Should we attribute problems in daily life to our poor chanting?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, sometimes when we face some problems, we may attribute it to some situation. Once I was driving for a program and the devotee was driving me for the program and suddenly the car got punctured.
I didn’t chant Hare Krishna attentively today morning, so the car got punctured. Now, we have to be very careful. We have to know first of all that Krishna is not a vindictive God.
It is not that because we didn’t do this practical activity of bhakti, so Krishna is punishing us. The whole idea of punishment is primarily within the realm of karma. In karma, there is good karma and bad karma.
For good karma, there is good reaction. For bad karma, there is bad reaction. When we are in practicing bhakti, Krishna simply acts out of love.
So, Krishna is first and foremost a very understanding God. Krishna, he sees that we are trying our best. In the Vishnu Sahasranam, there are thousand names of Vishnu.
So, two of the names are Nimisho, Nimisha, Swagri, Vachaspati Rudarathi. So, Nimisha means one who blinks his eyes or Nimisha means one who never blinks his eyes. The two opposite names, two opposite attributes actually.
So, Baldevidya Bhushan in his commentary there explains that actually when a devotee is trying to serve Krishna and somehow the devotee commits a mistake, then Krishna blinks his eyes and overlooks the mistake. And if a devotee is trying to serve Krishna and then even the smallest service that the devotee renders, Krishna unblinkingly notes that service. He notes that service and in due course of time rewards that service.
An example is given, when Putara came to kill Krishna, Krishna closed his eyes. Krishna, what did he do? Because she had come with that malicious mentality, Krishna killed her. But Krishna didn’t simply kill her.
He delivered her. He saw that she has a maternal mood towards me. Krishna focused on that and elevated her to the level of a nurse.
So, Krishna closed his eyes to the fault in her and saw the good in her. Similarly, once when Krishna was with the Pandavas, Krishna and Arjuna were talking and Draupadi came and brought some fruits for them. And she saw they were talking very intimately.
So, Draupadi just decided not to disturb. She went away. And Krishna picked up a knife and was cutting the fruit.
And a knife slipped from his hand and it cut his finger. And Draupadi saw that immediately. She looked around.
She just ripped off a piece of her silk saree which had bandaging Krishna. And she was in anxiety but Krishna was smiling. Krishna told Draupadi, Oh Panchali, I will repay you for this.
And when did Krishna repay? To the unlimited saree that he gave. So, Krishna unblinkingly notes every service. So, as devotees, we always would like to intensify our bhakti.
So, we may think of it in a positive way that, okay, yes, if I had been chanting Hare Krishna properly, my mind would be calmer. If my mind had been calmer, then I might have noticed. Okay, maybe my car needs servicing.
Maybe that, okay, this road is rocky. I might have made sure that I keep a spare tyre with me. Whatever it is.
So, we can say that by the practice of our bhakti, we would have been more alert. We would have been able to function more competent. But it is not that problems come because Krishna is punishing us for doing some devotional activity improperly.
There is no scriptural precedent for something like this. There is, of course, there are offenses against specific deity forms or something like that. That is different.
But Krishna is not a God who is waiting to find faults. I write articles on the Gita every day, on GitaDindy.com. So, there is one article I wrote, you know, what is that? God is, God’s purpose is not to catch us when we go wrong. No, God’s purpose is not to catch us when we do wrong.
God’s purpose is to catch us when we fall. I caught you. Now you have done something wrong.
I’ll punish you now. Krishna is not like that. When we do wrong, he sees like a child.
Mother sees the child is falling. Mother doesn’t, the other friend with the child, hey, you fell down. Everybody starts laughing.
But mother is not like that. The mother sees the child falling, she runs forward and catches the child. So, Krishna is like that.
Krishna is not a fault-finding God. And if at all we fall, he is there to help catch us and rise us again. So, we should never attribute some bad thing that happened in our life to our inept performance of devotional activities.
We can say that, yes, if I had done the devotional activity better, I might have more clearer intelligence and I would have been able to do the situation better. But it’s not that Krishna is out there punishing me for this. Is this clear? Thank you.
Any other questions?