Disguised blessings

"Sufferings purify the soul. They burn up the gross material, sins and impurities. They give inner spiritual strength and develop the will-force, the power, the power of endurance. Hence sufferings are blessings in disguise" 
                        Swami Sivananda "Sadhana"- preface

"Sufferings are blessings- what a nonsense " you may think. "How suffering can be good? I'm not feeling blessed at all" It's very common and normal human reaction. We avoid pain and we are attracted by pleasant things. 
Why? We are thinking about it from body/emotions perspective. If we identify ourselves with body, with it well-being so of course we will avoid everything what can injure it. But...let think about suffer from the perspective of Soul. 
Soul is not suffering from physical pain, cold, loneliness. Soul is Soul in every moment. But as pure water mixed with mud  is getting dirty , Soul is getting impure if we let our lower nature to take control. So why we have to feel blessed?  

As sandpaper cleans the rust, as strong hit open coconut, the suffer cleans our soul from impurities as greed, pride, fear. Of course you can polish metal slowly with soft tissue, you can take a knife and start gently cut the coconut, you will reach your goal but it will take  more time, much more time and maybe the result will not be same.

There is a quote "What does not kill me makes me stronger" those words have very deep meaning. Swamiji said "it gives spiritual strength". If we can deal with problem, next time it will not make you suffer, we know how to act, it will be easier keep mind calm.

"Storms makes trees take deeper roots"- same meaning.

According to karma low  we are coming to this life with our personal karma which we will experience during our life. By suffering we burn our bad karma faster. We purify the Soul. It could be difficult to be happy in suffer , but we can try to stay neutral. Often we are thinking "i don't like it, how  can I be happy?", because we forget that between "happy-?-unhappy" there is also "neutral" state.  Just take this moment as it is. You have a chance to make your Soul  pure faster and you to be stronger. 

Om Tat Sat

Karma

"The word "karma" from the sanscrit root 'kri' signifies action or deed, whether physical or mental (including thought).[...] Karma means not only action, but also the result of the action. the consequence is really not a separate thing, but is a part of the action. [...]
There is no such thing as a blind chance or accident. If your finite mind is not able to find the cause of an event, it does not mean that this is accidental. [...]

If there is an action, there must be a reaction. The reaction will be of equal force and of similar nature. Every thought. desire, imagination, sentiment cause reaction. Virtue brings its own reward; vice brings its own punishment. This is the law of reaction. God neither punishes the wicked nor rewards the virtuous. It is their own karma that brings reward and/or punishment. No one is to be blamed"

 Swami Vishnudevananda "Meditation and mantras"

In many languages there are the quotes about action and reaction ex. ''behave with others as you want them to behave with you"(original is from Bible , Luke 6.31). It is very commom thought, and everybody knows that if we are nice to our neighbours so they will be nice to us, if we will help them, they will be helpfull to us. But how many people know that this law concerns also our thoughts? It is not enough to smile to our neighbour if in our heart we wish to him something bad. Thought is powerfull as the action is.

Karma law is easy: good action, good word, good thought- good reward, bad thought, action or word- punishment. You can think that nobody knows our thoughts, of course word or action are hurting very easy other person, but our bad thought can hurt ourself later.

It is easier to get control on the body and words then on mental activity, but once we get control of the mind we dont need to worry about the body. Everything is starting from the thought.

Om Tat Sat