DIVINE DESPERATENESS

 
Ordinarily, man is engrossed in activities concerning the material world, and lives through its experiences of joys and sorrow without suspecting the existence of a deeper Reality. He aims at the pleasures of the senses and avoids suffering. "Eat, drink, and be merry" is his philosophy. But he cannot entirely avoid suffering; and even when he succeeds in having pleasures, he becomes satiated. While he thus goes through the daily round of experiences, there arises occasions when he asks himself, "What is the end of this?"

Such occasion may present itself in some happening for which he is not mentally prepared; it may be disappointment in some confident expectations, or an important change in his situation demanding radical readjustment and giving up of cherished habits.

Usually such occasions arise from the frustration of some deep craving. If that craving has no chance of being satisfied, the psyche receives such a shock that may cause it no longer to accept the life that hitherto has been lived without question.

Under such circumstances a person may be driven to despair; and if the tremendous power generated by the psychic disturbance remains uncontrolled, it may lead even to serious derangement of mind. Such a catastrophe overcomes those in whom desperateness is allied with thoughtlessness, for they allow impulse to have free sway. Desperateness can only work destruction.

But the desperateness of a thoughtful person under similar circumstances is altogether different, because the energy released is intelligently harnessed and directed towards a purpose. In the moment of such divine desperateness a man may make the important decision of discovering the aim of life. There thus comes into his life the search for lasting values. Henceforth, the question that refuses to be silenced is, "What does my life lead to?"

Divine desperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening

When the psychic energy of man is centered upon finding the goal of life, he is using the power of desperateness creatively. He is no longer content with the fleeting things of this life and is sceptical about the values he has so far accepted. His desire is to find the Truth at any cost, and he does not rest satisfied with anything short of it.

Divine desperateness is the beginning of spiritual awakening because it gives rise to the aspiration for God-Realization. In the moment of divine desperateness when everything seems to give way, a man may decide to take any risk for realizing the possible significance of his life.

All the usual solaces have now failed him; but at the same time his inner being refuses to reconcile itself with the idea that life is devoid of meaning. If he does not then admit some hidden reality that he has not hitherto known, there is nothing worth living for.

The alternatives are that there is a hidden spiritual reality, which prophets have described as God, or that everything is meaningless. The second is unacceptable to a sane man, therefore he must try the other. Thus man turns to God.