How can we feel connected with Krishna when we have problems and our prayers are not answered?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, when we are practicing bhakti in the neophyte stage, we don’t feel a very tangible connection with Krishna. And if we are especially going through distress, and we pray to Krishna and he helps, then we feel that Krishna cares, and Krishna reciprocates. But if we don’t get any help, then we may feel that Krishna is not going to get involved and then our connection with Krishna becomes weak.
So, what can we do at such times? First thing is that Krishna is always involved. Krishna is so involved that he’s right there in our heart with us. He is there always in our heart, and he has been there throughout.
So, we should never think that Krishna is somewhere far up there, and he doesn’t know what is happening, or he doesn’t care what is happening. Krishna is right here in with us. Now, he’s closer to us than what the closest person to us can ever be.
Now, even if a very loving person holds us in a tight embrace, that person cannot come as close to us as Krishna is always. The philosophy helps us to understand Krishna’s eternal proximity to us. Now, as far as our perceiving Krishna’s proximity or our perceiving Krishna’s involvement, there are different aspects to understand this.
Now, our present existence is at three levels, there is the physical, there is the mental, and there is the spiritual. So, the purpose of life, we are presently existing at the material level, although even now mental and spiritual are aspects, our consciousness primarily right now is the material level of reality. And the purpose of human life is to raise our consciousness to the spiritual level.
And Krishna orchestrates things in our life in such a way that our consciousness gradually gets elevated towards the spiritual level. Rather, he gives us impetuses, he gives us prompts by which we can raise our consciousness to the spiritual level. So, that is the broad plan of Krishna in this world.
Now, while he wants us to elevate our consciousness to the spiritual level, that does not mean that he wants us to be miserable at the material level. But at the same time, if making things comfortable at the material level would mean that we will lose the impetus to rise to the spiritual level, then Krishna may not arrange to make things comfortable in the material level. So, primarily the relief that we get in Krishna consciousness by the practice of Krishna consciousness is at the spiritual and mental levels.
And at the physical level, the relief may sometimes manifest immediately, sometimes it may take some time to manifest and sometimes it may not manifest. So, what do we mean by relief manifesting at the mental and the spiritual, at the spiritual level? If we, whatever be the circumstance we are in, if we can strive to absorb ourselves in Krishna, then we feel a relief from whatever it may be that is troubling us. Suppose it is very hot outside and we are feeling that heat burning on our body and then we come to an air-conditioned room.
Immediately we feel relief. So, the heat is still a reality, it is still there, but by our coming into an air-conditioned room, we get relief from that heat. Similarly, the world is filled with problems and those problems are like the heat afflicting us.
So, tapanti vividha sthapa, there are many miseries in this world. But in Kapila’s teaching, the third canto it is said, naitan madgata cetasa, the various afflictions of life, they are going to afflict us in this world, but madgata cetasa, if I absorb myself in Krishna, then I don’t feel those afflictions. So, it is like we are taking our consciousness from this material level of reality and placing it in a Krishna-conditioned reality, like air-conditioned reality, a Krishna-conditioned reality.
That means, we absorb ourselves in Krishna. So, for example, in kirtan, in prayer, in japa, study of shastra, we absorb ourselves. So, that is the first relief that can come to us in all situations.
Now, even no matter how much material distress we may be in, if we can absorb ourselves in Krishna, the material problem is not solved, that I will come to later about dealing with that. But the fact is, that just that relief which you can get by absorption in Krishna, that is itself a living testimony to Krishna’s love for us. It is.
The same, different people may think I can get absorbed in different things. Some people may just get frustrated and they think I’ll drink and I’ll get some relief. But that is actually not a relief that creates much more trouble.
Absorbing in Krishna gives us tangible relief in the sense of at least our mind is not burdened by that trouble, by that problem. Even somebody is sick and having physical pain, if at that time somehow one can just raise one’s consciousness and absorb oneself in Krishna, at that time one says yes. We have to find out how we can absorb ourselves in Krishna.
See, bhakti is not a ritualistic activity. There may be certain situations when we may not be able to chant and absorb ourselves in Krishna. There may be certain situations when we may not be able to come to the temple.
There are certain situations when we may not even be able to associate with devotees. But we have to find out how we can absorb ourselves in Krishna. If we absorb ourselves in Krishna, we get relief from the tension and trouble of the problem.
And then with that relief, we become calm, we gain a sense of security, we gain a sense that yes, something is right in my life. Everything else is falling apart, but Krishna still exists. And in remembering Krishna, I can get relief, I can get strength.
With that security, we can turn and then look at the problem. So, if there is heat outside, and I have come to an air-conditioned room, I get some relief. If I have work to do outside, I have to go outside.
So, it’s not that we can just, for a lifelong, we absorb in Krishna and not deal with any of the realities in our life. We do have to deal with the realities. But quite often, the more we think of a problem, the bigger the problem becomes in our mind.
