A finely dressed man came to see Baba and prayed to him for guidance on the path. Baba asked him, “For what do you want this guidance?”
The man confessed, “I have incurred numerous debts to maintain my family in comfort; now the debts are weighing on me like a great mountain. They pierce me like arrows and I suffer terribly. No one in the world is as miserable as I am!”
Baba urged him to have courage and advised, “Try to wipe out your debts. I will help you internally.”
The man was comforted, and Baba explained, “Sacrifice is sweet when it is for a good cause. Suffering should be for something worthwhile, and not for selfishness or weakness.
“Even cowards suffer, as do heroes, but there is a great difference between the suffering of the two. The wounds of the arrows which the brave bear, and the worldly arrows that pierce you, are as different as the earth and the sky. Cowards go on being miserable by the arrows of Maya, while heroes endure their lot for love of God.”
-www.lordmeher.org, p1973
Jan, 1939; Jabalpur