A devotee should not expect immediate relief from the reactions of his past misdeeds.

[Govindaram]

 

Chapter Ten

<font color="red"> Nectar of Devotion </font color>

Expecting the Lord's Mercy

 

 

In the Tenth Canto, Fourteenth Chapter, verse 8, it is said, "My dear Lord, any person who is constantly awaiting Your causeless mercy to be bestowed upon him, and who goes on suffering the resultant actions of his past misdeeds, offering You respectful obeisances from the core of his heart, is surely eligible to become liberated, for it has become his rightful claim."

 

This statement of Srimad-Bhagavatam should be the guide of all devotees. A devotee should not expect immediate relief from the reactions of his past misdeeds. No conditioned soul is free from such reactionary experiences, because material existence means continued suffering or enjoying of past activities. If one has finished his material activities then there is no more birth. This is possible only when one begins Krishna conscious activities, because such activities do not produce reaction. Therefore, as soon as one becomes perfect in Krishna conscious activities, he is not going to take birth again in this material world. A devotee who is not perfectly freed from the resultant actions should therefore continue to act in Krishna consciousness seriously, even though there may be so many impediments. When such impediments arise he should simply think of Krishna and expect His mercy. That is the only solace. If the devotee passes his days in that spirit, it is certain that he is going to be promoted to the abode of the Lord. By such activities, he earns his claim to enter into the kingdom of God. The exact word used in this verse is daya-bhak. Daya-bhak refers to a son's becoming the lawful inheritor of the property of the father. In a similar way, a pure devotee who is prepared to undergo all kinds of tribulations in executing Krishna conscious duties becomes lawfully qualified to enter into the transcendental abode.

[Guest guest]

So, many of us here will probably be around for a few more births to say the least.

[Openmind]

Yes, this is a very important point. Whenever I am seriously sick or troubled, I always wonder "How can Krishna let all this misery fall on me?". But then I realize it is my misdeeds that cause all the suffering. The difficulty about karma for me is that we never know why exactly we receive "punishment". It would be much easier to accept karma if we could find out what we did to get this reaction, dont you think?

[Govindaram]

 

Open Mind:

It would be much easier to accept karma if we could find out what we did to get this reaction, dont you think?

 

Would you really want to know?..all the stuff you/i did, in past lives, and what would that achieve?..the conclution you would come to is-i'd better get chanting!! to get free from karma. Though i wonder sometimes what good deed i must have done to get to have devotee accociation like here on this forum and elsewhere. haribol!

 

 

 

[ShegavichaRana]

Good or Bad, which results in some kind of reaction, results in Karma, unless the fruits of the actions are surrendered to the Lord. It has also been said that, a typical action of donating some money to someone, does not necessarily result in that person, giving us equal amount of money in the subsequent birth. As many factors like, your purpose (how pure/impure it was and so on.) and many factors come into picture. Unfortunately, most of us are engaged in all sorts of actions, for the whole of our lives, without ever realising their Sanchit Karma.