Addiction to Comfort
Every noble cause and truth will gain constancy and a universal identity by its adherents' determination to protect it and their devotion to it. If its devotees are not perceptive, faithful, and persevering, what they have embraced eventually will be erased from memory by the hostility of its determined enemies.
Just as stagnant water stinks and putrefies upon losing its fluidity, the source of its life, lazy people who abandon themselves to comfort and ease inevitably begin to rot and become losers. Desire for comfort is the first alarm and sign of death. Those whose sensitivity has been paralyzed cannot hear the alarm or understand the sign, and so they not heed the warnings and advice of friends.
Laziness and attachment to ease are among the major reasons for deprivation and humiliation. Inactive people who have abandoned themselves to (indolent) comfort one day will fall so low that they will expect even their basic necessities to be supplied by others.
Once the extreme addiction of staying at home is added to that of indolent comfort, the "front lines" will be abandoned and people will become cowardly. If this decline is not recognized, and the situation is not handled intelligently and properly, deviation and something horrid will ensue.
Those who leave the "front" because they are addicted to the comforts of their homes or lust usually encounter the exact opposite of what they expected. They may even lose their nice homes and lovely children! How true are the words of a mother to her son, a commander who did not fight courageously when he should have: "You didn't fight like a man on the battlefield, so now at least sit and cry like a woman!"
For a human being, change and decay usually are slow and silent. Sometimes even a little heedlessness, a slight straying from the "caravan," can cause a complete collapse and a total loss. However, because such people see themselves as still on the same line and in the same situation, they do not realize that they have plunged to the bottom of a deep well from a minaret-like peak.
Some people who leave the line of exertion and struggle with a feeling of guilt, which every fugitive and truant is bound to feel, are likely to defend themselves and criticize their friends who continue to serve. It is almost impossible for such people to escape their deviation and return to their original line. Adam recovered his previous rank with a single deed (his confession of fault) after he fell into forgetfulness. By contrast, Satan, despite the gravity of his sin, tried to defend himself and fell into eternal frustration.
People who have lost their resolve, willpower, and endeavor affect the courage and devotional strength of those around them. Sometimes only a little hesitation or reluctance displayed by an irresolute individual causes a shock and loss of hope as great as the death of 100 people. Such a disaster only encourages the enemies of the nation to attack us.
The attractiveness of children, family, and worldly property is seductive and a burdensome trial. The successful ones are those determined, resolute, strong-willed, and fortunate people who, every morning and evening, renew from the depth of their hearts their oath of attachment to the truth to which they have devoted themselves. Criteria or Lights of the Way, Izmir 1996, Vol. 1, (9th edition), pp. 41-46
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