Doesn’t Krishna protect devotees from black magic?

Happens gradually as people keep practicing. Hare Krishna. Question.

How can devotees be affected by black magic? Doesn't bhakti protect them from it? Answer. Bhakti definitely protects devotees from everything, including black magic. But that protection is not always in the same way as we expect it to be.

So, sometimes when Krishna says, he says that, I deliver my devotees from all sinful reactions. So, that also has a precondition that when we surrender to Krishna, then we become freed from sinful reactions. That doesn't mean that Krishna doesn't free us from all sinful reactions immediately.

That Krishna doesn't protect us. But the protection can come in different ways. So, just as a devotee may get material sufferings in terms of a devotee may get disease or accidents or some financial problems.

So, the threefold miseries in themselves may continue. And that's part of the devotee's growing spiritual realization and increased devotion for Krishna. Because through these sufferings, a devotee realizes how material existence is miserable.

And then when the devotee takes shelter of Krishna, the devotee also realizes how Krishna's shelter is blissful and how there is real happiness and real safety in the shelter of Krishna. So, the sufferings of a devotee are unlike the sufferings of a materialist, which are just karmic reactions. Devotee's sufferings are arranged by Krishna so that they lead to the rapid spiritual evolution of the devotee.

And so, just as these threefold sufferings can come in many normal ways like disease or accident or debt. Similarly, they can come in paranormal ways like black magic. So, normally speaking, a devotee who takes shelter of Krishna strongly will not be affected by these things.

And most of the cases, whenever devotees are troubled by something like this, if they chant intensely, especially if they pray to Narasimhadev intensely. I've explained the process in the other answer, in another answer which I have given about can devotees go to tantrics if they are troubled by black magic, what all can be done. But so normally, if devotees take shelter of Krishna more intensely, then they do become freed from these problems.

Krishna, by his devotion, by his merciful potency, either removes those problems or gives the devotee the strength to tolerate and transcend those problems. But in some cases, some karmic reactions may be very severe. And even when Krishna reduces the karmic reactions to a sample, still that sample may also be intolerable for some devotees.

And when that happens, those reactions may manifest in invisible, tangible and troublesome ways. So, it's not that the sufferings of a devotee, say through black magic, are outside the purview of Krishna's protection. That is, whatever beings are causing that black magic, they are also controlled by Krishna.

And Krishna is allowing that to happen. And he is letting that, but he is allowing that to happen because that is what is best for our spiritual growth. How it is, we may not be able to understand immediately.

And what we surely know is that if we continue taking shelter of Krishna, we will be able to overcome all problems. And whatever problems come at the material level, they are temporary. But Krishna's shelter is eternal.

And that's why Krishna says, just tolerate. And if you tolerate, then the problems will go away in due course of time. And most often, it may well be weak-mindedness when it is said that a devotee is facing black magic, problems because of black magic.

It may well be that devotee is not troubled by black magic, devotee is just troubled by a weak mind and mistaking that to be a, mistaking that to be some effect of black magic. So, if a devotee takes shelter of Krishna strongly, then that connection with Krishna will strengthen the devotee internally and then the problem will go away. So, irrespective of whether it's a real black magic problem or it's just a weak-mindedness, the important thing is, if we take shelter of Krishna, we will be able to tolerate and transcend the problem.

So, in most cases, there are three things. In most cases, a devotee will never be troubled by black magic. In a few cases, when it is troubled, the devotee takes shelter of bhakti and Krishna intensely, the problem will go away.

And in a few cases, the problem persists it may not be black magic, it may just be weak-mindedness. And again, intense bhakti will counter that weak-mindedness. And in a few cases, if it is black magic, then also the effects of everything in this world are temporary, whereas it is Krishna bhakti alone that is eternal.

So, by absorbing ourselves in intense Krishna bhakti, we will be able to tolerate and transcend that. And of course, if the problem is a little troublesome, too troublesome, then one may take some material means for relief. But those material means for relief will also offer only material temporary solution.

It is Krishna bhakti that is the ultimate solution. So, while the ultimate solution is working, sometimes some pains may keep coming along the way. And those pains, whether they are normal or paranormal, they are eventually going to go away when one practices bhakti sincerely.

When a person is deceased, even when the person is taking a proper medicine, sometimes the pains will keep coming. And the recurrence of the pains does not necessarily prove that the medicine is not working. As a person is getting cured, the pains will decrease, decrease, and they will go away.

Similarly, for a devotee, as the devotee's surrender becomes more intense and the devotee's consciousness becomes more spiritually elevated and transcendental, the sufferings will decrease, decrease, and eventually they will all go away. Thank you.