Create space to be together with Krsna

As devotees, we have to be careful. The new year will bring a lot of busyness into our lives, like the years before. Have you noticed that life isn’t becoming more peaceful and less busy, it seems to get faster and faster? We live in a very fast-paced society. Maybe this is the heavy price we have to pay in Kali-yuga: being more and more dedicated to activity on the outside. And we miss Krsna. We surround ourselves with people and projects and lack the direct feeling of Krsna’s presence. But without Krsna, our life is like a meal without salt, tasteless. It’s not even life, it’s like a dead body without a soul!

We need to make plans on how to be closer to Krsna, and I’m thinking of simple things we can do. My tip to you is, don’t make big new year’s resolutions, form one specific resolution and all good things will come from it: create space in your life to be together with Krsna.

In the 10th canto of the Bhagavatam Krsna explains how he can be met: by hearing about Him, by singing His glories (like in kirtana), by worshiping His deity form, and by remembering Him. This is how you can meet Krsna in this life. If you have Krsna, you have a place in life from which you can develop inner strength; the salt is in your meal; the soul is in your body.

Do you know that most of our problems arise because we are not in contact with ourselves and Krsna? We have become so externally busy that when we stop and ask ourselves, “Where am I in all of this?”, we have to conclude, “I’m really not into it, I just do this because I have to.”

This problem can be solved, by pausing and focusing on that place in the heart where you and Krsna are present. It’s that simple.

Go into alone time with Krsna. Be together with Him. This will create space in your crowded life. In fact, being connected with Krsna and yourself can create so much space that unnecessary and unhelpful things will be moved to the side and fall off from the table of your life so to say. This is something you need to learn, and the association of devotees is very helpful for that. Consider this famous Bhagavatam verse (11.3.30):

“One should learn how to associate with the devotees of the Lord by gathering with them to chant the glories of the Lord. This process is most purifying. As devotees thus develop their loving friendship, they feel mutual happiness and satisfaction. And by thus encouraging one another they are able to give up material sense gratification, which is the cause of all suffering.”

How to deal with difficulties

We all experience difficulties, that is part of material life. It is important to change your perspective when you go through difficulties. Instead of being afraid and overwhelmed and feeling helpless, ask yourself what you can learn from it and how you can find creative solutions. Don’t become overwhelmed and passive. Persist in your spiritual life, move on, learn what you have to learn and become satisfied.

My way of dealing with great difficulties is to turn to Krsna and say, “My dear Lord, I’m at the end of the rope, I don’t know what to do, please help, give happiness into the heart of the people who are not satisfied.” I have this simple faith in Krsna. He is like a father to me, so when there’s a problem, I go to Him. Also there’s this wonderful recommendation from Srila Prabhupada on how to deal with difficulties in the Nectar of Devotion (page 91):

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 Krsna conscious activities, because such activities do not produce reaction. Therefore, as soon as one becomes perfect in Krsna 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 Krsna consciousness seriously, even though there may be so many impediments. When such impediments arise he should simply think of Krsna 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 Krsna conscious duties becomes lawfully qualified to enter into the transcendental abode.

Question: How can we deal with bad choices we’ve made in the past?

Answer: My dear devotees, don’t become disturbed by what has happened. Understand that you couldn’t make a better choice at the time. See it as a learning experience. It’s good to come to peace with our past. If we always lament, “Oh, I made a bad decision last year or 15 years ago.”, we won’t move on.

One of the ways Krsna is merciful to us is by giving us certain experiences. These experiences are all necessary, also the ones that follow bad decisions. Come to peace with your experiences, even the difficult ones. They help you learn better ways to move on in the future.

Once there was an enlightened soul. He lived on a mountain and three people searching for the truth came to him. The first person asked, “Mahapurusa, Mahatma Ji, how can we become enlightened?”
He answered, “Good choices.”
The second person said, “How can we make good choices?”
The mahatma said, “Experience.”
Then the third asked, “And how can we get the experiences that will help us make good choices?”
The mahatma replied, “Bad choices.”

The Caitanya-caritamrta teaches us: there is no good and bad in this world, in some sense it’s all material, it’s not spiritual. But whatever happens here, learn from it, to get better at the choices you make.

Sometimes we can’t make the best choices, we haven’t matured yet, it’s not yet our time. We still have to go through the class room of God. The point of bhakti is: whatever your life is, create space for Krsna. From creating this space, from entering the space where you are and where Krsna is, you will eventually make the best choices. In all your happiness and distress in the material world, you will become enlightened in Krsna consciousness.

From a lecture by Sacinandana Swami on January 1st, 2023, in Goloka Dhama, Germany.

Srila Prabhupada

“By nature’s own way, our activities are to be gradually diverted to devotional service.”

(Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.22.33, purport)