Embroidery of our life

[Lesson - Imported]

There was a little boy, whose mother used to embroider a great deal. He would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed him that she was embroidering. As from the underside he watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand, he complained to her that it sure looked messy from where he sat.

She would smile at him, look down and gently say, "Son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."

He would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from his view. A few minutes would pass and then he would hear mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee." This he did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. He could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then mother would say to him, "My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing."

Many times through the years whenever he looked up to his Heavenly Father and said, "Father, what are You doing?" it seemed that the Lord answered, "I am embroidering your life." He would think, "It looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?" The Lord seemed to reply , "My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you back to me and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side."

Srila Prabhupada instructs:

"The whole world is moving according to the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. There is a specific plan being carried out in this material world. What is this plan? This cosmic manifestation is a chance for the conditioned souls to go back to Godhead, back to home. As long as they have the domineering mentality which makes them try to lord it over material nature, they are conditioned. But anyone who can understand the plan of the Supreme Lord and cultivate Krishna consciousness is most intelligent."

"One who is experienced and is favored by the Lord can understand that everything is being done according to the Lord's supreme plan. There is no harm in having different propensities in life because every human being is proportionately independent to chalk out the plan of his life by different occupations, but one should make it a point in his life to know perfectly well that he is not independent absolutely. One is certainly under the control of the Supreme Lord and under different agencies. Knowing this, one should make it a point that by his work and the result of his labor he serves the Supreme Lord."

"The plans of the Supreme Personality of Godhead are understood by His mercy. One should follow such plans and be victorious in the struggle for existence. Although sometimes plans appear contradictory, there is a definite plan behind all action. The best course is to surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead wholeheartedly, and, being protected by Him, remain peaceful."

"We should follow the path of devotional service and not be dissatisfied with the happiness and distress He has given. People in the material modes of passion and ignorance generally cannot understand the plan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead with its 8,400,000 forms of life, but the human form affords one the special privilege to understand this plan, engage in devotional service and elevate oneself to the highest position of perfection by following the Lord's instructions."