Bhagavatam-daily 13 – 11.07.03 – Our choice of faith attracts the gift of faith

Happiness unlimited happiness thank you bhagavatam 1173 kulam krishna is speaking here to uddhava at the start of the uddhava gita kulam this is the dynasty of the gurus being afflicted by this by the curse will be destroyed so two words i use destroyed by this nirdagdham and nangshedhyo anyonya vigrahaat by a mutual quarrel among you so anyonya vigrahaat so there is a actual cause that is the there is there is one level of causation that is the curse and there’s another level of causation that is the quarrel both krishna is pointing out over samudra saptami yena and after that five days from now the samudra the ocean will what will happen purincha plavai shati puri is the city plavai shati it will inundate this is almost like a weather forecast somebody might give krishna is giving a forecast so nowadays we have increasingly sophisticated disaster forecast technologies so if cyclone is coming or tsunami is coming people are alerted so that they can withdraw if the timing warning comes properly that people can withdraw and the property will be destroyed but damage but loss of life can be minimized so here krishna is giving a forecast about both a human calamity and natural calamity human calamity is going to be the war that is going to take place among the gurus among the dwarkavasi the yadavas and natural calamity is the ocean going to inundate the city now krishna has actually shown in the past prowess in this incarnation and in the previous incarnation in this incarnation he has gone deep into the ocean or to speak of going deep into the ocean he has crossed even the cosmic ocean to go to the abode of maha vishnu so for him to check back the ocean is no difficulty and yet krishna is simply describing this with the objective sort of neutrality he says this is going to happen this indicate that ultimately krishna’s will and yuga swami mentions this in the sandarbhas krishnadas kavira yuga swami quotes yuga swami also in his chaitanya samitamrta and he says even shastra sometimes contain stories which are illusory now what does he mean how can scripture that is meant to bring us out of illusion how can scripture contain illusory stories because the illusory is is that they seem to be one thing but they are another thing so illusion is that which is not that means something is there but it appears to be something else so this appears as if a very tragic end where people fight and kill each other kill themselves and then the city gets flooded and drowned so it appears to be a very tragic event and it may even seem to cast questions about krishna’s supremacy couldn’t he have stopped it but bhagavata is clear that it is krishna who had ordained it it is krishna who had willed it to happen in this way so if we just look at appearances just as when we in things that are maik when we look at the appearances we get a false understanding sense of this to be attractive but actually the pleasure is very little if any so appearances are deceptive similarly there are some pastimes of krishna also which in appearance can be deceptive if you look at it the surface alone then it may seem like oh even krishna was subject to krishna and his family is subject to brahmana’s curse and even he couldn’t counter the brahmana’s no not that way krishna was so powerful that he could even bless those who were cursing in the brahmanas he blessed them how his guru he brought his son back from the jaws of death so krishna has the power to bless those who also are considered to have the power to bless him curse so how can those whom he has given the power curse him he could have very well checked the curse but he wanted things to happen in this way and now this is just the appearance at a actual level dwarka is the eternal abode of the lord can never be destroyed it just becomes manifest in this world and then it becomes unmanifest so when it becomes unmanifest sometimes it may appear that it is destroyed materially like any other city will be destroyed so one of the fundamental teachings of the scriptures is that things are not what they seem you should see beyond the surface and further the yadus are also as yuga swami explains they are the eternal associates of the lord so they cannot be killed but then krishna wanted to arrange things in this way so that he could free the earth and go back to his abode so we’ll discuss more reasons about why krishna wanted it to be this way but in the future we’ll discuss this but suffice it to say that krishna let’s the soul have free will to decide whether to have faith or not and then he gives lots of reasons for those who want to have faith to have faith but for those who want to be skeptical those who want to be atheistic krishna allows that also so scripture accommodates even such people by having sections which are maya maya and we have to decide what is important there are hundreds of incidents where everyone is shown to be subordinate to krishna and there’s one incident where something different seems to be seen at for at surface level so which should be given importance now actually speaking we cannot understand ourselves but still sheer number of times when krishna has shown himself beyond the reach of death krishna has shown himself greater than the gods that itself should persuade us but more than that we can look at the acharyas and if you just study their works you’ll understand that they are far far more learned than what we are and if you look at their lives we will understand that they are far far more realized than what we are and they are not only accepting but they are also proclaiming krishna supremacy and they study and realize in a far greater and they explain what the ultimate purpose of scripture is and how a particular pastime fits within that purpose then rather than giving that pastime undue importance and getting deluded we need to see the whole picture and see how a particular pastime fits within that purpose and then we can avoid bewilderment so that same principle applies to our life also there are times actually there are hundreds of times if we look back at when krishna consciousness has worked for us worked in various ways we get higher taste we get deeper wisdom we get the clearer intelligence by which we can tackle life’s issues sometimes life’s issues life’s problems resolve themselves in extraordinary ways sometimes circumstances work out in ways that are very favorable for our bhakti so if we want to look we can find evidences of how krishna consciousness works but if we want to look only for the times when things have not worked the way we had expected them to then we’ll find those instances also and if we dwell on them that will simply erode away our faith so faith is a matter of choice it is of course a matter of grace in the sense that ultimately krishna will give us a deep conviction as we become purified and we please him and his devotees and we get their lessons but till then faith is a matter of choice that means if we choose to focus on things that build our faith our faith will grow and if we choose to focus on things that erode our faith then our faith will get eroded so as sadhakas we should focus on those things that strengthen our faith and focus on those pastimes which nourish our faith and those pastimes which challenge our faith we get understanding from the acharya so that our faith can be protected and by choosing faith in this way we show krishna that we want faith and then he will strengthen our faith he will deepen our conviction he will heighten our realization and in that way we will understand how certain things which may seem incomprehensible now are also a part of krishna’s omnibenevolent plan things seem to be bad now but they actually are for the ultimate good so by choosing faith we attract the gift of faith and that same applies to even krishna’s pastimes so here might be a pastime which challenges our faith but by focusing on the other pastime which bolster our faith in krishna’s supremacy we can show krishna our desire for faith and then he will deepen our faith by giving us conviction and realization and purification thank you