When obstacles distract us from KC instead of deepening our KC what should we do?

From: keshav Nimai das

obstacles on path of KC distacts me from KC  instead of deepening my KC? why? and How to overcome?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Question for Kishore Nimai Prabhu. Obstacles in the path of Krishna consciousness distract me from Krishna consciousness instead of opening my Krishna consciousness.
Why and how to overcome? Answer. Krishna promises in the Bhagavad Gita, 18.58. He says that if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace. On the other hand, if you act on a false ego, not hearing me, then you will be lost.
So, this promise of Krishna is absolute. It applies to all circumstances. But sometimes when we face obstacles, at that time, we may not be able to find the right way to become conscious of Krishna.
So the obstacles that come, they may be external circumstances or they may be inner conditionings of the mind, whatever be the nature of the obstacles. Just as Kunti Maharani says that, She says the river always moves towards the ocean. Let my consciousness always move towards you.
So now for the river to move towards the ocean, there are multiple ways. Sometimes the river, if a stone, big rock comes in between, the river may go below the rock, above the rock, to the right of the rock, to the left of the rock, or it may just keep hitting against the rock, hitting against the rock, and eventually break the rock and go through it. Erode the rock and go through it.
So, the principle of moving towards the ocean remains, but the method of doing that may vary according to time, place, circumstance. Same way, when we are trying to progress in our Krishna consciousness, when obstacles come, at that time, some obstacles may be like rocks, which stop us from becoming conscious of Krishna. So at that time, we have to try different means.
We can try chanting the holy names more, we can try studying scriptures more, worshipping the deity more, absorbing ourselves in some service, which absorbs us completely and makes us forget other things, or seeking the guidance of a trusted senior devotee or counselor, and trying to apply that. Basically, we are fighting a war against maya. And in a war, the enemy is also always alert.
So, ultimately, remembrance of Krishna is what will work. But remembrance of Krishna is not mechanical or automatic. It has to be devotional and heartfelt, consciously chosen.
So, therefore, it’s like when a war is going on, one weapon may work in that war today, but the enemy may learn to carry that weapon or counter that weapon, and tomorrow, when I use the same weapon, it may not work. Now, in absolute sense, the remembrance of Krishna works, but sometimes that remembrance of Krishna doesn’t really go into our heart. And we stay either problem conscious or temptation conscious more than we are Krishna conscious.
So, just as in a war, if one weapon doesn’t work, a warrior tries another weapon, another weapon, and the warrior keeps fighting till the warrior finds a weapon that works. Similarly, we have to keep trying various weapons. We never lose till we lose our fighting spirit.
We may even fall in our devotional service, but as long as we are determined to rise and keep fighting, there is hope, and there is indeed supreme hope, because Krishna is with us. Even Arjuna had to suffer reversals. He lost his son, Hiravan, then he lost his Manju, then he lost Bhatotka, who was Bhima’s son, and quite dear to him also.
So, there were reversals and losses for Arjuna also like that. We may also have some troubles in our spiritual life, and we should be ready for that. It’s a war, and there may be some wounds, there may be some falls, there may be, we may even have to, sometimes in a war, when the enemy is attacking very fiercely, sometimes the warrior has to just withdraw from one area of the battle, regroup so that the warrior can fight again more effectively in the same battle or maybe in another area of the battlefield.
So, the most important thing is that we have to somehow or other keep trying to be conscious of Krishna, and being conscious of Krishna essentially means calling out to him, remembering him, and connecting with him in whichever way works at that particular time. So, the war metaphor is helpful in this case, because the war metaphor conveys the activity that we have to do. There is the other metaphor also of, say, Krishna comes and lifts a person out of material existence, coming on Garuda.
So, that is the metaphor for grace. So, both are important. We ultimately need Krishna’s grace, that will lift us above our struggles against temptations and tribulations.
But, before we can actually come to that level, where we attract Krishna’s grace, we have to show our actions to Krishna that we want his grace. And to want that grace, we have to show Krishna that we will do whatever we can according to our capacity. That’s why, as devotees, we should always keep fighting the war.