Life determines our problems, but we determine their size. If I am sick, yes, the sickness is a fact of life. But if I am constantly whipping myself, why did I fall sick? Why did I get such a bad luck? Why did this happen to me? Why did this happen to me? That makes the problem worse than it needs to be.
I am in a hospital, I may be in a sickbed. But there, if I can think of something positive, think of something constructive, then I have, then I can minimize the amount of suffering that comes because of the problem. The problem is there, it is going to cause a certain amount of suffering.
But if we dwell on the problem, it’s like say, if there’s a porter who has to carry luggage, say the porter is carrying 20 kg luggage on one’s head. Now, 20 kg luggage is difficult, but the same porter is given 60 kg luggage to carry. You’ll get crushed under it.
You’ll find it impossible. So, life sends problems our way. That is like a 20 kg luggage.
But when we keep dwelling on the problem, when we keep agonizing over the problem, and we keep resenting the problem, then that adds burden. And then that burden often becomes crushing. If we look deeply, we’ll often find that resentment of reality hurts more than reality.
Reality is a problem, but resentment of reality sometimes hurts much more. So, what we need in such situations when we are hurting for whatever reason is we need a satisfying object of thought. If we can turn our thought away from the problem towards some satisfying object, and the most satisfying, most elevating object is Krishna.
So, just by turning our thoughts towards Krishna, we will get relief. That is relief firstly at the spiritual level, but that also comes down at the mental level. Now, anytime we are chanting Hare Krishna, we are getting spiritually nourished.
Even if we are feeling utterly bored by the chanting, still we are nourished. But of course, we don’t just want nourishment at the spiritual level, we also need to feel the nourishment. So, we try to see how we can connect our mind, absorb our mind, and then we will start feeling relief at the level of the mind also.
Then, after that, when we just calmed ourselves, then we can think more calmly, think more objectively, and then we ourselves, when Krishna solves problems, it is not necessary that Krishna solves problems by miraculously intervening in our problem-filled situation. Krishna’s solutions can come in various ways. So, sometimes we may feel this person is acting in such a way that is causing me so much trouble.
If only this person’s behavior would change. Yes, we may pray to Krishna to change that person’s behavior. And Krishna can sometimes do that.
People can transform miraculously. But often the world is so subtle that we may go and shake a mango tree and an apple may fall down. What that means is that if a child is hungry and child goes to orchard and says, Oh God, give me fruit and shakes the mango tree, the child is caught in looking at the apple only, at the mango only, and nearby apple falls, child will not see that.
So, sometimes when we pray to Krishna, we pray, expect and demand for a solution in a particular term only. And solution doesn’t come in that term, there may be some other solution that may be coming. But we are just blinded to that.
So, Krishna works often, he always works for our good. But often he works in ways that are not exactly the way we want them to. We pray for.
So, he answers our prayers, but in ways different from what we expected. And that’s why we certainly using our intelligence, we can think, okay, this is my problem and this seems to be the solution. So, I pray to Krishna that let the solution come.
At the same time, rather than focusing only on when will the solution come, we can stay open. Krishna may give us some insight, some idea, some plan, by which we might be able to do something else, by which the problem may get solved. The way Krishna works is unlimited.
There are unlimited ways in which Krishna might work. So, being open to Krishna’s wisdom, Krishna’s guidance, that is also very important. And quite often when we are just focusing on praying and expecting the result, at that time we are close to Krishna’s answering our prayers in ways different from what we expected.
Again, the philosophy helps in this. Because Krishna is omniscient and Krishna is omnipotent. Omniscient means he knows everything.
He is much more intelligent than us. Omnipotent means he has all power, he can do things which we can’t do. So, quite often, if we are not very philosophically sound, or if we are not rooted in philosophy, then we expect, accept based on faith that Krishna is omnipotent.
And this problem is there in my life, I can’t solve this problem. And Krishna can solve this problem. This is good.
To have faith in Krishna’s omnipotence is good, that Krishna can solve the problem that I can’t solve. But if we are properly philosophically grounded, then we understand that faith in Krishna’s omnipotence is actually half faith in Krishna. If you want to have proper faith in Krishna, we have faith not only in Krishna’s omnipotence, but also in Krishna’s omniscience.
That means Krishna is more intelligent than me. Then, when we have this in mind, then we pray to Krishna, we seek his help. But we understand, if we make our prayer very conditional, this is the problem, this is the solution.
Then the idea is Krishna, you know, yes, let us work together. But the combination should be my intelligence and your power. You know, I have the intelligence, I have solved this problem like this and you use your power and execute the solution.
But you know, Krishna doesn’t work like that quite often. Often, we may think, you know, many people like to serve God. Almost everyone likes to serve God.
Even atheists like to serve God. You know how? As advisors. God, why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that? Atheists argue, if God had been really intelligent, he would have designed it like this, he would have designed it like this.
