This Shall too Pass...

...Be whatever the idiom “This too Shall pass…” remain in good stead…We all face problems and problems rarely send a warning before they knock on our door. One moment life feels settled, and the next, a health scare, a financial setback, a broken relationship, or an unexpected loss walks in uninvited. In these moments, the mind panics and asks, "Why me? Why now?" But every tradition of wisdom quietly whispers the same ancient truth: nothing that arises stays forever. Sanskrit captures this timeless comfort in one simple line:

एतदपि गमिष्यति। -   "This too shall pass." Just as night always gives way to morning, no matter how long or dark it feels while living through it, every problem — however heavy — carries within it the seed of its own passing.

But what happens when, despite our sincerest effort, prayer, and patience, the problem still doesn't budge? This is often the hardest phase — when logic runs out, options are exhausted, and there seems to be no visible way forward. In such moments, the best thing a person can do is not force a solution that isn't ready to appear, but instead learn to hold steady and endure. 

The Bhagavad Gita speaks directly to this state of helplessness:

मात्रास्पर्शास्तु कौन्तेय शीतोष्णसुखदुःखदाः। आगमापायिनोऽनित्यास्तांस्तितिक्षस्व भारत॥

  "The contact of the senses with the world brings fleeting experiences of heat and cold, pleasure and pain. These come and go, and are never permanent — so learn to bear them patiently." This isn't asking us to feel nothing; it's asking us to remember that even the sharpest pain is temporary, and patience itself becomes the quiet action we take when no other action is possible.

There is also a deeper test hidden in prolonged hardship — a test of faith itself. When we've prayed, worked, and waited, and still nothing changes, it's natural to question whether God is even listening. This is precisely the moment the Gita asks us to release our grip and simply surrender, not out of defeat, but out of trust:

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज। अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः॥

  "Give up all your efforts of control and take refuge in me alone; I shall free you from all your burdens — do not grieve." Surrendering isn't giving up on life; it's giving up the illusion that we alone must control every outcome. That release itself often becomes the turning point.

And then, one day — often quietly, without fanfare — the problem does pass. Looking back, we begin to see it differently: not as random suffering, but as a necessary chapter that taught patience, humility, or strength we didn't know we had. We come to terms with it, understanding it had to happen, and had to pass, exactly the way it did — leaving us a little wiser, a little more rooted in faith than before. 

That is the quiet gift hidden inside every storm: it always ends, and it always leaves something behind worth keeping.