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Hare Krishna,

18th April, 2014, Gurgaon

For the past 10 days I am hooked on to listening again and again to another most enlightening lecture by HG Chaitanya Charan Das Prabhuji. In this particular lecture Prabhuji explains that verses 13.20-35, specially 13.22,  is the Bija Vakya of the Gitas last six chapters. ( Pl click here to listen to this lecture ). It’s a wonderful analogy and deep explanation but what caught my attention were the following words where Prabhuji explained what should be our consciousness when our desire for a particular service does not get materialised. Prabhuji is explaining verse 13.23 in the lecture

upadraṣṭānumantā ca bhartā bhoktā maheśvaraḥ

paramātmeti cāpy ukto dehe ‘smin puruṣaḥ paraḥ

TRANSLATION

Yet in this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.

Here is the specific part of the lecture transcribed for the pleasure of Lord and His devotees.

Sometimes when we try to do some services and services don’t work, may be we don’t get the device we desire or people do not cooperate with us.  Because services don’t work we also have to understand that ultimately it is Krishna who is the sanctioner. And Krishna as the sanctioner means what ?  That it is not that Krishna doesn’t want the service to succeed. But it is that Krishna wants something more than the service to succeed, Krishna wants our purification, our education , our reformation. So in spiritual life success is not necessarily very straight forward.

Sometimes we may succeed in a service but we become proud by that success and in the sense we fail in that service. Because we have become proud through that service we have gone away from Krishna. Although we have done some service for Krishna we have gone away from Krishna through that service because we have become proud and we have created a wall between us and Krishna.

On the other hand some other the times our services may fail, in the sense we don’t get the desired result but if that makes us more humble and dependent on Krishna then we have come closer to Krishna and we have succeeded in that.

That’s why when we say Krishna is the ‘anumanta’ we have to have faith that Krishna is always our well-wisher.

So in general when we have faith in Krishna it is easy to have half faith in Krishna. What is the meaning of half faith ? There is Krishna’s power and there is Krishna’s wisdom.  So what happens when want to do something and it doesn’t works out. We pray Krishna please let this be done, Krishna please let this happen. Then what is our idea then that my intelligence and Krishna’s power, that will make things happen. We have  faith that Krishna is most powerful and if Krishna wants He will make thing happen. But faith in Krishna is not just faith in Krishna’s power but also in His intelligence. So that means Krishna knows better than us what is best for us. So when we understand that Krishna knows better than us what is best for us and then if we want to do something for Krishna we pray to Krishna that Krishna I feel this is best for me and for my service and this is how I want to contribute to Your mission. And if You feel it is good for me then please let this happen and if not then please help accept whatever You want and help me understand it and grow from it. So, we often have faith in Krishna’s strength but not in Krishna’s intelligence. So when we have complete faith in Krishna then we have faith in both His strength and intelligence. So we pray to Krishna for what we feel is good for the service but we also are willing to accept whatever Krishna gives to us. This `anumanta’ part is very important, by this we understand that Krishna is ultimately my well-wisher.

Otherwise, often many people like to serve God but as advisers !!!  God You should do like this, God You should do like that ! ……….

The idea is that when we understand that Krishna is ‘anumanta’ then we understand that His intelligence is far greater than ours and when we understand that His intelligence is far greater than ours then we accept whatever He allows, whatever He lets happen in the world.

All glories to HG Chaitanya Charan Das Prabhuji.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.