One day a Sufi Master and disciple set out on a boat journey.
The disciple then asked his Master,
”Since God is our Father, and it is but natural that He should give joy to His children..... but what I am unable to understand is..... why are we also given so much of sorrow, pain and unhappiness?”
The Master gave no reply but began to row the boat with only one oar. The boat began to turn in circles.
”What are you doing?” the disciple called out. ”If you row with one oar we shall never reach the other side. We will end up going round and round on this spot….!”
The Master then replied, ”You seem to be a much more intelligent fellow than I thought!”
“If there is only joy and happiness, life will go only in circles and arrive nowhere. For it to work, the opposite is also needed. A boat moves with two oars, a man walks with two feet, and two hands are needed to work. In life you need night and day, joy and sorrow, birth and death; or else the boat of life keeps going round and round, reaching nowhere.”
When we begin to perceive correctly, knowing that He is in everything, even when sorrow comes we accept it cheerfully. Then we accept both joy and sorrow equally.
To whom to complain, and about what?
He gave when He pleased, He took away when He pleased.
We have no hand in it. All is His – everything!
Then, why the tears? Where is the anxiety, the sorrow and the distress?
If He gives, we are happy; if He does not give, we should also be happy. His ways are unique.
Sometimes He gives and thus creates us and sometimes He takes away and in so doing makes us evolve further!
Sometimes suffering is necessary, because sorrow awakens us , makes us conscious.
In happiness we are lost and asleep.
When we begin to look upon them impartially, our attachment to joy and rejection of suffering are both broken and we will then stand apart, free from both, having arrived at the attitude of being a witness to all of these.