Hold on to Hari, not to worry

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Any other questions? Hare Krishna. Hold on to hurry, not to worry. Worry is a constant phenomena with us, especially in the stress-free modern world.
And at one level, worry is a natural human response to life’s many uncertainties. But at another level, what is natural can become undesirable if it acquires an unnatural hold on us. That means, if worry becomes our only response to life’s uncertainties, then, that worry can paralyze us and prevent us from doing anything constructive about the possible future problems.
So now, many times, when a problem, when a threat seems to be there in the future, then the fear of that, which is essentially what worry is, that grips our mind, it enters into our consciousness and it completely occupies our consciousness. And as it pervades our consciousness, we start just envisioning dreadful worst-case scenarios and we start feeling more and more discouraged and disempowered. And we think that we are dealing with the problem, but actually, we think we are tackling the problem, but it is the problem that is tackling us, tackling us and driving us to the ground, dragging us down and down and down.
So, now we may say, what can we do? The problem is that I have to think about it. Yes, we do need to think about the problem. We need to deal with the problem.
And sometimes, thinking about the problem may well be the worst way to deal with it. Why? Because, when we are feeling threatened by the problem, when we think about it, we just can’t think in a constructive way. Our mind takes control and it directs our thoughts in a destructive way, making us paranoid and paralyzed.
Paranoid means, we feel more and more thought-threatened and paralyzed means, we feel incapable of doing anything to deal with it. So, we sink deeper and deeper into feelings of helplessness and hopelessness till we may end up becoming emotional wrecks, incapable of doing anything. So, that’s why, when we feel ourselves threatened by worry, when we see a worrisome situation coming up, we need to first take shelter of Hari.
Hari is one of the names of the Supreme Lord Krishna, who is our ultimate Lord and Protector. And, his name Hari signifies one who removes, steals away impurities. And worry is also an impurity.
So, Hari steals away worry. And the Bhagavad Gita states in 18.58, mat-cittaḥ sarva-durgāṇi mat-prasādāt tariśyasi ata-ceta-mahāṅkārāṇya śroṣyasi vināśyasi It states that, mat-cittaḥ, if you become conscious of me, sarva-durgāṇi, all obstacles, mat-prasādāt, by my mercy, tariśyasi, will cross over all obstacles. So, essentially, what Krishna is saying is, that, if you become conscious of me, by my mercy, you will cross over all obstacles.
So, when we remember Krishna, if, say, post, we are falling down, say, if we are falling down from a building, or we are falling down a hill, then we need a grip, which we will be able to hold on, by which we check our fall, and then, better will be that if we have a rope, by which someone pulls us up. So, remembrance of Krishna becomes like that grip. Firstly, it checks the downward side of our consciousness into feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
And further, it also acts as a rope, and Krishna himself acts as a person who pulls us up. So, when we meditate on Krishna, then, we feel ourselves raised, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually, above the problem. Somewhat akin to a person, who was at the foot of an exploding volcano, seeing the lava rushing towards him, suddenly is airlifted above.
And when the person is airlifted, the person feels calmer. So, when we are, when we feel ourselves lifted above, that means, we feel secure. Then, from the distance and detached perspective, we can perceive aspects of the problem, and conceive solutions that had missed us earlier, when anxiety devoured our ability to think clearly.
And anxiety had been caused by the, you see, by the appearance that the problem was about to devour us. So, meditation enables us to become, to become distanced and detached, and thereby, deal with the problem more effectively. Now, of course, we cannot, we may not be able to take shelter of Krishna immediately and tangibly, without having the proper process and adequate practice in that process.
So, the proper, the best process is, best process for meditation is, is meditation centered on divine sounds. The mantras comprising of the names of Krishna, they act as ready-made templates for centering our thoughts on Krishna, for connecting us with Krishna. And, so, they are the proper process.
They connect our, when we fix, when we utter the holy sounds and when we hear the holy sounds, then our consciousness gets a grip that checks its downward fall and then it also is pulled upwards by Krishna’s grace. And regularly practicing meditation on a daily basis gives us the practice by which when we get acute anxiety attacks, at that time, the previous practice enables us to take shelter of Krishna and rise above worry. And thus, by the grace of Hari, we can counter worry and find practical solutions and move forward through otherwise anxiety, anxious situations in our life.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.