Does bhakti cause increase in our problems or does increase in problems intensify our bhakti?
So is it that some people when they start practicing bhakti, sometimes their problems seem to increase.
And for others, when their problems increase, they start practicing bhakti more seriously. So is there any correlation between problems and the practice of bhakti? Actually bhakti is ahaituki. Ahaituki means it does not have any material cause.
So that means that it is not that just because something material happens, that's why I will practice bhakti. So there are people who face problems and when they face problems, oh I need to take shelter of God. Krishna talks about this category of people when he says aartho.
He says four categories of people come to me, he says in 7.16 and one of them is the distressed. So trouble in our worldly life can inspire us to take shelter of Krishna. On the other hand, a trouble in our worldly life can also make us atheistic.
Now there are so many problems in life, where is that, what is the idea of a good God? God would never allow such things to happen. So the same event can cause us to move towards Krishna, it can cause us to move away from Krishna. So in that sense, problems themselves never generate bhakti.
It is rather our response to the problems that decides whether we will practice bhakti or not. And this response is also determined not just by our choice. It's also determined by our culture, our surroundings.
So sometimes when we are trying to share bhakti with some people and they are not interested. It is good to never part with anyone on an argumentative note. You are wrong and I am right.
We try to argue. Even if they are not ready to practice bhakti right now, let them go with the impression that, okay, I am a nice person. I don't agree with everything that they say, but I am a nice person.
Then eventually when they face some problems, then they will say, yes, this person said this, it made sense. They will come to Krishna at that time. So if we can provide more and more access to bhakti through having temples, through having cordial contacts with people in our interactions with them, then when the problems come, they are more likely to come towards Krishna.
If they are also having a pious culture, if they have a lot of pious culture, their parents, they will see their parents, their grandparents. They always, whenever they have trouble, they go to God to seek help. Then they will also come to Krishna.
So that's how, through their choice, through their culture, through their circumstance, we can actually make it easier for people to come to Krishna when they have problems. And also if there is somebody whom we know in a devotee community, if they have problems, then we should actually assist them in whatever way we can, so that they can go over that problem. Now, is it possible that for some devotees, that after they start practicing bhakti, their problems increase? Now, that is possible, but it is not a causal connection.
It is not that because they started practicing bhakti, their problems increased. Sometimes it may appear like that because we start practicing bhakti and then maybe our friends, our relatives, they start becoming a little, they start becoming a little suspicious about us, a little critical of us. But quite often this happens not because we are practicing bhakti, but it happens because we try to impose bhakti on them.
That means when I start practicing bhakti, I say, this is so wonderful, everybody should be practicing it. And then what took us, maybe it took us six months to decide to start practicing bhakti, and we think that, you know, in 30 minutes I'll give a lecture and they'll start practicing bhakti. We try to download the whole philosophy of bhakti and the practices of bhakti in one dose.
And people say, hey, this is too much. Then, when people start feeling that we are imposing our practices on them, then they become more hostile. And then not only they don't accept it, but they want to pull us also away from it.
So, if we don't do that, it's not that practicing bhakti necessarily increases problems. So, if we are ourselves sensitive, mature, I took time for deciding things, they will also take their time. Let me provide them aids in making decisions, but let me not impose.
Then it's not necessary that the practice of bhakti will increase problems. Now, it's possible sometimes that somebody comes to bhakti and problems increase in their life. That is simply, we all go through periods in our life.
Just like there are cosmic seasons, sometimes it is hot, sometimes it is cold. So, like that, based on our past karma, there are certain times in our life when things are going to be smooth sometimes and things are going to be a little turbulent. And it may happen that the turbulent phase may coincide with the time when we start practicing bhakti.
For some people, it can happen like that. But it is not that bhakti has caused those problems. It is rather, if they take shelter of Krishna at that time, then they will realize that the same problems, if I did not have bhakti, I would have been so burdened by them.
But now I am able to deal with them. There was one devotee, one boy, and I was in Pune, I was going to one college. This boy was, he became a very dynamic devotee and he had a close friend.
That friend, he tried to make him, also get him to practice bhakti. That friend was not practicing bhakti at all, keeping it at a distance. And then after both of them passed out, this boy who became a devotee, he had good marks in his exam and he was expected to get a job in campus.
But for almost 6-8 months after he got passed out, he did not get any job. And he was worried about that. But it was during those 6-8 months, his friend observed that, you know, although he did not have a job, still he was not crippled by anxiety.
And by seeing that, his friend became a devotee. So what happened in this case was, he observed that his friend, if he had not been practicing bhakti, he would have been depressed, he would have got into inferiority complex, so many things could have happened to him. But seeing that those things didn't happen, that brought him to bhakti.
So the point I am making here is that bhakti can enable us, problems may come in our life, but if we take shelter of Krishna, bhakti will enable us to deal with those problems better. So we shouldn't become fearful that if I start practicing bhakti, my problems will increase. No, what will increase by our practice of bhakti is our problem enduring capacity.
Because we are taking shelter of Krishna. Sometimes the problems may increase, but they are not increasing because of the practice of bhakti. They are increasing because our destiny is in a particular way, karmic reactions are playing out in a particular way.
But whatever comes in our life, by the grace of Krishna, we will be able to deal with it better. Whatever karma sends our way, Krishna will help us through it. So with that faith, we should just focus on the practice of bhakti and not worry about problems increasing.
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