Do great devotees like Prahlad just focus on Krishna and not bother about problems at all?
Actually is it that great devotees don't think of Krishna to distract themselves from the problem, they just don't care about the problem only like Prahlad did and say if a tiger comes in this room should a devotee just sit in trance and just Krishna, whatever Krishna wants will happen yes there are, that's one way of looking at things, broadly devotion has two aspects one is dependence on Krishna and the other is diligence for Krishna dependence on Krishna means, like I said earlier there are two, in every situation in our life, there are some things in our control, some things not in our control and the proportion of this also varies sometimes a lot is in our control and sometimes very little is in our control so the idea is, for what is in our control, there has to be diligence for Krishna, we take responsibility to the best that we can and for what is not in our control there is dependence on Krishna so with respect to Prahlad, he is just a small 5 year old boy and he is in the kingdom of demons what can he do practically, so for him the external control was very little so his bhakti is expressed through dependence on Krishna now you consider the Bhagavad Gita or the Mahabharata Arjun at the end of the Bhagavad Gita is told surrender to Krishna sarva-dharman parityajya maham ekam saranam vraja now Arjun how does he surrender, does he surrender by raising his hands in dependence no, but how does he obey his surrender is by picking up his bow in readiness to fight his surrender is not Krishna, whatever is your will let it happen hear what I am saying, before asking his surrender is not whatever is your will will happen his surrender is, I will do your will karishe vachanam tava so he is taking up responsibility for Krishna so there is diligence for Krishna so now if in this particular situation if suddenly a tiger has come and the person sitting over here is a devotee but that devotee is a Kshatriya, is a king and the king is not supposed to sit in meditation the king is supposed to take up weapons and fight that is the duty so bhakti has two aspects to it one is transcending the world and the other is transforming the world and sometimes we over emphasize the transcending the world part it is important, no doubt we ultimately want to transcend the world but we also want to transform the world we all have our own small areas of influence for some people the influence might be very big for some people the influence might be small but we all can transform the world can we transform the world if its Kali Yuga going in darkness yes it is, there are rains are going to come but we have an umbrella if we don't even pick the umbrella if we don't hold the umbrella over our head we are going to get drenched if we have an umbrella we can protect ourselves from the rains and actually if it is a big umbrella others can also come in that shelter or if we have extra umbrellas we can give umbrellas to others so we can't stop the rains that's not in our power but we have the capacity to protect ourselves and protect others so that because Kali Yuga is there doesn't mean that everything is going to be bad that means everything for us also has to be bad that is not the attitude at all Bhagavata says the world is Dukhalaya but Arjuna at the start of the Bhagavata is crying Krishna doesn't tell him the Bhagavata to Arjuna this world is Dukhalaya, now you are Dukhi so stay Dukhi no, Krishna tells Arjuna the wisdom by which he becomes peaceful he becomes relieved he becomes strengthened so it is for us to take responsibility at least for our own consciousness and in different situations we can be best focused on Krishna in different ways there are sometimes when say we just sit in prayer, meditation and focus on Krishna but most of us can't do this 24 hours a day what to speak of 24 hours a day even 24 minutes a day it is difficult isn't it? so Krishna uses multiple ways to connect with him so there is dependence on Krishna at sometimes when chanting just forget the world, focus on Krishna when praying just focus on Krishna but at the remaining time we express our surrender by diligence for Krishna so in our own small world it might be just our own consciousness it might be our own family it might be our own social circle we try to spiritualize it and depending on Krishna's grace depending on our own resourcefulness dedication Krishna can give us a large circle of influence also and we might be able to influence far more people than what we thought so or we might not be able to influence anyone except ourselves but there is Bhakti has both aspects there is dependence on Krishna and diligence for Krishna and often when we think of Bhakti as only dependence on Krishna then it can seem very helplessness actually very impotent you are doing nothing very otherworldly people start thinking you are irresponsible you don't do anything except chant Hare Krishna it's not like that Prabhupada says if somebody says that Bhakti means you just chant Hare Krishna you don't know what is Bhakti the two of the greatest Bhaktas Arjun and Hanuman they took up responsibility for the Lord they were even ready to fight for the Lord so there is diligence for Krishna also as a very important aspect of Bhakti say about 20-25 years ago when I started giving classes for the first time I was given some guidelines by a senior devotee about how to give classes the last point was 10th point was depend on Krishna but in bracket was depend on Krishna but only after you have prepared for the class if I come and I am depending on Krishna I have no idea what I am going to speak that is not dependence that is irresponsibility so one important aspect of Bhakti is taking up responsibility for Krishna's sake so we don't see that as independence of Krishna it's not that ok if my child is sick and I sit and chant and don't take my child to a doctor that is not dependence on Krishna that is irresponsibility but if I take my child to a doctor where the doctor is diagnosing and treating at that time I pray to Krishna so I have done my part and for what is not in my control I pray to Krishna so there is dependence and diligence so devotion is a dynamic dance of dependence and diligence so when things are out of control dependence when things are in control, diligence so it is said when it comes to working work as if everything depends on you and pray as if everything depends on God so when we are doing things we have to do them wholeheartedly when Arjuna was fighting a Kurukshetra war you know he was not thinking I just close my eyes and shoot an arrow and Krishna will make sure the arrow hits the target now he was shooting as if everything depends on him I have to take aim I have to make sure that this arrow hits the target so work as if everything depends on you when you are working, work wholeheartedly I have to do my part right and I have to make sure that I do it right but when praying pray as if everything depends on Krishna at that time don't worry hey I am not doing this there is a time for doing all that right now just let me pray.