________________
you may hope to perform best to look sparkling in death. In this manner, getting a chance to give a glorious practice of maintaining equanimity at death (Samadhi mrityu) provided by illness is a blessing.
During illness we often say this spontaneously, " Enough! God, please don't give such pain to anyone". What does this indicate ? From our pain is born a compassionate temperament. When a plaster on fractured bone compels you to stay bed-ridden for three months, you are filled with maximum sympathy for patients who have suffered fractures, since you have met with the same fate.
When a person who has once spent many nights on the streets, or on a thin mattress spread on the floor, hungry or half-fed, becomes rich, he has a soft corner for genuinely poor people. There is a beautiful saying: "an injured person alone knows the pain of another injured person". In a nutshell, this shows that when we are in pain, our mind becomes very concerned towards others suffering in pain. The thing which makes a note-worthy contribution by ploughing the harsh land of our heart to make it soft and which enlarges the canvas of our compassion, is illness which is a blessing.
You have taken great pains to look after your body. That body is so feeble and week! For the sake of decorating your body, you have disfigured your soul. But that body is such a traitor ! Due to the love for the body, you never hesitated to resort to violence of all sorts, and always feared while performing any
---
MIND YOUR mind: 29
