I remember on many occasions friends quite dear to my life contracted horrible diseases by which they had maximum six months or a year to live. The first reaction usually is that they are shocked and horrified. ‘Why is God doing this to me? What I have done? I am a good person. I am a vegetarian for the last 30 years. Why am I getting cancer? It’s not supposed to happen!’
However, when they become a little introspective they actually surrender. They are grateful. They no longer say, ‘Why is this happening to me? This is not supposed to happen to me.’ But rather they think, ‘I don’t deserve this mercy. I am not qualified, I am not good enough to get such mercy. God is taking me out of the slow lane and putting me in the super highway. He is giving me the chance within the six months to perfect my life with exclusive concentration in the path of Bhakti, devotion. Nothing else matters. All my attachments, all my false sense of proprietorship, all my affections for materialistic relations, they have very little meaning now because I know within a few months that will all be gone. The only substance that my existence now has is God, Krishna.’ In that state they surrender. They take the opportunity to perfect their love for God.
