Will devotional service free us from a painful disorder?

From: vignesh P
if one is suffering from serious disorder ,which is very painful ,at that time will our chanting and devotional service help us reduce pain

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
Hare Krishna. Question from Vignesh Pihu. If one is suffering from serious disorder, which is very painful at that time, will our chanting and devotional service free us from that pain? Answer, there are, there is an immediate cause, there is an intermediate cause and there is an ultimate cause for whatever problems we are having.
And we shouldn’t confuse all of these, conflate all of these into one. So, what do I mean by immediate, intermediate and ultimate cause? Say, for example, if there is some water on the ground and somebody slips and falls and gets a pain. So now, the immediate cause for that is the sprain, is the water that was spilled on the ground and then the fact that that person walked on the water.
So now, the immediate cause often requires an immediate solution. Now beyond that, so then what do I have to do? Okay, there is a sprain, I apply some ointment and then I of course clean the water and then dry the place and then make sure that again water is not spilled over there. So, the immediate solution is important to deal with the immediate problem also.
Then there is an intermediate cause. Intermediate cause is what? Actually, why was it that that water was spilled only at the time when, say, I was going through there? Why, it could have been some other time and somebody else could have walked there and slipped and after that if I came there, I would have realized, oh, that person slipped and fell, I should not walk here like this. So, why I and not somebody else? So, that intermediate cause is my own past karma.
So, by my past karma, actually it worked out that the water was spilled over there and then I slipped on it. Now, that past karma has already been done and its reaction is going to come to us. So now, Krishna Consciousness deals with the past karma also by two ways.
One is that at least it ensures that we don’t do any further bad karma now because we get higher knowledge and inner taste, both of which give us strength to avoid doing bad karma now. But along with that, whatever aprarabdha karma is there, that karma has not manifest, Krishna can by his mercy take that karma away also. Now, whether he will do that or not, that will depend on what is best for our spiritual evolution.
I’ll come back to this point later. But the third is the ultimate causes. The ultimate cause of our suffering is that we are forgetful of Krishna and we are entrapped in this miserable material world.
And the solution to that is cultivating Krishna Consciousness. So, by cultivating Krishna Consciousness, we will ultimately return back to Krishna and that is the atyantik tukh nivritti. That is the ultimate solution to all suffering.
So, now, certainly Krishna Consciousness will free us from all problems at the ultimate level. Nothing else can offer that solution to us. Only Krishna Consciousness can take us out of this arena of misery itself.
But while we are in this world, we work at various levels. So, now, Maharaj Pruthu, when the citizens came because there was famine in the kingdom and said, we are tormented by hunger. So, Pruthu Maharaj didn’t say at that time, oh, just chant Hare Krishna.
He made arrangements for providing food for them. That indicated that there is an immediate problem, there is an immediate solution that has to be worked out. He didn’t even talk about past karma.
He didn’t say that, oh, this world is a miserable place, chant Hare Krishna and get out of this world. He did not even say, it’s a past karma, just endure it now. He did his duty of tackling it at a practical level.
So, similarly, in the Vedic culture also, when there is disease, there is whole branch of medicine, branch of healing and treating called Ayurveda, which indicates that immediate problems do require immediate solutions. And those immediate solutions should be taken. So, we shouldn’t think, we shouldn’t conflate the two, conflate all these levels of causation.
So, the ultimate solution is not meant to act as a substitute for the immediate solution. So, Prabhupada is generally practical. Sometimes, at one time, the devotees tried to do the first Ratha Yatra in London.
At that time, they wanted, they took the same design, which had been used, same structure, which had been used for the Ratha Yatras in America. But then they decided to have a bigger Ratha structure, upper part of the Ratha and the tower especially. And then the wheels collapsed.
And the whole event became a fiasco, became a PR disaster. So, Guru Das Paro wrote to Prabhupada in a letter expressing his grief and he said, Prabhupada, was it because of our poor devotion that the Ratha collapsed? Prabhupada said, it is not pure poor devotion, it was poor engineering. So, that means, Prabhupada is saying, don’t go too much into hyper analysis of beyond, when there is an immediate cause, find the solution to the immediate cause and move onwards.
Our principle is we have to stay encouraged and enlivened in bhakti and keep moving forward in our bhakti. So, yes, some mistakes happen. Find out what caused the mistakes and correct them and move forward.
So, similarly, if we have some disorder, then we shouldn’t confuse the immediate cause with the ultimate cause. So, if say, if I got a disease, then I have to take the medicines for the disease. Now, when I take the medicines, normally speaking, many diseases, the routine diseases, you take the medicine and get cured.
Suppose if I am having a cough and I’m not able to chant, will the attempt, the struggle to chant help me to solve all my problems? No, if I have a cough, I have to take some medicine to cure the cough, then I’ll be able to chant better. So, we cannot expect the ultimate solution to replace the immediate. And neglecting the immediate in the name of the ultimate can very well be lack of intelligence and lack of responsibility.
So, we have to use our intelligence for taking the immediate solutions also. Now, there are some times when the immediate solutions may not work. So, for example, sometimes we get a disease and I’m not able to cure that disease at all.
