and of judgment.
Benevolence is the minister of God. lt is a rare virtue. To feel much for others and little for ourselves, to restrain our selfish and excercise our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.
No one in this world is perfectly independent. He is in need of the assistance of others. Man is placed in society to receive and confer reciprocal helps and mutual obligations.
Your food, your clothes, your health, your protection from injuries, your enjoyment of the comforts and pleasures of life-all these you owe to the assistance of others. Therefore, be benevolent to others. Be a cosmic benefactor. Be a friend to mankind.
The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect, but it is only the benevolent man who wins our affection.
A benevolent man enjoys peace, joy and tranquillity. He rejoices in the happiness and prosperity of his neighbours and all other people. He who employs his wealth, his thought, his speech, to advance the good of others is a glorious man. He is a veritable god on this earth.
Excerpts from “HOW TO CULTIVATE VIRTUES AND ERADICATE VICES” by Sri Swami Sivananda