She has this trouble and that trouble! She wants all her physical ailments to disappear for good and at once. Even when she is all right, she thinks of a thousand-and-one imaginary diseases, and believes she has one or the other of these. She is continually wracking her brains and worrying incessantly, which actually does affect her weak and failing health due to her advanced age, and she suffers unnecessarily.
Quite the opposite is the case of a young woman who is broken in health due to a disease that has her whole physique in its grip and has shattered it to render it a total wreck. Yet she takes it all so cheerfully and doesn't worry. She takes remedies as advised and is improving gradually.
In short, the real sufferer is the younger woman, but because she doesn't worry and takes it lightly, she is happy in spite of all her sufferings. The old lady who has certain weaknesses and complaints due to old age, makes a mountain out of an anthill and takes everything too seriously. Consequently, she suffers unnecessarily for things she doesn't even have! Thus it is all in how you take it.
Similarly, if one closely related to you were to die and one doesn't worry over it, it doesn't affect one and one feels light and happy, as usual. But if one takes it to mind, cries, weeps and laments, one becomes unhappy unnecessarily.
An Indian woman devotee came to see Baba at Meherabad on Sunday, 28 October 1934. She complained openly before Baba that she wished to stop having sexual intercourse with her husband because of her desire to see God. But her husband was unwilling.
Consoling her, Baba explained, "It is better to treat your husband with love and affection, even if you dislike and do not wish to indulge in intercourse because of your spiritual aspiration and desire to love God. It is good to have no sexual desires, but when it comes to a question of duty, you must sacrifice a little of your interest and please your husband.
"Keep your mind focused toward God and give your body to your husband. You needn't worry. Just try to do as I advise. These remaining sanskaras must be finished before the Experience is given. Remember Mirabai's sacrifice and how she suffered. Be like her."
Mira was one of Meher Baba's favorite saints and her story is famous in India: