Inquiries into the Absolute: Digest 70

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Digest 70, September 11th, 2003

Answers by His Holiness Romapada Swami Maharaja

*** You are welcome to send in your questions to HH Romapada Swami at

iskcon_dc with the word "Question" in the subject. The previous

digests are available at:

http://iskcondc.prastha.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/renderphilo.pl?ndx=132

 

Testing by Krishna, Free Will, Predestination

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Testing by Krishna

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Q1:

I have come to understand that in engaging oneself in spiritual life, one

has to undergo a whole process of testing. This happens because Krishna is

testing the devotee if he is ready for the spiritual world or not. What if

one is scared of engaging oneself in spiritual life because of the fear

that one will undergo an extreme testing phase? How would you encourage

such a person to not lose hope and continue engaging oneself in spiritual

life?

 

Answer:

 

Krishna is the most expert teacher and would never give His devotee a

test that he/she cannot pass! In other words, He knows our strengths and

weaknesses, what exactly we need in order to take the next step in our

journey towards Him and when we are ready to be tested and purified.

Accordingly, when He sees that a sincere devotee is really eager to come

to Him, yet at the same time is distracted by or struggling to give up

some material attachment, He arranges for their purification in a variety

of ways, sometimes through some ordeal.

We should not imagine the Lord to be a hard taskmaster who ensures that

only those strong enough to withstand the most excruciating ordeals are

allowed entry to the spiritual world. Rather the seeming 'tests and

ordeals' are actually an exhibition of His great love for His devotees,

meant to make them exclusively attached to Him, by way of their letting

go of other, false shelters. All that the devotee has to do, when such

circumstances arise, is to make a simple but bold and firm choice, "I

want only Krishna as my shelter, in all circumstances"; then Krishna

Himself will give all the requisite strength and knowledge required, by

which we can overcome the circumstantial tests and quickly come to His

lotus feet. Krishna simply wants our love. When He sees an unflinching

mood of loving service and willingness to surrender even in the face of

adversities, then just as He promises in Bhagavad-Gita, He preserves what

we have and carries what we lack. (See Bg 9.22)

 

When a devotee understands this aspect of Krishna's `tests', the prospect

of being subject to purification and tests is no longer intimidating, not

in the least! Rather, such circumstances are preceived and an act of

special kindness coming from Krishna, a welcoming invitation or an

graciously-offered opportunity to come closer to Him. The devotee comes

to appreciate that the so-called difficulty is actually a blessing

extended by Krishna, to bring His devotee closer to the very goal they

actually desire, i.e. attachment to Krishna. Immediate circumstances

may seem to be painful; but the devotee experiences great happiness in

recognizing that the Lord has been so kind as to not disqualify them

from receiving His mercy, and instead is actively removing particular

anarthas or obstacles from their path.

 

Please consider: does material life, a denial of God's existence and His

merciful nature, in any way offer us a promising alternative? Fear of

the tests of spiritual life may encourage us to shy away from it, but

one needs only closely examine the alternative to be convinced which

path of action is superior. For example, is there any guarantee that

there would be no reverses or extreme hardships in this world, sans

spiritual shelter? Very much to the contrary, this material world is

declared as a place of misery - where there is danger at every step.

Everyone in this material world is always in anxiety, always at risk

of so many calamities, culminating in the sufferings of birth and death,

repeatedly. What shelter do we have in the face of these calamities?

On the other hand, Krishna promises that those who surrender to Him are

NEVER vanquished, that all their sins are destroyed, that even a little

endeavor in this path saves one from greatest danger of gliding down to

lower life and so many comforting reassurances. (Cf. Bg 9.31, 18.66, 2.40,

6.40-41) So there is every reason to take to the process of devotional

service in all enthusiasm and earnestness. An easygoing life is not

expected for one trying to attain spiritual perfection. Yet, while

material nature inevitably afflicts everyone with hardships that simply

entangle us in further misery, austerities faced in Krishna's service,

while filling us with a sense of the Lord's infallible protection even

now, ultimately open the doors to Vaikuntha.

 

Free will and predestination

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Q2:

I have been struggling for some time with questions such as: Is

everything pre-determined? Do we have to accept that everything is

pre-determined and occupy ourselves with devotional service while still

performing our duties? Or do we have to strive toward a goal (even if

that means being competitive) while still performing devotional service?

 

Answer:

 

We have extensively discussed karma and freewill previously (See Digest 4)

which may partly answer your questions. If I understand correctly, it

seems that your question focuses on whether or not someone performing

devotional service should strive to achieve something in the field of

their occupational duties, or in some specific way strive to improve

their present life situation.

 

Devotees also have goals and aspirations that they strive towards, but

their impetus is simply to please Krishna and increase their devotion, and

not the achievement of any material objective in itself.

 

In the course of trying to cultivate our Krishna consciousness and

steadily progress towards the spiritual plane, we are advised to carefully

perform our prescribed occupational duties, and so we do. In the course of

executing duties there may be standards to achieve and milestones to be

reached. Our acharyas recommend that devotees should live very simply,

but whatever is needed to perform one's duties nicely, one should strive

according to their best capacity and to dedicate such endeavors and all

facilities provided for that service fully unto Krishna. While working

industriously the devotee also knows fully well that the result of one's

endeavors is in Krishna's hands, not merely a product of their personal

efforts.

 

Finally, there is a clear connection between devotionally-based endeavors

and the notion of predestination.

 

As concluded in previous Digest discussions, our past actions "pre-

determine" our present circumstances in life, but they do not

pre-determine what we choose to do now. Our present choices determine our

future. What we choose to do now can be executed on the material plane

(deliberately or mindlessly, impelled by past conditioning), yielding

temporary material results; or our present choices can be enacted on the

spiritual plane, thus lifting us completely out of the cycle of karma. In

other words, a devotee is not so directly interested in changing their

karmic destiny nor overly concerned with improving their material

circumstances per se, simply for sake of material welfare; however they

are keenly interested in cultivating their relationship with Krishna. The

devotee is contented to base their spiritual endeavors upon whatever

position or within whatever circumstance of life they find themselves. In

turn, Krishna takes charge of such a surrendered devotee, and their life

is orchestrated by Krishna, and not karma.

 

 

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----- Festivals over the next week ------

Sep 17 2003, Wednesday Srila Prabhupada's arrival in the USA

 

*** NOTE: All times are for Washington D.C, USA, EST ***

For festival information for your city please go to http://www.iskcondc.org and

click on 'Calendar'

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