Radhanath Swami – Succeeding Through Struggle

There is a story of a boy who had a good heart. Once he looked out his window and saw a caterpillar in his garden and carefully observed it. He found that the caterpillar was in a difficult situation and ran down to the garden to help. It was bound by a cocoon and was struggling to be released. But try as it may, it was not able to come out, not even slightly. Still, the caterpillar never gave up. It tried and tried. The boy was moved by the effort of the caterpillar. His heart filled with sympathy, he decided to help the caterpillar in its suffering. He ran inside his house, got a pair of scissors, and then he slowly, carefully cut the cocoon and released the caterpillar. What did he see? To his surprise, he saw that the caterpillar was developing wings to become butterfly. But because he had cut the cocoon before its natural time, the wings of the caterpillar were extremely weak. They did not have the strength to lift its weight so the caterpillar could never fly. Similarly, sometimes when we struggle in our lives, it may be painful for ourselves and for our well-wishers. But those very struggles may actually be helping us to become stronger. We can learn from this boy; if he had the wisdom to allow the caterpillar to struggle a little more, it would have soared into the sky, tasting nectar from one flower to another, and been appreciated by the world for its color, grace and beauty. You may not get what you want at a particular time, but it may be an invaluable opportunity to grow. Timeless wisdom explains that we should appreciate the journey of life and the lessons that it brings rather than being obsessed by the results of our activities. Opportunities and experiences in life are like doors, when one closes, in time, another door will open. People often pray to God to change their situation not knowing that we may be put in that situation to change us. This is a lesson we can learn from the caterpillar.