How can we reconcile “act according to your nature” and “do what Krishna wants you to do, not what you want to do”?

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Hare Krishna.
Question from Pramila Mataji How can we reconcile the Bhagavad Gita 9.22 statement that Krishna provides for his devotees with the Bhagavatam statement that Krishna takes away everything from his devotees Answer These are statements given in different contexts. First let us look at the context and then we will look at the universal principles. If you look at 9.22 Krishna is contrasting the path of Bhakti with the path of Karmakanda and the temporal nature of the results of Karmakanda I talked about in 9.20-21 … … … … … … … … … Those who are constantly engaged in my service I protect what they have and I provide what they lack Now this means essentially that in the process of Bhakti what is attained stays what is attained is an eternal asset and what is that asset? That is our love for Krishna.
So at one level we understand this verse talking about contrasting the temporary material results of Karmakanda with the eternal spiritual results of Bhakti. So whatever Bhakti we have accumulated that will stay with us And whatever bhakti we lack, that will also be provided for us. And that is what we will see in the whole section from 22 onwards talks about bhakti.
āmi sarva-yajñānaṁ bhoktā cha prabhūray eva ca That one who understands my supreme position as a person is delivered, as a person is protected. Otherwise, person does not know this, falls under tattvenātaś ca vantite. Now, what is Krishna talking about in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam? yasyaḥ manuḥ pranāmi hariṣye tath dhanam chale tato dhanam tath yasya svayam duḥkha duḥkhitaḥ So there he is speaking about how… He is answering the question of Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja about how… So there is a big context over there.
The focus is that misery can also be seen as mercy. So why? Because if that misery makes us take wholehearted shelter of the Lord and without that misery, when we had other shelters, we did not take single shelter of the Lord. So that’s that.
So misery can be seen as mercy of the Lord. Now if you see, there the context is, why do devotees suffer? Or as Parīkṣit Mahārāja also asks, why is it that the devotees of Shiva are prosperous and the devotees of Viṣṇu don’t seem to be relatively poor? Now in that context, when sometimes miseries come upon devotees, this is an explanation. But if we see the Bhagavad Gītā, this depicts a war that was fought for the sake of gaining a killer.
And the Bhagavad Gītā ends with an assurance based on Krishna’s words that wherever Krishna and Arjuna are there, that means wherever the Lord and the devotee are united together in purpose, then there will be victory. And the Pandavas did attain a victory. So the point is not that we can simplistically reduce the Lord’s mercy to one particular thing.
So sometimes the misery that may come in the life of a devotee, that may be mercy. And sometimes the victory that comes in the life of a devotee, the success, the fame, the glory, the power, the position that comes in the life of a devotee, that can also be mercy. Now, we may say that yasyāham anugrahanāmi harishetanaṁ śaraṇaṁ This applies perfectly to Śrīla Prabhupāda in the sense that how he lost everything.
One thing after another, everything was taken away. Yes, that is mercy. But then later, as Prabhupāda himself said, that success that he moment enjoyed exceeded even his expectations.
So was that not mercy then? The phenomenal way in which so many people were attracted and became devotees, so many books were distributed, so many temples were built, and so many people’s hearts and lives were transformed. And Prabhupāda was able to share Kṛṣṇa consciousness far and wide. That was also mercy.
So the point of these verses is, the common denominator is that we should not reduce mercy to any particular stereotype. So is the attainment of material opulence mercy? Or is the deprivation of material opulence mercy? No, either can be mercy. So when Kṛṣṇa says, when the Bhagavad-gītā is ending with here, tatra śrīr vijayau bhūti-dhruvāni tirmatir mama that when the devotee is determined to serve the Lord, there will be victory.
That victory is the mercy of the Lord. In fact, at the end of the Kurukshetra war, Dhrishtir turns towards Kṛṣṇa, that is Arjuna’s mood also, Arjuna’s sentiment also. Kṛṣṇa says, because of you we were able to win, otherwise it was impossible to win.
Parīkṣit Mahārāja also says that, it was Kṛṣṇa who enabled the Pāṇḍavas to win over the Kauravas. So the victory was also mercy. And sometimes the agony, the misgreed, the deprivation that comes, that can also be mercy.
