Srila Prabhupada properly shows us here how to recognise God's help and guidance.
Sadly many do not understand how to properly pray and then positively deal with illness and sickness in the best way.
For example, some believe nothing else can heal your material body except only the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, without doing anything else to also try to help yourself with (see second story below), which is simply NOT true explained here -
In early February 1973 in Sydney Australia, Srila Prabhupada developed an infection on his finger from a paper cut while opening mail.
The infected finger got worse over a few days and eventually Prabhupada asked us to bring him a doctor who could give him penicillin.
We did this and a doctor came and gave him penicillin that healed his infected finger in a day.
However, one young "immature devotee" was confused. He saw that Prabhupada was always constantly chanting Hare Krishna, translating Srimad Bhagavatam's 3rd Canto and preaching to the devotees.
This devotee could not understand why Krishna did not personally protect His pure devotee.
So this young boy asked Prabhupada,
''You are always chanting Krishna's name, working late at night translating Sastra into English and preaching to the devotees, why didn't Krishna personally heal your finger that caused you so much discomfort?''
Srila Prabhupada smiled and answered the boy showing great faith in Lord Krishna,
''Oh yes Krishna was so kind He immediately helped me, it was Krishna who sent the doctor who gave me the penicillin that healed my finger''.
The lesson here is, it's not that Krishna has to personally appear and wave some magic wand and heal his pure devotee.
No, it does not work that way, the fact is Krishna wants us to do everything we can to help ourselves, then He will give us what we lack as Bhagavad Gita tells us.
''God helps those who helps themselves''
Also remember we chant and hear Hare Krishna so we do not forget Him even when the material body does break down and ceases to function (death)
Actually the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra is a constant petition to the Supreme Lord-
“O Krishna, O energy of Krishna, please ALWAYS engage me in Your service.”
The jiva soul ultimately has nothing to do with the material bodily vessel it is in as a passenger.
We (the jiva soul) chant Hare Krishna to remember Krishna always, including and especially while we are in the process of leaving this decaying material body (during death) that we only temporarily occupy while in the material world.
Therefore the temporary material bodily vessel is it NOT who we really are as a spiritual living entity.
The fact is, the real home of the individual jiva soul's spiritual bodily perpetual form, who we all are eternally, is in the Spiritual Planets of Vaikuntha and Goloka Vrindavana.
Understanding this is the secret of spiritual life.
Also do not be like the foolish man on the roof during a flood who sadly ignorantly prayed in the following sentimental way.
Once a man was stuck on his rooftop during a great flood and prayed to Krishna to be saved.
Soon a man in a rowboat came by and the man shouted to the man on the roof -
"Jump in, I can save you from this flood!"
The stranded man shouted back,
"No, it's OK, I'm praying to Krishna and He is going to save me."
So the rowboat went away.
Then a motorboat came by and the man in the motorboat shouted out,
"Jump in, I can save you, the flood is getting worse, I will save you from drowning."
To this the stranded man on the roof again declined the help and shouted back,
"No thanks, I'm praying to Krishna and He is going to save me personally, I have this faith my Lord."
So the motorboat went away too.
Then a helicopter came by and the pilot also shouted down,
"Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."
To this the stranded man again replied,
"No thanks, I'm praying to Krishna and He is going to save me, I have faith that Krishna will only personally come and save me."
So the helicopter reluctantly flew away as well.
Soon the water rose high above the rooftop and the man drowned.
After the man left his material bodily vessel due to its death, he was taken to Yamaraj the Lord of death and discussed his situation with Yamaraj.
The soul that was in that material vessel said to Yamaraj the Lord of death-
"I had faith in Krishna but He didn't save me, He let me drown, I don't understand why!"
To this Yamaraj replied,
"Krishna DID answer your prayers, He sent you a rowboat, a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect from Him? Krishna tried to help you but you were so foolish you could not see that it was Krishna who was trying to help you all along!".
So the conclusion is, it is not that Krishna has to personally appear to save His devotee, He can come in many different ways or send many different living entities and spiritual guides to help His devotees, as Prabhupada has clearly told us by his proper examples.
An example of ignorantly praying to God was recently in the news here in a country Town within a Western religious cult who did not believe in hospitals or doctors
Sadly, within their cult a young child was very sick and the leader of the cult called all the congregation to pray and chant around the boy to heal the child.
So this went on for a few days and other members of the cult came from other Towns to also pray around the child.
However, one member brought a friend along who just happened to be a doctor.
So eventually they arrived at the house and also started praying and chanting around the child, singing the glories of God to save the child.
Eventually after a few hours, the visitor, who just happened to be a doctor, noticed some symptoms from His training and took a closer look, the child was near death at this time.
To the doctor's surprise, his diagnosis determined the child's Appendix had burst and demanded they call an Ambulance.
The determined cult leader refused saying that only faith in prayer can heal the child and nothing else is needed.
The doctor strongly disagreed and called the Police who came and forcefully removed the child calling in an Ambulance to take the boy to Hospital.
Thankfully the child was saved from Appendicitis, and from the fanatical religious cult who did not believe that God can also work through others as an answer to prayer.
Furthermore, the leader of this religious sect was jailed for 5 years for serious child neglect.
True story.
Your servant Gauragopala dasa ACBSP
Comments