Dealing with Obstacles

Wisdom Teachings
The Journey Inside

The progress in evolution doesn’t happen automatically. We mostly learn by our own mistakes, and we thus try to realign our way of life and our attitudes. If we want to advance in life, inevitably also impediments arise. Wherever we experience in the outer an obstacle, a deception or a delay, this is a hint that something in the inner system has to be realigned. If we react in a disgruntled, irritated or depressed way, this shows our inability to accept situations.

When somebody says, “My living conditions aren’t good”, this means that the existing living conditions are seen as something bad. We regard something as good or as bad because of our impressions. The circumstances exist in our mind and not in our environment. What we perceive as outer obstacles are only our own definitions of obstacles. Where we see an obstacle, someone else achieves success. We can transform difficult situations from their quality of an obstacle to the quality of steps of progress. However, as long as we don’t know how to deal with the situation, it stands in our way of progress. Thus problems showing up in the outer provide an opportunity for inner growth.

The obstacles in life have a purpose. Every problem holds a present, which we can obtain with the right attitude and humility. Obstacles enable us to reflect more deeply, sometimes even at the cost of sleep. Without obstacles man seldom thinks, he falls into a routine and follows it like a sheep. Obstacles can awaken us and help to introspect, to retrospect and to look ahead. A severe obstacle forces us to think deeper, more focused, so that we can hit upon a creative thought and perhaps even touch the planes of intuition. An idea can flash forth and give a solution. This is the reward of the obstacle. Therefore Master DK says: “Let pain bring due reward of Light and Love.”

The wisdom teachings explain that the obstacles on our way are nothing but the things we neglected in the past. What we are neglecting today is a problem of the future. Whatever we neglect, negate or repress today, will come back to be solved by us. If we neglect health today, we undergo sickness tomorrow. If we don’t care for riches today, we encounter poverty tomorrow. If we neglect people today, we encounter non-cooperation tomorrow. Thus every obstacle challenges us to stop, think, rectify and proceed.

If we don’t observe these fundamental things, we work against our knowledge, in spite of all our knowledge. The biggest hurdle on the way are we ourselves, the personality. It carries variety of personal thoughts, desires and emotions. It is like a big block, which prevents the soul to express through the body. Essentially we are the soul, the person. The personality, however, is the shadow of the soul, an aggregate of qualities. When we don’t put into practice our knowledge we get from the wisdom teachings, we remain caught in the structures of the personality. The aim isn’t to destroy the personality, but to adjust it to the demands of the soul. Then the radiance of the soul and its magnetic impact can express through the personality.

In his yoga teachings Patanjali gives a number of obstacles, which obstruct the progress on the spiritual path: Disease, rejection, doubt, mistake, laziness, indulgence, illusion and self-delusion, lack of determination, lack of continuity of purpose, and disappointment. Many things have to be re-aligned, so that our personality can attune to the soul, and this has to be done slowly. If we turn to one obstacle after the other, each for a year, we have overcome 12 obstacles in 12 years. If we want to overcome all 12 at a time, we cannot overcome even a single one. In this a certain occasional indiscipline is o.k. Thus we can allow the personality from time to time to enjoy a little something; then it is more willing to place itself under the soul. Otherwise it will spring up with a thirst for revenge after a while. It is said that even the masters tease each other just for sport.

What has been built up in the deeper psyche can be corrected with the help of spiritual instruments, and we obtain them from spiritual psychology. Normal psychology helps to find out the problem, but in order to solve it we have to turn to the deeper psychology. There is a solution for every problem, and it can be found. The solution consists in correcting our action and also in finding the source of the problem through analytic thinking. In order to eliminate it from its source, we have to strengthen the soul aspect. For this we have the yoga-teachings or the teachings of the masters. Prayers and contemplation help to align the personality with the soul. We also can work with sound, colour and number. Yoga exercises are significant in order to overcome obstacles in the body and to strengthen the etheric network. When we trust in the activity of Nature, work for others with good will and forget what we need ourselves, our needs will be cared for.

Trust in the teachings of the Great Ones is the only support through which we can move forward. Many people are afraid of this and prefer to remain under the cover of the thoughts of the personality. The shadow always proposes not to go into the light and to do what is pleasant to the personality. Everything the wisdom teachings say, the personality likes to revolt against. This comes from its old habits. When we try to give it a new habit, the old habits don’t allow the new ones to enter. From the viewpoint of personality always some sacrifice is claimed to walk on the path of the soul.

Our personality can drag us into illusions, and we can get caught by our ideas and concepts. Thus in our inner a storm may come about, a fight between light and shadow, in which we can easily feel ourselves lost. When we want to progress in spite of the storm, we will also get to feel the storm from outside: differences in the family or social obligations keep us away from what we as souls would like to do. When social activities are constantly demanding us, we find no longer enough time to devote ourselves to our exercises. Our concepts of our reputation and prestige, of family or profession can become an impediment. We shouldn’t get stuck in our own concepts, but clear the hindrances of the concepts we have created. Master CVV said: “Be modest in all you do”, and emphasised a healthy growth of man in regard to family, economy and society.

Society is also called the “bigger personality”. Whenever somebody wants to put things straight in society, he also evokes opposition trying to discourage him. Initiates like Socrates, Pythagoras and Jesus have influenced the society and brought it to review things. They have provoked a strong opposition. We aren’t yet strong enough to face this storm, but when we turn towards the light, we will grow and be able to face the challenges which come up to us.

In the Eastern tradition Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, is worshipped as the energy removing obstacles in life and helping to clear the mind. Obstacles come about through wrong thoughts, also through right thoughts at the wrong moment. However, if the right thoughts come at the right moment, the plan can be executed successfully. Ganesha is the cosmic aspect of Jupiter, the Lord of Love and Wisdom. When we invoke him with the sound of GAM, a transformation takes place in us. Our mental patterns get restructured and the flow of energy can thus circulate freely. It is the experience of the seers of ancient times that when an action starts with the blessing of the energies of Ganesha’s love and wisdom, things will proceed undisturbed and more easily find fulfilment.

K.P. Kumar: Saturn / Jupiter / notes from seminars / E. Krishnamacharya: The Yoga of Patanjali. The World Teacher Trust - Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.