The problem is not really the storms. We know they will come sooner or later. The problem is the shelter.
We are all blasted at some point – hit hard by inevitable pain due to loss or damage. Sometimes it’s a huge nature storm that will take our house away or an emotional storm due to loss and broken-heartedness. It could be a disaster that forces big changes in our lives that is totally our doing and we saw it coming, or something that seemed to come ‘out of the blue’. And don’t think that just because we are living godly lives that we are storm-free. Nope. Devotees of Krishna get big storms like everyone else.
When we get hit we may ask – why me? Where did this come from? What did I do to deserve this? The source of the storm doesn’t really matter at that moment. When it rains hard we have to find shelter. Where do we go?
The story of Krishna lifting the great mountain of Govardhan is a story of shelter. A huge tsunami of a rain storm hit the village of Vrindavan where Krishna lives and everything was chaos. At one point Krishna lifted the mountain and told everyone to come under the ‘umbrella’. People and animals ran under even though Krishna was balancing this huge mountain on his hand. They loved and trusted Him. Trust is the key word. He offered shelter, they accepted and were safe.
The story calls us to take shelter of Krishna and gives us confidence to do so. If we hold onto Krishna during our storms we will be able to make it through it. He will help us. Why is it sometimes not easy to do that? It demands trust and vulnerability. Trusting that even when things are really bad, the bigger picture is really good, and if we hold on to Krishna He will hold on to us.
“Just surrender to me,” Krishna says in the Gita. “I will protect you. Do not fear.” We tend to cringe at the word “surrender”. Switch that word out for “trust”, or “lean on me”, or “call out my name”. Surrender means, I can’t do it on my own anymore. I need your help. Maybe that’s the hardest thing for us to say to God. The very person who can help us the most and we can’t get past our ego.
One reason we can’t ask is because we have already blamed God for the storm. We love and serve you, we think, so why are you giving me this lousy situation? Do we think God’s favorite thing to do is sit on high dishing out miseries? Do we ask ourselves, why doesn’t he intervene when things are really bad? He doesn’t. We have our independence and He doesn’t mess with that. Otherwise there is no space for voluntary love and He is not interested in being that kind of controller. If we don’t want Him in, he is not going to push himself on us. But if we do want Him in, He does help. If we open that door we will see that, and feel it.
Storms don’t last forever. They too will pass. Often taking shelter is being able to stand under his “umbrella”, even if we can’t understand everything. To accept…and be…and wait. When we do that, when we can feel that vulnerability, we will begin to feel the presence and loving touch of Krishna everywhere.
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