​When we are sinful, does Krishna still protect us?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Jai! If we are sinful, why will Krishna protect us? We are not pure devotees. So, then how will we have this positive attitude of self-confidence? Krishna’s, love for us, is not based on who we are.
Krishna’s love for us, is based on who He is. No. He is the supremely benevolent, well-wisher of all living beings.
So, His love for us, is not based on who we are. It is simply based on who He is. It is His nature, to love everyone.
Krishna says, surudam sarva-bhutana, and the well-wisher of all living beings. Now, normally we think of Krishna as, bhakta-vatsala, that He is the lover of His devotees. But, Prahlad Maharaj also uses, by describing, Narasimha Dev, He says, you are, krupana-vatsala.
Not just, bhakta-vatsala, you are, krupana-vatsala. Krupana refers to people who are very materialistic. So, Krishna cares for them also.
He loves them also. So, Krishna’s love, is, not conditional. This is a whole elaborate subject.
I have a full seminar on this. And, in one of my books, My Little Bhakti Companion, there is a long article about this. Whether Krishna’s love is conditional or not.
I’ll just explain this briefly over here. The word condition, has two meanings. One is, a state.
For example, say, I am so sick, that I am in no condition to travel right now. So, there condition refers to, Another meaning of condition, is a provision. A provision, that means, you will get this prize, provided conditions apply.
If this condition is fulfilled, then you will get this result. This particular sale or this particular prize. These two meanings of condition are different.
One is a state, and the other is a certain provision, which needs to be fulfilled, for something to take place. So, Krishna’s love is unconditional in the sense that, he loves everyone. Whatever be their condition.
Even if they love him, they don’t love him, he loves everyone. And he wants to do good for everyone. Now, what is conditional, is not Krishna’s love.
For us. What is conditional, is our experience of Krishna’s love. Or rather, our capacity, to experience Krishna’s love.
Just like, the sun gives light to everyone. But, depending, in that sense, the sun’s giving light is unconditional. Sun is giving light to sinful people, to pious people, wealthy people, poor people, sun is giving light to everyone.
But, if my eyes are closed, then I cannot see the sun. So, the sun’s giving light is unconditional, but my being able to benefit from the sun’s light, depends on my condition. The condition of my eyes.
If my eyes are closed, then I cannot perceive the sun’s light. Now, applying this to Krishna, Krishna is like the sun. So, Krishna’s love for us is unconditional.
Krishna loves us always. Now, our closing our eyes, is basically like, our directing our love, towards something other than Krishna. So, I am here, Krishna is here.
If my love is directed towards Krishna, then it is like my eyes are open, and I can benefit from the sun’s light. But, when my love is directed towards something else, then, my consciousness gets caught in that. And then, I evaluate Krishna’s love for me, largely, if not entirely, in terms of what happens in that thing.
So, if my love is for my career, if my love is for my dying balance, then, I will think that, if my career goes nicely, Krishna loves me. If my career is not going nicely, Krishna doesn’t love me. So, it is our experience of Krishna’s love that is conditional.
And that conditionality is based on where our love is directed. So, if our love is directed towards Krishna, then we will constantly experience Krishna’s love, irrespective of what we have materially, or what we don’t have materially. Of course, this is a very exalted state.
And there are Vaishnav songs which talk about this, you know. Sampadhe Vipadhe. Let there be prosperity, let there be adversity.
My dear lord, let me always chant your holy name. Let me always remember you. Narayana Parasarve Nakutashchana Vibhyate Svarga Pavarka Nargeshu Apitulya Artha Darshinah.
Those who are devoted to Narayana, for them, Svarga, Naraka, everything else is equal. Because they are fixed in Narayana. So, at present, our love is, yes, our love is partially directed towards Krishna, but our love is directed towards other things also.
So, it’s like, our eyes are partially open. To the extent our eyes are open, to that extent, we will be able to see that the sun is giving light. Similarly, to the extent we direct our love towards Krishna, to that extent, we will be able to perceive how much Krishna loves me.