So, we take the medicine. Sometimes what happens is the doctor is not able to diagnose the disease also. Why the problem is there? So, or the doctor is able to diagnose, but they’re not able to treat.
That means the medicines don’t work. So, at that time, we understand that actually this is a situation where I have to endure some karmic reaction. So, we know that there is karma and there is daiva and then there is phala.
So, there is an immediate cause and sometimes the immediate cause, if it doesn’t bring about an immediate solution, that means there is some other factor which is also working. And what do I do in such a situation? At one level, I tolerate. At another level, I keep trying to find out some other means by which I can cure.
So, we can go to other doctors. There’s no need to become pessimistic and there’s no need to just become dejected if the disorder is just going on. We have to try various treatments.
And we also understand that during the meanwhile, I have to endure some karmic reactions. And how do I endure it? There, I can take to Krishna Consciousness more intensely, more desperately. See, when we have a disorder, it causes problems, say, in our routine functioning.
But along with that, a bigger problem is the mind’s dejection, the mind’s irritation, the mind’s frustration. But if we can internally fix our mind on Krishna, to a large extent, that dejection, irritation, frustration, that gets decreased. And that enables us to deal with the external situation also much better.
So, therefore, if we are in a situation where the immediate solution is not working, then we can surely absorb ourselves in Krishna and thereby get the strength to tolerate the problematic situation. And in some cases, if nothing is working in terms of medicine, then if somebody wants to take the help of astrology or do some yajna or do some puja, it is not that the devotee authorities have to come in the way of such a devotee who wants to do that. We have to explain to that particular person who wants to do such a thing that I have answered a full question elaborately on whether devotees can do some yajna or dana or something like that, kalasarpa puja or any of those things like that.
That is a different issue. But principally here, the point is that as long as a particular person understands the difference between material and spiritual and deals with the, and knows that the spiritual, that even doing some puja or doing some yajna or having some sort of things like that, they are not an ultimate solution. They are not going to free us from the misery of material existence.
So, circumstantially, if something is required and some devotee takes it up, then it’s not the devotee authorities have to come in the way and make that a faith issue. Oh, you should have faith only in Krishna and Krishna will deal with it. You know, if that devotee has that faith, that question will not come up.
That devotee doesn’t have that faith. Just by demanding that faith is not going to come. We cannot legislate faith.
So, let the devotee practice Krishna consciousness in whatever way is best possible. And if that requires taking some help from some other sources in the intermediate, that is OK. So, we just shouldn’t confuse the intermediate with the ultimate.
And just because some sort of puja or something helped me, that means that now that is the only thing I need to do and there is no need for me to practice Krishna bhakti. So, now this is not to say that Krishna bhakti will never help us at the intermediate and the immediate level also. Actually, Krishna bhakti, how it can help us at the immediate level? At the immediate level, that is something which we have to create a devotional culture.
So, for example, if I am sick and I need some help, I am alone and I am sick. Then if there is a devotee community, other devotees from the community will come and help. So, for example, especially when a devotee is in the last days and passing away.
So, at that time, devotees will come and they will help at the last moment also. In fact, that is a care and a service that a devotee community should offer. And it is increasingly offering in various communities all over the world.
So, if there are doctors in the devotee community, then we may have a quicker access and a better relationship, greater trust in the devotee doctor than a non-devotee doctor. So, as far as immediate help is concerned, the devotee community needs to create support systems by which immediate support can also be offered. And that is also a part of the culture of service that is the essence of devotion.
So, that means that it’s not that if some devotee is suffering, then the devotee community and devotee leaders tell that Krishna will protect you. The devotee system and the devotee, the devotee culture and the devotee leaders have to create the systems by which they are offered help, by which they are offered protection. So, of course, ISKCON is right now a growing organization and it’s only 40 years old.
So, this sort of structures may not be there right now. And we shouldn’t, that’s why we shouldn’t make it a faith issue. If a devotee needs to take some other alternative measure, but at the same time, the philosophically one should be clear that at ultimate level, Krishna conscious only can solve problems.
At an intermediate level also, Krishna consciousness will remove most of my karmic reactions and Krishna will minimize whatever comes. And at an immediate level, Krishna can give me the inner strength to tolerate the pain that comes. But along with that, at an immediate level, I also have to take practical measures by which the immediate cause of the suffering can be removed.
And occasionally when required, if the immediate cause is not removed, then I may need to take some measures for removing the intermediate cause also. So, in this way, we are practical in our practice of devotion. At the same time, we don’t, in the name of practicality, neglect devotion to be something just to be done later and that devotion is not going to solve the problem.
So, let me solve all my other problems first and then I’ll practice devotion. No, in this world, all other problems will never be solved. So, at a particular level, we do particular measures to solve practical problems.
But at the same time, we keep practicing our devotion so that we can, we are progressing towards the ultimate solution and we are also developing internally, growing and learning and developing our inner metal by which when problems come, by the strength of our Krishna consciousness, we learn to tolerate and grow through them. Thank you.