Does Krishna intervene in the system of karma or lets it act even on devotees?
Greater than justice, then we have also heard that Krishna's mercy, Krishna does not interfere with the material world, the system he has created or Krishna's mercy comes only through his devotees. So, how exactly does all this work? Yeah.
See, the first point is that there is a normal regularity of events in material nature. So, and that pattern is what is generally called. So, does God interfere with it? Yes, he does interfere.
In fact, there are miracles. When Krishna lifted Govardhan Hill, everybody was amazed. Now, the very fact that they were amazed indicates that normally lifting of a hill was not easy, it was not happening.
So, there was a, the very astonishment of the Bajawasin indicates that there was a normal pattern and that normal pattern was violated over there. So, there is a normal pattern which is also understood and there is a, Krishna can suspend that that is also understood. So, we see this with respect to the, say the law of gravity over there in that particular thing.
So, like that it applies to the law of karma also. Now, specifically how Krishna intervenes, that is something which we cannot predict. So, broadly speaking, what we understand is Krishna's mercy primarily comes through the opportunity to practice bhakti.
Guru Krishna prasade paye bhakti lata abhi. So, now when we are practicing bhakti, it is not necessary that all the miseries that are going to come to us while being in the material world, none of them are going to come to us, just because we are practicing bhakti. But the practice of bhakti is what enables us to eventually become free from misery and the practice of bhakti also enables us to tolerate misery.
See, we are all, this whole material world is like an epidemic afflicted zone. And those who start practicing bhakti, those who come to Krishna's moment and start practicing bhakti, they are like people who are connected to the hospital. They are getting treatment.
Now, if there is an epidemic, then just the opportunity to get the treatment itself is a great blessing. It's a great privilege. But even when one is getting treatment, that does not mean immediately one's suffering is going to go away.
The disease has been chronic or the disease has been very severe, then even the people who are being treated, they may also suffer in that. But there are two differences. One is that the people who are being treated, they are on the way to recover.
They are on the way to become free from misery. So, like that the devotees are also, they may be also miserable now, but they are on the way to freedom from misery. And secondly, when the doctor is there, the doctor doesn't just give medicines alternative medicines, but often doctors also give painkillers.
So, painkillers means that those, they don't take away the pain. It's painkiller is actually a wrong word. It's a misnomer.
It doesn't actually kill pain. It just covers the pain. So, but at least at that time because of pain medicine, the patient gets some relief.
So, like that in a sadhaka's life also, the remembrance of Krishna is the ultimate cure, but it can also be a painkiller. We may be suffering a lot, but if we absorb ourselves in the remembrance of Krishna, we do experience some amount of relief from bodily pain, from bodily distress. And in this way, we move closer to Krishna.
So, we can tolerate whatever sufferings come in our life and we can eventually transcend the sufferings of material existence. So, Krishna's primary mercy comes in the form of the opportunity to practice devotional service. Apart from that, when certain miseries come, it is not that Krishna is causing those miseries.
Our own karma is causing and Krishna may let those miseries come upon us because that is what is required right now for us to, that becomes the impetus for us to practice bhakti more seriously, to shed our attachments. We don't know what Krishna's plan exactly is. But broadly, it is not, if we start expecting Krishna's mercy in terms of, in terms of relief from the miseries of material existence, that expectation will not be fulfilled.
We will all get sufferings. But if we understand the mercies primarily in terms of the process to become free from misery, then we can wholeheartedly take that process and then, yes, Krishna does help us. But even the material miseries can also be minimized by Krishna.
But that is not the primary expectation that we should have while practicing bhakti.