Most people have heard of the phrase inner strength. Quite often, we perceive this to mean a drive to complete a task, to keep going, and to work out a problem to a solution that keeps eluding us, maybe like a computer program. This inner strength sustains us to keep working at it until we find the solution.
Two years ago, I was blessed by Nirankar to be led to Centre for Oneness in Wednesbury, England. Three weeks thereafter, I received the Gyan – i.e. God Knowledge. This is when the second half of my life began.
After having received the God-Knowledge, I began to change, although to my family, my friends and the people around me, I was still ‘Helen’. I was still a daughter, a sister, a partner with brown eyes and long hair. Nothing had changed for the outside world. For them, I was still the same person. The truth is, however, that I did begin to change with the gift of the Gyan. With the spiritual practices of Simran, Seva and Satsang, I realised that I do not have to spend my days being fearful and worried, trying to gain material wealth or competing with other people. I learned that I could blossom, and illuminate the world with the love of Nirankar. I realised that this Gyan is the True Self, the Omnipresent God, from which we draw our inner strength.
During the first wave of the coronavirus lockdown, the NHS (National Health Service) personnel were under enormous pressure. They dealt with a lot of desperately sick people, looking after them whilst wearing full P.P.E. In spite of the fact that the atmosphere was charged with fear and tension, they somehow found the inner strength to keep going.
The Bible story, Samson and Delilah, exemplifies this. Samson was an Israelite judge with remarkable physical strength. The Philistines, who wanted to know the source of his strength, sent Delilah to trap him. Having found out that his strength lay in his hair, Delilah informed the Philistines, who sent out an army to overpower him. They rendered him weak and vulnerable by cutting off his hair, and threw him into prison. However, when his hair grew again, he was able to push against the stone pillars of the prison walls and bring the whole edifice down.
Samson’s belief that his hair held the key to his strength and that he could defeat the Philistines on his own merit, was nothing but his ego. But when he fully realised this, he surrendered himself to the will of God. He thus drew on the inner strength of Nirankar to defeat the enemy.
The lesson to learn is that we can never gain equilibrium in life with our own limited strength. But when we live with the inner strength of Nirankar, we realise that even when we are suffering, Nirankar knows what is best for us. God gives us the inner strength to keep going.
I was blessed to have a wonderful friend who passed away suddenly in December. When I met her, she had asthma, arthritis, low kidney function and an enlarged heart. As time went on, she was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. But throughout her ordeal, she never complained about any of it. She was never frustrated or worried about not being able to participate in daily events or household chores. So much so that every time a new challenge came along, she reached deep into the inner strength of God’s love and found the strength to keep going; to love even more. The more she suffered physically, the more loving and caring she became.
Through the Grace of the True Master, Her Holiness Satguru Mata Sudikshaji, when we receive the Gyan, the God-Knowledge, and thereby meet Nirankar, the scales fall from our eyes. We begin to realise that the strength we have drawn on throughout our lives, is actually the inner strength or love that Nirankar blesses us with. That love surpasses any worldly love we may have hitherto experienced.
The inner strength, therefore, is the love of Nirankar, which manifests after having realised Him through the Satguru.
Helen Richards, Lichfield, UK
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