Question: In one of your instructions posted under obstacles (choosing Krishna), you have very rightly warned as to how vigilant we must be in executing our devotional service. That which may look innocent at the beginning could soon turn into an attachment and a problem very difficult to manage later. But what does one do to rectify this if the situation has indeed gone out of hand? One might feel extremely repentant of the choice he made but now that choice has become an attachment. Will Krishna still accept and forgive and give him a chance to choose Him again?
Answer by Romapada Swami: Your question was in two parts. I will address them one by one.
(1) “But what does one do to rectify this if the situation has indeed gone out of hand?”
The answer to this question will depend very much on what the “situation” is that you are referring to. We can only give a broad general answer based on principles. However to tackle a situation that has ‘gone out of hand’, as you put it, may require more than just understanding broad principles.
You may need some close personal counseling on how to properly undo what has been done and make the best use of a bad bargain. Do you have any devotee in your life that you trust and feel safe with to reveal the details of something like this? If so, it maybe best to consult them personally and take some specific input on what steps to take and how to move forward.
In general for a practicing devotee, there is no separate method of atonement or rectification prescribed other than the resuming of one’s devotional service. When one recognizes the deviation from devotional service, a devotee generally regrets. This regret and repentance is deep and functions on a spiritual platform. It is healthy and necessary as long as it helps one to properly introspect how and why the deviation happened and induces one to take firm practical steps to prevent it again in the future (vs feeling guilty and getting stuck in prolonged lamentation, which is neither healthy nor helpful; it only pulls one more into mode of ignorance and inaction). The devotee recognizes the root of the deviation at the consciousness level that prompted the deviation in behavior, and sincerely prays to Krishna to give him/her the strength to overcome the tendency.
Once these two steps have sufficiently taken place, the devotee reinstates one’s devotional practices once again with doubled determination and in a humble mood of prayer and dependence on the Lord.
Devotional service is very potent and that alone is the best form of atonement/rectification. The scriptures explain that just like a man who falls down on the ground picks himself up by leaning and taking support from that very ground, similarly a practicing devotee who falls down also picks himself up with the help of the same devotional practices. Continue your devotional practices with sincerity and patience and in course of time you will attract Krishna’s mercy.
(2) “Will Krishna still accept and forgive and give him a chance to choose Him again?”
Vaishnavas describe Krishna as an ocean of mercy (“*he Krishna karuna sindho”)*. Just like the ocean, the Lord’s mercy and love for the living entity is unfathomable and limitless. The living entity rejects the service of the Lord and desires to enjoy independently. He falls into the material situation. The Lord still accompanies the living entity in every body that it takes and continues to give His mercy life after life! The Lord never abandons the living entity and He continues to give chances again and again so that the living entity may choose Him birth after birth. From the Lord’s side, the relationship is always there as His love is unconditional. The break in the relationship happens because we shut ourselves out. The real question for you to personally answer is “Are you ready to choose Krishna again, if you were given that chance?”
Seek the shelter of a pure devotee Vaishnava and through that medium you can experience the shelter of the Lord.
