Question: Can you also please describe more on how to depend on Krishna? I will be very happy to take shelter of your instruction on this.
Answer by Romapada Swami:
In Digest 00127 it was already discussed how one can depend on Krishna and remain undisturbed in case of unexpected reversals and difficulties in life.
To summarize: we can practice taking shelter of Krishna beginning with tolerance & knowing the material world to be a place of suffering, having firm faith in Krishna’s protection, being grateful for the numerous blessings we do have rather than become overwhelmed by the difficulties and going further, seeing the difficulty itself as Krishna’s special blessing to help us come closer to Him in some way.
Further, by fixing the mind on the transcendental destination we want to achieve, it becomes easy to transcend the material situation. As discussed in the above answer, how did King Pariksit respond when given the notice that he would die in 7 days? How was he able to easily give up everything material, even his body, without difficulty of attachment? This was because he was confident of his ultimate destination and knowing the transcendental process by which to approach that transcendental destination.
Difficulties with health could sometimes prove more challenging, by affecting our ability to perform devotional service and other normal duties, but it is possible to overcome these obstacles with enthusiasm. The external modes of your routine functioning may have to be adjusted as needed, but internally you can prepare your consciousness to stay fixed on achieving the goal of life — nurture the desire to chant intensely, study scripture and so on, and with great enthusiasm look for opportunities to serve and please Guru and Krishna even slightly, within your ability at any given time.
When the mind is engaged in this way in thoughts of Krishna and enthusiastic devotional service, you may find your overall health itself improving – as physical health is affected by the disposition of the mind; and even otherwise the ability to transcend the body and take shelter of Krishna will steadily increase. Many devotees in our movement have demonstrated through their personal lives that it is possible to completely transcend the needs of the body – not by our own strength but definitely through the agency of descending mercy.