So, now, ye dhamam prapadyante, what does this mean in this context? As all people surrender to me, I reciprocate accordingly. Does this mean Krishna’s love for us is unconditional? No. This simply means that Krishna intervenes in our life as much as we want him to.
That means, Krishna, of course, is always supreme and things happen according to ultimately his sanction. But, Krishna reciprocates according to our desires. This does not mean that he loves us, he always loves us.
But the extent to which he intervenes in our life, that will depend on how much we want him to intervene. When we say that Krishna doesn’t intervene, that doesn’t mean Krishna doesn’t protect. But, Vatsala Prabhupada used the example that, say, there is a mother and a child has done some mischief.
And the mother just a little beats the child. Don’t do such things. And suppose that same child is grown up, has become a young man, has become a criminal now.
And the police catch him and police beat him. Now, both the police beating and the mother’s beating, is both of the same purpose. But there is a big difference.
One is motivated primarily, both are for the benefit of that person only. Both are meant for reforming that person. But one is motivated primarily by love, the other is motivated primarily by law.
Both are for the benefit of the person only. But the motivation is different. The driving motivation is different.
So, like that, there are, whatever happens in anyone’s life, Krishna can bring good out of that. Even a person is a non-devotee or a person materialist, Krishna can orchestrate things in their life in such a way that Krishna can bring out good from them. So, but they are under the rule of law.
Whereas, devotees are under the rule of law. Now, this is a continuum. To the extent we surrender to Krishna, to that extent, we submit ourselves to Krishna’s rule of law, rather than the rule of law.
So, rather than worrying too much about whether Krishna will protect me or not, we should focus on whether I stay connected with Krishna or not. The ultimate protection that Krishna offers us is that we stay connected with him. If we stay connected with him, whatever problems may come in our life, still we will have inner strength, we will have inner peace and we will be able to move on in our life.
So, the nature of the mind is to always worry about that which is not in our control. And thereby, to not do that which is in our control. It’s like, suppose, you know, I am in a boat and water is coming in the boat.
Now, water is coming in from my side also and water is coming in from somebody else’s side also. So, now what I should be doing is, I try to throw the water out. And others will throw the water out from their side.
So, if I say, hey, water is coming in on your side, water is coming in on your side, water is coming in on your side, I keep shouting over there. Well, okay, I am not doing anything to remove that. I can’t go there, the water is so much.
But let me remove the water from my side. So, bhakti is a relationship with Krishna. And in this relationship, we shouldn’t worry too much about whether Krishna will do his part or not.
Because Krishna will do his part. We should focus on whether I am doing my part or not. So, don’t bother whether Krishna will protect or not.
Krishna will surely protect. And even if, you know, Krishna comes right in front of you and says, I am going to protect you. The next question, how? Because, you know, Krishna’s ways of protecting are not always the same.
They may not be exactly the same as how we expect the protection to come. And that we see Krishna protects in a very different way in… throughout the history. Now, if you see the Pandavas, they faced so many dangers and through each of those dangers, they became stronger.
Bhima was poisoned and after poisoning, Duryodhana poisoning him and threw him into a lake. And he went to Nagaloka and in Nagaloka, he was, he not only survived, but in Nagaloka, people gave him nectar. And by that nectar, he became so powerful that earlier, Bhima was slightly, had a slight upper edge above Duryodhana in terms of physical prowess.
So, Duryodhana tried to kill him and Bhima went and drank that celestial nectar from the Nagaloka. And when he came back, there was no match only physically between Duryodhana and Bhima. So, Bhima emerged stronger.
The Pandavas, they were burned, they were tried to be burned alive in Varanavarta. Pandavas had to go to the forest and live in the forest. But the result of that was eventually, they married Draupadi.
And then an alliance was formed between them. And by that, they became more powerful. Because that alliance was, at that time, the two main kingdoms, the Kuru kingdom and Panchala kingdom.
So, through each of the adversity the Pandavas went through, they actually emerged stronger. Things turned out negative at that time but eventually they turned out positive for them. So, rather than worrying too much about whether Krishna is going to protect me or not, we focus on, if I keep serving Krishna, if I do my part, Krishna will do his part.
So, let me just focus on doing my part. And leave Krishna’s part to him.