Finding joy in aligning with your will

mām upetya punar janma duḥkhālayaṁ aśāśvatam nāpnuvanti mahātmānaḥ saṁsiddhiṁ paramāṁ gatāḥ. [BG 8.15] "Those who reach me are never reborn, To this world of sorrow, tattered and torn. Great souls attain the supreme destination, Released forever from all of life's tribulation." My dear Lord, distress comes upon me in this world repeatedly and often relentlessly. When it comes, I find myself taken aback—agitated, frustrated, enraged, or devastated—depending on the magnitude of what has gone wrong, and especially on how far it has strayed from my expectations of how it should have gone. Let such frustrations and the resulting agitation of the mind serve as a warning about the unavoidable reality of distress in this world. When you declare this world to be a place of distress, let me not see it as a condemnation of the world or of my efforts to live meaningfully and joyfully within it. Let me see it instead as an expression of your compassion, protecting me from the avoidable trouble caused by unrealistic expectations. You also assure me that if I act in a mode of service, aspiring to be part of your plan for the welfare of the world, I can find happiness even in this world of distress—not by getting the world to bend to my will as the source of my happiness, but by bending myself to align with your will and finding joy in that harmony of love. Let the distresses of the world not discourage me from endeavoring entirely, but only from endeavoring with the mistaken notion that the world itself will make me happy. It is you, O Lord, who alone can make me happy—whether through the results of my actions that manifest in the world or through the results that manifest in my own heart, as you deem fit by your sweet, sweet will. -H.G. Caitanya Caraṇa Prabhu