If dedicated senior devotees face great distress new devotees ask what is the point of practicing bhakti – how to answer?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, if we see somebody may have practiced bhakti for a long time and they face great distress, physical distress or somebody who is entirely new, in those situations, how does the spiritual growth take place or what is the point of it all? The world is made in such a way that it is said that the believers need no reasons, the non-believers accept no reasons. That means that based on our attitude, the same situation can take us towards God, the same situation can take us away from God. Same problem, the approach can be very different.
Now if you see, spiritual people will tell us, spiritualists will tell us, if you are young, you are healthy, youth is temporary. Focus on bhakti, focus on spiritual life. Materialistic people will tell you, youth is temporary, enjoy before you lose your youth.
So, the facts are the same but one’s world view, one’s conceptions determines how one responds to the facts. That way, distress is a fact of life. Whether a person is spiritually very advanced or a person is spiritually in the neophyte stage.
Now, Krishna doesn’t say that just because somebody starts chanting Hare Krishna, the world’s nature is going to change. Even devotees will grow old, even devotees will get deceased, they will also ultimately die. And just as in this world, there can be different ways, some people may die in an accident, some people may die by a heart attack, so that whatever happens in maternal nature will also happen to devotees.
That’s at the external level. At the internal level, things are different. So, for a devotee especially, that Krishna is there internally to help them.
If a person just takes shelter of Krishna, tries to remember Krishna, now physically we may not be able to do things, but remembrance of Krishna is always possible. He is remembering Krishna, the remembrance of Krishna acts like a shock absorber. The distress comes, but it doesn’t distress us so much.
So, at one level, we understand that whatever sufferings we are going through, we are exhausting our karma. So, consider a situation where, say, there’s a child under a very strict teacher. And the child doesn’t do homework, the teacher is going to beat the child.
The stick, the teacher is going to beat the child in the hand. Now, the mother knows today, my child has not done the homework. Now, the mother doesn’t want the child to be beaten.
At the same time, the mother also wants the child to learn discipline, to learn to do one’s studies. So, when the child is going to school, what the mother does is, she calls her as a child and before the child goes to school, the mother puts a nice, thick glow on her hand. And the child then goes to school.
And the school teacher asks, have you done your homework? No. Come here. Show your hand.
And the teacher’s stick comes, it hits. A big noise happens. But because the glow is there, there is very little hurt.
So, like that, Krishna is like the mother. Material nature is like the teacher. And we are like the parent child.
So, Krishna doesn’t want us to suffer. Krishna also wants us to learn the lessons. So, what Krishna does is, when, by our own karma, some distress comes in our life, now Krishna gives us the glow.
That glow is Krishna consciousness, is remembrance of Krishna. If we absorb ourselves in Krishna, whatever distress is there, it will come externally. If a devotee is in pain, a materialistic person just calls, ouch! A materialistic person calls and screams in pain.
A devotee calls out, Krishna! Now, through that, a devotee connects with Krishna. A devotee remembers Krishna. A devotee gets shelter of Krishna.
And, that glow of remembrance of Krishna is there, what sheaths a devotee from worldly miseries. mat-cittaḥ sarva-durgāi mat-prasādaḥ tariṣiṣi. Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.
That means, he’s not saying the obstacles will not come. My grace will help you to pass over the obstacles. So, we see that whatever obstacles are coming, they are an opportunity to take shelter of Krishna.
Now, if a child before going to school thinks, why am I carrying this glow? Let me throw away this glow. Child throws away the glow, then the glow is gone. So, like that, if we neglect the shelter of Krishna, then the material distresses will trouble us a lot.
But if we take shelter of Krishna, no matter what distresses come, we will be able to be sheltered from that. And that will grow through that. Because we’ll see that this Krishna consciousness is for real.
This problem, it would have crushed me otherwise. But because I am remembering Krishna, because I am practicing Krishna bhakti, I am able to tolerate this. So, we can see actually the problems as an opportunity to discover how tough Krishna consciousness can make us.
We might think, I am very fragile. I just crumble under pressure. It may be like that.
That’s how we may be alone on our own. But with Krishna, we find that we are far tougher than what we thought we were. And that increases our faith in the reality and the potency of Krishna consciousness.
And that is a far greater gain than just a problem free life. Because life will have problems, problems will come, problems will go. But if you have keen conviction, the reality and the potency of Krishna’s shelter, that will help us to face through all problems and ultimately go beyond this problem filled world to Krishna’s abode.
Does that answer your question? Thank you. Stop here? Ok.