The important point to recognize is that Kṛṣṇa always keeps a special eye on His devotees. Now for what purpose specifically He may bring mercy in the life of a devotee, that can vary according to time, place, circumstance. And that reason we may not be able to understand also immediately.
So rather than trying to worry about whether, if we start thinking that, oh, if some devotee is wealthy, then that means that Kṛṣṇa has not bestowed mercy. Then Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was able to do Rajasuya Yajna. And Kṛṣṇa Himself came there.
He was present for the Rajasuya Yajna. So was that not the mercy of the Lord? Yes, that was the mercy. And Yudhiṣṭhira Mahārāja was later in a gambling match dispossessed of everything.
And even at that time he remained fixed in Dharma. And that was also the mercy of the Lord. So a devotee’s attitude is that, whatever happens in our life, we need to translate it into a way that it is uncool for our bhakti.
So if some misery comes, we can reinterpret it devotionally as mercy by thinking that, oh, now I have nothing else to take shelter of Kṛṣṇa, nothing else to take shelter of except Kṛṣṇa. So let me just wholeheartedly absorb myself in Kṛṣṇa. And when prosperity comes, at that time you can say, oh, now Kṛṣṇa has given me so many resources by which I can share His message and His mission with others.
So we focus primarily on how we can best serve Kṛṣṇa. And if we try to go too much into analyzing either in our life or in others’ life, is this mercy or is that mercy, then we may well miss out on the fundamental point that mercy is not stereotype, that our relationship with Kṛṣṇa is reciprocal and what may seem to be not mercy but misery may turn out to be mercy for some and what may seem not at all like misery, what may seem like prosperity may turn out actually not mercy. Some people if they get prosperity they may go away from Kṛṣṇa and some people when they get misery they may go away from Kṛṣṇa.
So there is no stereotype type way in which we can decide what is Kṛṣṇa’s mercy. We understand that whatever Kṛṣṇa has done, ultimately we try to serve Him in the best possible way. And when we see different statements in scriptures like this, we focus on the principle that yes, just as there are different devotees who went through different situations and through those different situations they got realizations and they moved closer to Kṛṣṇa.
Similarly whatever situation comes in my life, let me try to make sense of it in such a way that I can move closer to Kṛṣṇa. So when misery comes unavoidably in our life, we take wholehearted shelter of Kṛṣṇa. When too much anxiety or something is troubling us and that is distracting us from doing what is in our hands, then we do what I can and let me leave other things to Kṛṣṇa.
As they say, do your best and leave the rest to Kṛṣṇa. And when we have something challenging to do and it is difficult for us to do it and sometimes we may feel that, can I really do this? At that time, यत्र योगेश्वय कृष्ण यत्र पार्थुधनोदर यत्र शीरु जयो भूते द्रुवानितिर्मतिर्ममः We can remember that Kṛṣṇa, if we remain determined in the service of Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa will enable us to attain victory. So basically we should always try to stay enthusiastic in our practice of bhakti and whatever circumstances come in our life, we try to devotionally re-translate or re-interpret them so as to make them anukūr for our bhakti.
And rather than judging that if a devotee is poor, rather than judging others, that whether somebody’s adversity or somebody’s prosperity is a lot of mercy, we can focus primarily on how we can best serve Kṛṣṇa and if we are in a situation, how we can assist others in their service to Kṛṣṇa. So rather than trying to reduce mercy to some external forms, we focus on the principle that mercy is also dependent on how we respond to something. Otherwise something may be a mercy, as they say in self-help circles, when a fortunate knocks on the door, many people consider that just as a noise and neglect it.
They consider that as interference. So similarly, mercy may knock on our door and if we have some stereotyped notions of mercy, we may actually neglect the mercy. So rather than worrying too much about what is mercy, what is not mercy, we focus on trying to stay devotionally connected with Kṛṣṇa and trying to convert whatever comes in our life into an impetus for intensifying our service to Kṛṣṇa.
Thank you. Question, how do we reconcile