“A beggar cannot renounce wealth,” Master would say. “If a man laments, ‘My business has failed; my wife has left me; I will renounce all and enter a monastery,’ to what worldly sacrifice is he referring? He did not renounce wealth and love; they renounced him!”
Sri Yukteswar
Only fools relish conflict. At the same time, some degree of conflict is necessary for our spiritual evolution. By avoiding necessary conflict two things happen: the problems we face only grow, and our God-given divinity cannot blossom. In the wedding at Cana, there is conflict, believe it or not, between Jesus and his mother. She wants him to perform a miracle, to change water into wine so that the wedding can continue. He responds, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” Essentially, Jesus is saying no. They are in conflict. Mary, representing God and the impulse toward spiritual evolution, does not take no for an answer. She is unrelenting. Likewise, God does not take no for answer. In this life or a future life, God will keep on asking us to turn water into wine, to do what our ego does not want to do, the very thing we want to avoid, so that rivers of living water can flow into the arena of our life. God created us to walk uphill. There is always a degree of conflict in the endeavor to walk uphill because it is uncomfortable, even painful. What we must remember is that God places us in these conflictual situations to grow the divine seed within us so that we can live as God intended us to live: as gods.
The uphill walk
Is difficult;
But you have given me
Steps.
The Wedding At Cana: A Universal Call To Divinity
