By Jean-Pierre de Caussade

If we do not concentrate entirely on doing the will of God, we shall find neither happiness nor holiness, no matter what pious practices we adopt, however excellent they may be.

If you are not satisfied with what God chooses for you, what else can please you? Does the food prepared for you by God himself disgust you? Well, can you say what other food would not seem stale to someone with so perverted a taste?  We must realize that we cannot be really fed, strengthened, purified, enriched and made holy unless we fulfill the duties of the present moment.

What else do we want? Why look elsewhere? Are you wiser than God? Why do you seek anything different from what he desires?  Do you imagine, considering his wisdom and goodness, that he can be wrong?  When you come across something ordained by this wisdom and goodness you must surely be convinced of its excellence.  Do you for one moment imagine you will find peace by resisting the Almighty?

It is rather this resistance, which we often keep up without realizing it, that is the source of all our trouble. It is only right that if we are discontented with what God offers us every moment, we should be punished by finding nothing else that will content us. If books, the example of the saints and discussions about spiritual matters do nothing but disturb our peace of mind, and if we feel satiated but unsatisfied by them, it is sure sign that we have not truly abandoned ourselves to God's will, that we are occupying ourselves with these things out of self-love.

They prevent God's entry into our souls, and so we must get rid of these obstacles. Provided, though, that God desires us to have them, we must accept them like everything else as part of God's plan for us. We take them, use them, abandon them as soon as their purpose is over and attend to the work of the present moment. In reality, nothing benefits us that does not arise from God's will, and there is absolutely nothing that gives us more peace or does more to make us holy than obeying the will of God.

The ultimate message of Lord Krishna in Gitaji is for us to totally surrender to His will alone. (Gita 18: 65, 66.)