Why does Krishna make it so difficult for us to come to him?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, now, when we are trying to do so many things to serve Krishna, why does Krishna make it so difficult for us to come to him? It is not that Krishna who makes things difficult for us. It is that the nature of the material world is that doing anything constructive in this world is difficult. If we read the lives of anybody who has achieved anything valuable and worthwhile and special in their lives, if we read about, say, somebody who won an Olympic gold medal, somebody who became a millionaire, although they were a pauper earlier, anybody who has achieved anything special, they have to put in a lot of effort.
So, the nature of this world and the nature of the mind, both, are such that they will direct, they will obstruct us whenever we try to do anything focused. They will distract us internally, the mind will distract us internally, the world will obstruct us externally. This is just the nature of the world.
And the nature of the world applies also to when we try to practice Krishna Bhakti, because we are trying to practice Krishna Bhakti in this world. So, when we are doing good things and still things are difficult, that simply means that Krishna Bhakti is a glorious achievement and it requires a particular price to be paid. And in that sense, it is not exceptional.
If we consider, say, somebody wants to be a world wrestling champion, the kind of hard work they put in, it is a huge amount of hard work. So, that’s the first point that to be successful in any field, in a special way, we have to work very hard. Second point is that when it comes to Bhakti, if the purpose of the world is to take us to Krishna, then why are there so many obstacles in fulfilling the purpose of that world also? Actually, the obstacles are not created by Krishna.
The obstacles are meant for us to show Krishna that we are that serious about going back to Him. Say, for example, if somebody is a non-devotee, if they are just brought in a devotee association, and then everybody is chanting Krishna’s name, everybody is discussing Krishna Katha, they will feel so out of place, what am I doing over here? Because they have no interest in those things. Similarly, if somebody has not developed a deep interest in Krishna Katha, even if Krishna somehow takes them to the spiritual world, they will feel out of place over there.
What am I doing here? So, basically, when Sri Prabhupada was asked, if our purpose is to serve Krishna, why is Maya so strong? So, Prabhupada replied, that’s because your purpose is not strong. So, the obstacles in our path are simply ways that test the strength of our purpose. So, tests, many students may enroll for a course, but the tests separate the serious from the non-serious.
Similarly, many people may claim to practice spiritual life, but the tests are when those who are non-serious, they feel that it is too difficult, the price to pay is too much, and they give up. But the serious focus, they are willing to pay the price, and then they move forwards. So, basically, through the tests, our own desires get filtered out.
That means, if I am trying to serve Krishna and I face some difficulty, then it is basically a choice I have to make, do I choose my comfort zone or do I choose Krishna? So, basically, we could say, rather than seeing difficulties as difficulties, we can see them as challenges to come out of our comfort zone. And each time we choose Krishna, that means we are showing that that desire is not something which I want, and that way, through such consistent choices, we come to a point in our life when Krishna becomes our strongest desire. And when Krishna is our strongest desire, then we attain Krishna.
So, when we want Krishna more than this world, then Krishna takes us out of this world to Him. So, the tests are meant, the difficulties that we face in our spiritual life are meant to bring us to that point where we, through our actions, show Krishna that we want Him more than this world.