Resurrection and the Meaning of Divine Tests
by J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda)
(excerpted from the book: The Promise of Immortality)

A true devotee offers up his trials bravely, even lovingly, to God. He sees every test as an opportunity for spiritual gain. Each test passed brings him an increase of inner freedom, joy, and wisdom. At last he learns to behold God’s love behind every trial. No longer do his tests, then, seem like punishment, whether karmic or divine.

Resurrection, in the highest sense, occurs on a soul level. Tribulation, though a “cross” that all human beings must bear, is welcome to those who aspire to attain freedom in God. Joyful submission, indeed, is the way to pay off one’s karmic debts without incurring any new ones. Resentment, on the other hand, only adds new debts to the old ones.

Cosmic law is unrelenting. Its purpose is to teach recognition of the underlying unity of all life.

Were inner freedom easy to achieve, it would imply a state not very different from the ego-identity with which all of us are familiar. The “pearl of great price” cannot be bought with debased currency: power, fame, wealth, and bodily and emotional pleasures. Though we may sometimes imagine that God’s attention is far away, He is eternally near us-nearer even than the tearful prayers with which we implore His help.

The disciples of Jesus were greatly tested by the Crucifixion. They’d believed that he was going to be declared King of the Jews: Instead, he was seized by fools, beaten, infamously judged, and crucified. For the disciples, there ensued a time of deep spiritual darkness. They assembled in secrecy lest they, too, be arrested and executed. Yet for all that, they did assemble, and with faith. All of them, even Thomas (the “doubter”), came together as disciples.

And all at once, Jesus was standing in their midst. He said to them, “Peace be with you.” Those few, simple words epitomized the ending of every test of God’s, once it is accepted with love and faith. These attitudes, love and faith, by no means imply passivity. However deep be a person’s sorrow, if he offers it up determinedly to God, the divine light must dawn for him at last. God’s peace will enter his heart, bringing solace greater than he could ever have imagined. As the lyrics of a song state that the author wrote many years ago when undergoing a divine test:

“Every grief, every wrong, has its ending in song.”

Those who in their grief forget God never learn this supreme lesson of life. One, however, who clings to God through every trial finds reassurance at every plateau as he climbs up Mount Carmel. In every reassurance he experiences Easter, and the Resurrection.

“Ah! ye who into this ill world are come-fleeting and false-set your faith fast on Me! Fix heart and thought on Me! Adore Me! Bring offerings to Me! Make Me prostrations! Make Me your supremest joy! and, undivided, unto My rest your spirits shall be guided.” Such were Krishna’s immortal words in the ninth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

Wise alone among mortals is he whose discrimination leads him resolutely toward God: who realizes to the depths of his being that worldly attainments are illusory, and will always bring disappointment-sometimes at the very moment of triumph. No matter how shining with promise this world seems, its fulfillments are as evanescent as the glistening sunlight on a dewdrop.

Divine tests may seem to portend all that we most feared. In the end, however, what they bring is the very opposite! We may imagine that God is testing our endurance: In fact, what He is testing is our love.

Our tendency, beneath adversity’s blows, is to close inward upon ourselves like travelers in the desert during a sandstorm, huddled self-protectively within our mental cloaks to shield our bruised feelings. People often emerge only slowly from a siege of suffering. Sometimes it takes years to reach the point where, with renewed trust, they can open their hearts once again to life’s gifts. Many, alas, remain embittered all their lives, requiring rebirth into a new body, or perhaps into successive bodies, before they can wash away their subconscious memory of pain. How long the process takes depends on one’s own strength, and on his spirit of inner freedom.

Poor, foolish humanity! God Himself cannot help them so long as they determine to shut themselves within thick walls of egoism. Many shoot arrows of outrage and accusation at Him, though He comes to them lovingly, His hands outstretched to help them. Even devotees, during tests, sometimes misunderstand the workings of grace and question God. To all humanity, however, God whispers silently, “Even if you reject Me, I will wait. Eventually you will understand how deeply, through eternity, I love you.”

The true devotee remains inwardly as joyful during life’s dark as during its shining moments. His faith, though it tremble sometimes in the storm, remains firmly rooted; he embraces every test as a gift sent to him by his Heavenly Father/Divine Mother. To him, even arduous tests are as precious to his soul-though, admittedly, not to his ego!-as gifts that come wrapped attractively. For the storms of life, though appearing to bode disaster, in fact bring nourishing rain. One’s consciousness afterward becomes like a fertile meadow, covered with the wildflowers of heavenly solace.

God is our infinite Beloved. He is our one and only true Friend. His wish for us is our eternal happiness. The tests He sends have only one purpose: to help us grow in wisdom. The sooner we accept them with understanding, the sooner we’ll come to realize that His support was with us always-not for our errors, but in spite of them. For we are His own. Even were we made to walk through fire, we would remain unharmed and the flames would be a balm to our souls, burning off impurities that for eons had given us pain.

Have faith in God! Love Him above all else. Surrender your heart to Him. Open yourself to Him even, and especially, in your darkest hours. For He alone, and not the brief dewdrops of earthly attractions, can give you the peace for which your soul longs.

Christ’s resurrection was an outward act, but it symbolized a great inward truth: That person whose love remains firm through all trials finds himself resurrected at last into eternal bliss. The teaching of the Resurrection applies also to life generally. Resurrection signifies, as Paramhansa Yogananda put it, “any beneficial or uplifting change.” In this sense, resurrection can be experienced repeatedly throughout life.

Referring to our need for inner resurrection, Yogananda often quoted this heartfelt plea from the Bhagavad Gita: “O devotee: Get away from My ocean of suffering and misery!”  Offsetting those cautionary words of Krishna’s is a promise, and an eternal consolation: “Arjuna, know this for certain: My devotee is never lost!”