You have gone through a lot of pain in your life – what is your realization?

Anwser Podcast

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Well, I can’t say that there is any one realization. And I can’t even say really that it is a realization.
Because, every time that I think I have a realization, soon Krishna gives me the realization that I don’t really have that realization. I think I have realized something, and the next time the problem comes, I realize I have not realized it actually. So, life is, we cannot really say that we have realized, but we can all learn something through whatever we have gone through.
And, I feel, three main things, that first is, that when things go wrong, at that time, to try to figure them out is just too messy. Don’t try to figure it out. Get out.
Get out means, not that we run away from the problem, but get our consciousness out of that problem. Because if you’re just too caught in it, then it just doesn’t work. You know, since my childhood, I had polio in my left leg.
And in 2011, I had gone to the Juhu temple, once for doing some programs. And morning, I was chanting in the temple hall. And there, somebody had spilled some water.
Just slipped on that, and just fell down very badly. So, it was a small fall, but because my leg was already very weak, I had osteoporosis. So, it was literally, the thigh came out of the leg.
It was a very bad fracture. And then, so at that time, it was so painful. And I just, it was in the morning, temple hall.
So, after that, it happened, one of my atheist friends, he wrote a letter to me. He says, your God could not protect you in His own temple when you were chanting His name. So, why are you worshipping such a God? Do you still believe in God? So, yeah, so then, there’s an article on my website also.
Do you still believe in God? That’s the title of the article. So, I explained, yes. Rather than seeing that God is not the cause of everything.
He has given people free will, and people misuse their free will, bad things happen. It is not that Krishna caused that water to spill over there. Somebody was careless and they spilled the water over there.
Krishna allowed it to happen. Now, why He allowed it to happen? I don’t know that. But, even at that time, I was sleeping and I had fallen.
And, it was so painful. Somehow, you know, I love the Bhagavad Gita. I love Bhagavad Gita verses.
So, I just started reciting the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita at that time. It was almost as if, like, I was lifted out of my body. Body was painful, but I just stopped feeling that pain.
It was not that, and as soon as I stopped chanting the Gita, all the pain came back. So, it was not that, I was chanting the Gita out of devotion. I was chanting the Gita for simply protection.
But, from that time, almost in 3-4 hours, I was taken to a hospital and then we did x-ray and the surgery was done. Just continuously chanting the Gita. And even, till now, every Gita Jayanti, we recite Gita verses.
But on no Gita Jayanti have I chanted with so much absorption, as I chanted on that day. So, it was, I got a very strong experience that by the remembrance of Krishna, we can actually rise above suffering. So, I felt that was a big gain for me.
So, suffering will come to everyone in life. Ultimately, we have to live life the way life occurs. I faced a fracture, somebody else will face something else.
Everybody will get suffering, in some way or the other. So, how can we best deal with suffering? So, God is not the cause of our suffering. He is the cure for our suffering.
So, sometimes the cause, it is just impossible to find it out. But from Shastra, we know that Krishna is not a cruel God. Krishna loves us.
So, He is not causing our suffering. He is the cure for our suffering. And if we turn towards Him amidst our suffering, we take shelter of Him, we do get relief.
So, after I was in the hospital, the doctor told me that, this was 2011, that you cannot travel anymore. At that time, I was travelling quite a bit in India, especially to do with preaching. He said, you cannot travel anymore.
I was thinking, what will I do then? So, at that time, I was in the hospital for 2-3 months. So, once I was giving, on Skype, a class to some devotees. It was called audio class.
I was speaking about the six opulences of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And I was lost. I just closed my eyes and started getting absorbed in speaking.
And I kept speaking for 15 minutes. And I just opened my eyes, and I saw the Skype connection had gone off. And I saw on my phone, I had to keep the phone silent, because I was giving a class.
I saw that almost 15 missed calls had come. And for a moment, I just felt irritated. That, what is this? I was just wasted my time speaking so long.
But then it struck me, actually, while I was speaking about Krishna, I was so happy. I was so absorbed. I was blissful.
So, then it registered on me that for speaking about Krishna, I don’t need an audience. Even without an audience, also I can speak about Krishna. And that’s how I got this whole idea of doing online preaching.
I started asking questions. Then I started doing online recorded courses. So, otherwise, for many devotees, they feel that just to speak through a camera, how can I speak? I need somebody or an audience to speak.
But somehow I got that experience. And then a whole new vista for outreach opened for me. So, I feel that if we just maintain that desire to serve Krishna, then even when like one door closes bang in our face in our life, some other door will open somewhere.
But often what happens is we are so angrily glaring and staring at that closed door as if by staring and glaring at it, it will burn down. But that is not going to happen. That door is closed.
It’s closed now. So, we accept that it is closed and we open ourselves to Krishna. We find that Krishna opens some other door.
Not just another door, it’s a better door. So, if we just keep practicing bhakti, then we will not always understand why things happen the way they do. But eventually we see that Krishna can bring good out of it.
So, it is not that everything that happens is good. But everything that happens can be for good. Some things are really bad.
They happen and they are bad things. The loved one passes away or some other things like that happen. Somebody gets a terrible disease.
It’s bad. But Krishna is so expert that he can bring good out of the bad also. But he can bring the good out of bad only if we cooperate.
If we choke ourselves with resentment and frustration and negativity, then Krishna cannot bring the good out of it. So, we have to try to be as devotional as possible. And even if bad things happen, Krishna will bring good out of it.
That’s my small experience which I dare not call a realization because we all have to keep realizing it again and again to remember it.