How can we reconcile “Krishna provides for devotees” and “Krishna takes everything from devotees”?

From Promila Mataji

BG 9.22 But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form – to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.
SB 10.88.8: The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another.
How do we reconcile the two?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
good question 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 what 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 9.21 so they may attain heavens but when the 5th realm gets over then they fall back to earth and this way they continue on cycle of birth and death and in contrast Krishna says 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 9.22 onwards talks about Bhakti that one who understands my supreme position as a person is delivered as a person is protected otherwise person does not know this now what is Krishna talking about in the so there he is speaking about how he is answering the question of Vishnu Maharaj about how so there is a big context about that the focus is that misery can also be seen as mercy so why? because if that misery makes us take whole hearted shelter of the lord and without that misery when we had other shelters we did not take similar 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 Parikshit Maharaj also asks why is it that the devotees of Shiva are prosperous and the devotees of Vishnu 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 Gita depicts a war that was fought for the sake of gaining a kingdom and the Bhagavad Gita 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 this was applies perfectly to Prabhupada in the sense that how he lost everything one thing after another everything was taken away yes that is mercy but then later as Prabhupada himself said that success that he enjoyed exceeded even his expectations so was that not mercy then? the phenomenal way in which so many devotees that some 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 Prabhupada was able to share Krishna consciousness far and wide that was also mercy so then 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 Krishna says the Bhagavad Gita is ending with here 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 Dhristir turns towards Krishna and that is Arjuna’s mood also, Arjuna’s sentiment also Krishna it is because of you we were able to win otherwise it was impossible to win Parikshit Maharaj also says that it was Krishna who enabled the Pandavas to win over the Kauravas so the victory was also mercy and sometimes the agony the misery, the deprivation that comes that can also be mercy the important point to recognize is that Krishna 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 rather than trying to worry about whether if we start thinking that if some devotee is wealthy then that means that Krishna has not bestowed mercy then Yudhisthira Maharaj he was able to do Rajasuya Yajna and Krishna 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 Yudhisthira Maharaj 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 Krishna nothing else to take shelter of except Krishna so let me just wholeheartedly absorb myself in Krishna and when prosperity comes at that time you can say oh now Krishna 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 Krishna 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 we may well miss out on the fundamental point that mercy is not stereotype that our relationship with Krishna 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 Krishna and some people when they get misery they may go away from Krishna so there is no stereotype type way in which we can decide what is Krishna’s mercy we understand that whatever Krishna has done ultimately we try to serve him in the best possible way and when we see different scriptures and statements in scripture like this we focus on the principle that yes yes there are different devotees who went through different situations and through those different situations they got realizations and they moved closer to Krishna 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 Krishna so when misery comes unavoidably in our life we see asya manugrana when we take whole hearted shelter of Krishna when too much anxiety or something is troubling us and that is distracting us from doing what is in our hands then we let me do what I can and let me leave other things to Krishna do your best and leave the rest to Krishna 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 we can remember that Krishna if we remain determined in service of Krishna Krishna 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 anukum 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 Krishna and if we are in a situation how we can assist others in their service to Krishna 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 don’t if we have some stereotyped notions of mercy we may actually neglect the mercy so rather than worrying too much about what is mercy and what is not mercy we focus on trying to stay devotionally connected with Krishna and trying to convert whatever comes in our life into an impetus for intensifying our service to Krishna. Thank you.