Pranathi, Dec 21 2011
Hare Krishna!
Dandavat pranams to all the devotees
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I got an email from one of my friends, who is new to ISKCON and she asked me a question. I was wondering if anyone could please help me write a reply to her.
“I have got a very crazy doubt. When some trouble happens we blame it on our fate. And when we come out of it safely we praise the Lord. But why does Krsna let trouble happen?”
Hare Krishna!
Regards,
Pranathi
Jagannatha dasa, Dec 22 2011
Hare Krishna Pranathi,
Thank you for this question.
Your friend has correctly noted that this material world is suffering. Srila Sanatana Gosvami asked Lord Caitanya, “Why am I suffering. Who am I?” These questions are glorious; your friend is to be commended for asking these questions, because inquiry into the absolute truth is the purpose of human life.
The spiritual world is Vaikuntha. Kuntha means anxiety, and Vaikuntha means without anxiety. In contrast, this material world is described in Bhagavad-gita as duhkhalayam, miserable, and asasvatam, temporary.
So the question is why? We were in the spiritual world where everyone is happy to serve the amorous pastimes of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. But we got envious that Krishna is the centre of everyone’s heart, and wanted everyone to focus their consciousness on us instead.
This material world is a product of Krishna’s illusory energy which lets us experience the illusion that my life is the most important thing. We came here to forget Krishna, now Krishna has given us the facility to forget (BG 15.15):
sarvasya caham hrdi sannivisto
mattah smrtir jnanam apohanam ca
vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo
vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham
“I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.”
In short, the answer is that if we want to remember Krishna, He lets us be happy in our natural position of devotional service to His lotus feet, by the divine grace of our spiritual master. If we want to forget God, then welcome to the material world, a world of hurt. Therefore the conclusion is that once we learn the science of Krishna consciousness, we will never come back to this world of hurt (BG 8.15):
mam upetya punar janma
duhkhalayam asasvatam
napnuvanti mahatmanah
samsiddhim paramam gatah
“After attaining Me, the great souls, who are yogis in devotion, never return to this temporary world, which is full of miseries, because they have attained the highest perfection.”
Does this make some sense?
Your servant,
-Jagannatha dasa
Mahabhagavat Das SDA, Dec 22 2011
Hare Krishna Pranathi Mataji,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Gurudeva.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your question is very nice.
Jagannatha Prabhu’s answer is a masterpiece as usual.
When you meet her in person, I would like to suggest one more approach to this question, which worked in my experience to provoke some thought on gratitude to Krishna, and get a discussion going.
Answer with a question:
Ask “Why is that very often, when some trouble happens, we blame it on Krishna, when we come out of it safely we praise our own prowess and expertise at solving problems, and we never see that Krishna helped us get out of it, and we never see that it may have been much worse than it was without His intervention?”
Sincerely,
Mahabhagavat Das
Das on the Street 