So, for them, the non-existent God just pops into existence for the sole purpose of gratefully accepting advice from them. And after they have instructed him with their advice, then God disappears into non-existence. So, what happens is, Krishna is more intelligent than us.
And therefore, we need to recognize that as Krishna has greater power than us, with our intelligence, we can, this is the solution to the problem, we can pray to Krishna for that solution. At the same time, Prabhupada was asked, what is the best prayer? Prabhupada said, best prayer is to ask Krishna, please give me the strength to serve you. Please give me the strength to continue on your service, whatever happens.
And within that strength, Krishna will also give us the intelligence of what to do, how to act in that situation. So, rather than thinking that Krishna is not reciprocating, because the problem is not solved, we can focus more on recognizing that just absorption in Krishna is itself one part of the solution of the problem. Absorption in Krishna itself ensures that the problem doesn’t burden us.
We don’t increase the burden of the problem by obsessing over it. And secondly, absorption in Krishna also opens us to recognize that Krishna can act in various ways. Sometimes Krishna may give a solution, but we are so obsessed and looking for solution in our terms that we miss the solution.
As they say, many people look for opportunities, but an opportunity knocks on the door, people complain about the noise. Sometimes that’s what happens to us when we are too caught in our own problems. And more importantly, is we cannot avoid thinking about our problems, but we are too caught in expecting solution on our terms.
So, sometimes Krishna may let a problem go on for some time, because he may want us to recognize our need for him. Many times when people are distressed, they come to Krishna and they solve problems. They get the problem solved and Krishna can solve the problems also.
But then they come to Krishna, they come to the temple and say, Krishna, please solve this problem. When the problem is solved, bye bye Krishna. They become like that.
But a devotee, when the problem comes, the devotee becomes absorbed in Krishna. And if we think that Krishna is for real and Krishna really cares only in terms when he solves our problem, then when the problem is solved, we will feel what is the need for practicing. But if Krishna, we see that even in the presence of problems, if we absorb ourselves in Krishna, the problem becomes more bearable, the problem becomes more livable.
Then, irrespective of whether that specific problem has come or gone, we will realize the value, the potency of Krishna consciousness. Now, of course, having said all this, when we are actually going through problems, it is not easy. It is extremely difficult.
And it requires a lot of determination, a lot of willpower, a lot of faith. And especially, we need at least some devotees who understand what we are going through, who understand our problems and sympathize with us, who care for us. Many times when problems are there, what we need is not just, even if we don’t get the immediate solution to the problem, if we just understand that someone understands, that itself is a solution.
So, when we, if we look in the Bhagavatam, when many times the Vaishnavas offer, the devotees offer prayers to Krishna, sometimes the prayers have no request at the end at all. The Brahma Samhita prayers, it is simply praise of Krishna. Govindam Adi Purusham Tamaham Bajami.
So, like that, sometimes it is just an expression of one’s heart. So, similarly, when we are having problems, we can just go in front of Krishna and we can just pray to Krishna in terms of opening our heart. Rather than demanding a specific solution, just by opening our heart, that also will unburden the heart significantly.
And that will enable us to be released of some of the unnecessary weight of the problem. So, when problems are there, we often may go to God and tell God, how big a problem I am facing. Why are you not doing anything about it? But don’t tell God how big your problems are.
Tell your problems how big God is. That means we focus on Krishna. If we focus on the problem, the problem seems to become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
And we feel dwarfed and crushed by the problem. But if we focus on Krishna, then we start seeing, yes, this problem is there. But if we look back at our life, we’ll see that throughout our life we have had problems.
Some problem we may have had five years ago. At that time, we might have felt my life is going to, my world is going to come crushing down. But now we look at it, yes, that problem has come, that problem has gone.
So, like that, the problem which we are facing now, this may seem like a big problem now, but it will go. One of the problems, one of the ways the mind crushes us, is when I said it makes the problems bigger and bigger, one of the ways it does this is by eternalizing the present. That means, because something is a problem now, the mind makes us feel this problem is going to be there forever for me.
You see, in India, when we travel in locals, local trains, sometimes the trains are very crowded. So, we barely have place to stand over it. But then people tolerate it because they know it’s a 15 minute, half an hour, one hour journey.
I suppose those same people were told that, you know, you have to stand with cramped locals throughout the rest of your life. If I told like that, then I’m standing 15 minutes will become restless. Because we’ll be thinking, throughout my life I have to be like this.
How is it possible? So, the mind tends to eternalize the present. That means, whatever problem I have, I start thinking this problem is going to be there lifelong. And how can I live with this? But if we look back, if we actually fix our vision on eternity, on Krishna, that which is truly eternal, when we fix our vision on that, then that which might seem otherwise eternal, as eternal, we understand that is ephemeral, that is temporary.
And if we look back at our past, and think there were big problems, they’ve come and they’re gone. Similarly, this problem has come, it will also go in due course. That way we can avoid eternalizing the present by focusing on that, that Supreme Lord who is eternal, and who is available to us also in the present.
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