-All people are in stress to some degree. How to avoid stress in modern life?
-Well, you cannot avoid stress because stress, as you just mentioned, is everywhere. And the more we’ve advanced in our modern technology and ways to enjoy the world, that means we have to work harder, it means more people are desperate trying to find happiness, and so the stress level just goes up and up. We’re under great pressure. To be successful, to be happy, to make money, to support our more expensive, extravagant lifestyles. And we’re caught in a whirlwind. And so you can’t really avoid stress. Even if you move to the country, there’s still stress; you know, less degree, but still it’s there. Because material life is stressful.
And one of the most stressful things is: you’re threatened with death. You see, we’re an eternal soul, but we all are threatened with death at any moment. “I’m going to die from cancer. I’m going to die from this car accident. I’m going to die from…” this thing and that thing, whatever. You see.
So material life is stressful. So the solution is, again, not a material solution. Moving to an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean is not going to solve the problem. Then you’ll be stressed about, “I’m lonely.” You’ll be stressed about, “Where am I going to get something to eat?” You’re going to be stressed about, “Oooh, what am I going to do? I’m going to die here… alone?!”
So really there’s only one solution and it’s, again, a spiritual solution. If I have that loving relationship with God in my heart and I’m actively living my life in His service, I’m actually experiencing the happiness of this, then I’m peaceful inside, I’m calm inside. And so the whirlwind is flying all around me. There’s stress everywhere: there’s job stress, there’s environmental stress, there is pollution from the sound, and the food, and the air, and everything else. You know, the hurricane is tearing everything to pieces around us, but in the eye of the storm everything is calm and peaceful. So this is the only solution.
So the more we have that connection with God, the more we’re actually living in a loving relationship with Him on a daily, everyday, every moment basis, the more calm and peaceful we’d become. And therefore the stress goes away. You see? We have to deal with these adverse situations all the time, but we deal with them in a calm way and we manage the stress that is inevitable. And our life is now not stressful. And this is, again, the only solution.
So I say it every time, if we chant God’s names of a regular basis, this will bring me into that calm, peaceful, quite place inside, and I will actually smile inside. And, of course, when I smile inside, I smile outside, too.
So it’s a spiritual solution to every problem. Whether it’s stress, or whether it’s loneliness, or whether it’s trying to find happiness, or whether it’s a marital problem, or whether it’s a financial problem, whatever. It doesn’t matter. The answer is still the same, always the same. This is the one solution for everything.
-Balakhilya das, you mentioned the fear of death. Will it help so this fear goes away? Sometimes when I think about death, I feel fear.
-Yes, it will help. Because you understand you’re eternal, you’re not the body. The body dies. You don’t die. And you spend actually your life preparing for death. The human form of life is actually a design to prepare for death, meaning I develop a spiritual consciousness, I develop a God consciousness. My heart is now focused on service to God, my consciousness is always thinking, “How can I please? How can I serve?”
And so therefore the condition of my body, whether I die of old age, whether I die of a cancer at a young age, whatever it is, it’s not the big issue that it is for an ordinary person. Because I’m not the body. I use my body in God’s service, I take care of it as best I can cause it’s my tool, it’s my vehicle to use. But it’s not me.
And when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. And I am already situated on a spiritual platform, so it’s not like I don’t know where I’m going. I’m in God’s hands, so to speak. You don’t have to worry. If you’re in God’s hands, whether you’re in the body or you’re out of the body, you’re with God. And therefore your life is stable.
So death is inevitable. It comes, you’re ready for it, you’re properly prepared, you go through that experience, and it’s not the big issue. It’s not the fear that everyone else who doesn’t have this relationship will experience.
-Thank you very much.
-Haribol!