When we get bad experiences repeatedly should we just entrust everything to Krishna?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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So, if we have had bad experiences in the past and we find that similar bad experiences are now going to come upon us, so should we just enter the control of those situations to Krishna or should we try to know something about ourselves? When I talk about interesting things to Krishna, I talk primarily about things which are not in our control.
In every situation, there is something which is in our control, something which is not in our control. When I first started giving classes, so we were given some public speaking guidelines and the last guideline was depend on Krishna. But in bracket was, but after you have prepared.
Depend on Krishna after you have prepared. If I don’t prepare for a class and I say depend on Krishna, that is not dependence. That is actually a responsibility.
Devotion means we do our best and then leave the rest to God. It is not that we leave everything to God and do nothing. Now in the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna was fighting for Krishna.
Arjuna trained lifelong as an archer. He didn’t say Krishna, you are God, you do everything. Why do I have to do anything? That is not the mood of a devotee.
So whenever we face some difficult situations, if we have faced them in the past, it’s not good to just lament about the past, resent the past. But it is valuable to learn from the past. The difference is that when we are just lamenting the past, the mind is in control, the mind takes us to this problem, that problem, that problem and at the end of it, we just feel exhausted.
But if we are in control, that means we, in Bhagavad Gita talks about the different modes of materialism, sattva guna, rajoguna, tamoguna, mode of goodness, mode of passion, mode of ignorance. So when we are in control, when we are calm, we are reflective, at that time we are in the mode of goodness and then we take our thoughts to the past. This is what happened, this is how I reacted.
This is how they reacted, this is how what happened. Maybe in this situation I could have done like this. Or maybe when they did like this, I could have done like this.
So we consciously, by thinking about it, in a calm, detached way, not in an emotionally agitated way, when we think about it, we can learn from the past. And that learning can make the present. And based on that, we can decide what is the best response for ourselves.
So certainly, there are situations where we can’t do anything. And at that time we just depend on Krishna entirely. But there are situations when dependence on Krishna is also expressed through action.
Sometimes when we talk about surrender to Krishna, one image that comes is of Draupadi. She just raises her hand up in helplessness. And she surrenders to Krishna.
And the Bhagavad Gita also concludes with surrender. Krishna says, Arjuna, surrender to me. In 18.66. And in 18.73, Arjuna says, yes.
I will do your Karishye Vachanamtau. So that means Arjuna surrenders to Krishna. But Arjuna’s surrender is not by raising his hands.
Arjuna surrenders by picking up his bow. The last verse of the Bhagavad Gita tells that Arjuna has picked up his bow. He is ready to fight.
So Arjuna’s surrender is not by helplessness. Krishna’s surrender is by readiness. So like that, again, I talked about sometimes we are serving, sometimes we are receiving.
So depending on our situation, when nothing is in our control, we surrender to Krishna. When something is in our control, we use our God-given intelligence to do our best in that situation. So by practicing Bhakti regularly, our intelligence becomes clear.
And then we can understand how to best respond in that situation. The whole point is we focus on that which is in our control. And we don’t let that which is out of our control disempower us from doing that which is in our control.
So that’s how we have both service and surrender as means of Bhakti. To do some service, you have to have some control. Otherwise, how can I do any service? At the same time, surrender means that which is not in my control, I surrender.
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