And we also need to remember that the distractions in Krishna consciousness are not necessarily distractions. If we keep persevering, sometimes, when we are unable to be Krishna conscious, if our desire strengthens, if we keep longing to be Krishna conscious again and again, more and more, then that also helps us. That is also something which Krishna sees.
So, we shouldn’t simplistically think that a defeat in Krishna consciousness is always a defeat, and a victory is always a victory. A defeat, that means sometimes we get overcome by circumstances or conditionings, and we act in unbecoming ways, then that is a defeat in one level. But if that makes us more and more conscious of our need for Krishna, of how we cannot actually live without Krishna, then that makes us more determined to hold on to Krishna’s mercy whenever it is available and in whatever form it is available.
Then that realization is actually a success. On the other hand, sometimes we may fail in our Krishna, we may succeed externally in the sense that some temptation comes and we resist it. But if we do it without taking shelter of Krishna, that may make us proud.
And if we become proud that I can resist temptation, we may in the future be preparing ourselves for a bigger fall. In fact, that pride itself is a fall, because we have discredited ourselves with Krishna to some level. So that victory may also be in a sense defeat.
That’s why rather than seeing certain things as deepening our Krishna consciousness or distracting us from Krishna consciousness, that means seeing things in black and white as victory and defeat, we can try to, whenever we face reversals, regroup and learn. So, reflect, reform and rejoice. So that 3R formula, reflect, okay, what went wrong? Then reform, what can I do right? Then do it right and rejoice.
So that’s how we all work in our spiritual life. Now, when we find that we are not able to become Krishna conscious, when we face obstacles, we may have to at a practical level try various things. Sometimes we may just decide that that particular situation where the obstacle is there, that is just so troublesome that we might just want to withdraw from that area, change our service or do some change, by which we don’t face that trouble too much.
That is not a solution that we should adopt at every obstacle. And in some situations, we may not be able to adopt it at all. In some situations, it may not be recommended that we adopt it, because a rolling stone gathers no moss, and sometimes it’s by facing obstacles that we grow.
But facing obstacles doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to beat our head against the wall. Vishal Prabhupada tried to preach in India to the best of his capacity, but when the preaching was not successful, he changed the preaching arena and went to America and preached. So, similarly, sometimes some obstacles may be such that trying to overcome them may just be like beating our head against the wall.
So, then we should pray and consult devotees, and maybe decide that this obstacle is really not worth facing, and we will grow better by exercising our determination and our abilities on some other battlefront, in some other area of service, in some other situation. But, of course, this should not be done on a regular basis, because if we keep changing, then we will always be looking for a perfect situation where there are no obstacles, and there will be no such situation ever to come. But that doesn’t mean that certain situations may not be incompatible or hostile.
There may be, and we may have to withdraw from that area. It’s like a wounded soldier may find that or that fire retreating from a particular war field is better, by which that person can fight afterwards after getting healthy. Or, a particular soldier who is skilled in fighting with bows and arrows may find that a place where the fighting is going on with swords is not the best place for him to be in.
So, like that, there are circumstances when changes may also be required, and we need to decide that. So, basically, in our spiritual life, sometimes we take up too many battles to fight, and that overwhelms us. So, it is critical for us to be able to decide carefully which battles we are going to fight in our spiritual life, which issues are worth battling for.
Not every situation in life is worth battling for. Some issues, it’s best to just withdraw from them and continue on in our devotional service. And some issues, we just have to fight on.
And some issues, we can either withdraw, nor can we fight on and succeed, and we just tolerate and move on. So, withdraw, tolerate, or overcome. There are different approaches to different problems in different situations, and we have to choose which is the best approach.
So, rather than just seeing things in terms of black and white, that this obstacle is deepening my Krishna Consciousness, this obstacle is distracting me from my Krishna Consciousness, we can introspect and analyze more, and see how, even within that obstacle, which seems to be distracting us from Krishna Consciousness, how we can learn more and keep deepening our Krishna Consciousness.