Does Krishna have a plan for us even when we are not serious devotees?
Problems in our life, we may get faith by thinking that Krishna has some plan for me and I should just persevere and things will work out but then sometimes we feel that anyway I am not such a serious devotee so will Krishna really be intervening in my life and having a plan and taking care of me? Krishna's love for us is based on who he is, who he is, not who we are. He is present as the Paramatma in the heart of even materialistic people, even sinful people, even demoniac people.
Why is he present there? Because he cares for them. His love for us is not dependent on our, even our practice of bhakti, leave alone our seriousness in bhakti. He always loves everyone.
What varies based on our experience of devotion, what varies is our capacity to experience his love. So if we, if the sun gives light to everyone but if my eyes are closed I cannot see that light. The sun is still giving me light.
Krishna cares for everyone. One of the describers which Prahlad Maharaj uses for glorifying Lord Narasimhadev is, normally we talk of Krishna as Bhaktavatsala. He uses the word you are Kripanavatsalaha.
You are the, you are the lover, the caretaker of even those who are miserly. Miserly in the sense of materialistic. So Krishna, he loves everyone.
What to speak of those who are sadhakas. What then to speak of sadhakas who are, even while facing problems in material life, are also at the same time regretting that I am not practicing spiritual life seriously. Some people may say, I am having problems in material life, what is Krishna doing for me? Let me just give up practice of spiritual life.
Far from thinking like that, if one is regretting that, oh, this material upheaval has disturbed my spiritual life. That means one is still serious about spiritual life and is regretting. When do we regret something? When we consider something important and not able to do it.
That sense of regret is also a sign of seriousness. Krishna cares for everyone. What to speak of devotees, serious sadhakas.
And can some circumstances which seem to interfere with our devotion, can we say they are a plan of Krishna? We would say Krishna's plan is to bring us closer to him. So if something seems to be taking us away from him, then is that his plan? See, Krishna, it is said that an expert musician can play even with a broken instrument. So like that, you know the story of Draupadi's Akshaya Patra, when the Ruasa Muni had come.
So now the story is how wonderfully Krishna protected the devotees, protected them. You know, he arranged for, by eating one morsel, he arranged that all the sieges got filled. But another detail of the story is that, you know, Draupadi, she is a well-trained housewife.
And Akshaya Patra is not just an ordinary utensil. It is their life practically. So how was it, even after eating her meal, there was a morsel of grain lying on that Akshaya Patra.
Did she not clean it properly? Was it her mistake? You know, whatever it was, Krishna is so expert that even if a devotee commits a mistake, Krishna can use the mistake also in his. We don't have to bother what caused this problem. We should learn just how we can move onwards towards Krishna.
Whatever may have caused, even if it's our mistake, if somebody else's maliciousness, just the situation of society or economy, whatever be the cause of the problem, we should know that Krishna can work beyond all these causes. And he can bring good out of the situations. Have faith in Krishna.
And this faith is not just in terms of conception. We also need something which actually connects with Krishna. Be it prayer or chanting or contemplation on philosophical points, that will help a lot.
And we are not just talking about Krishna doing something for us. We are also showing Krishna that I want a relationship with you. I am also wanting to do something for you.
When we show that relationship, that also indicates the seriousness of our devotion. Even if we are not serious, Krishna protects us. What to speak of when we are trying to be serious.
We don't have that doubt at all.