​We can’t pray for problems like Kunti did, but being problem-free makes us complacent – what is the balanced attitude?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so when we have problems we take shelter of Krishna and when we don’t have problems we often become apathetic but then we are not at the level of Kunti Maharani you can say Krishna give me problems so what should we do actually yes actually the problems are not the generator of bhakti if that were the case then every person who had problem they would be practicing bhakti it is actually the mercy of devotees the mercy of Krishna and the proper use the proper free will that leads to the practice of bhakti so some people in problems they may take shelter of Krishna more other people in problems they may become atheistic and go away from Krishna also and some people may amidst lack of problems become complacent others may see that ok now I don’t have problem let me focus on bhakti more so we can’t say that material circumstances alone determine the practice of bhakti whichever they are favorable or unfavorable however the principle remains that in this world we don’t usually feel the need for God we don’t feel the need for God if life is going on reasonably well then we feel I am happy here God is happy there let things go on both ways so that’s why we as sadhakas do need to feel the need for Krishna so in psychological terms they say there are three zones in which we can function there is a comfort zone there is the comfort zone is one extreme there is a panic zone is the other extreme it’s like if somebody is lifting weights then if they can lift 10 kg weights and they go to a gym and start lifting 2 kg weights there is no exercise in 2 kg weight they can lift 10 kg so if they are lifting 2 kg it’s in the comfort zone but if they can lift 10 kg and they lift 20 kg now they will break their bones so 20 kg we are lifting in the panic zone but if they lift 11 kg then slowly their muscles will improve they will grow so like that that is called the stretch zone and you just do something slightly beyond one’s capacity up to one’s capacity or slightly beyond one’s capacity so sometimes when big problems come we go into the panic zone when there are no problems we go into the comfort zone so what we need to do is to steadily go on in bhaktis we keep ourselves in the stretch zone stretch zone means that we take up some challenging service for Krishna something that is not extremely difficult to do but not very easy to do also something that requires effort from our part and something that also requires extending of our capacities so when we do that that is a sustainable way in which we can practice bhakti so if we don’t have services which challenges to some extent then we will become complacent if we take up some service which is challenging which requires us to make a commitment then because in that service there are some parts which are in our control and some parts which are not in our control so the part which is not in our control that makes us dependent on Krishna that makes us call out to Krishna and if nothing is in our control then we start feeling powerless, we start feeling overwhelmed so we should take up services which stretch our capacity somewhat and that way we can steadily move on in bhakti so we don’t have to pray to Krishna for problems but we can certainly take up some challenging service in Krishna’s service in Krishna’s mission, Krishna’s cause and that will inspire us to feel the need for Krishna and to call out to him does it answer your question? yes