Suppose a reputed coach, who has helped many athletes excel, is eager to work with a budding athlete. That athlete would be profoundly grateful. But instead, if that athlete is uninterested, that would be foolish and self-sabotaging. 

Yet that’s what we often do. Here’s how. To do well in any field, we need inner mastery to tap whatever ability we have. Otherwise, we will be sabotaged by our own mind with its many wild cravings, feelings and false reasonings. 

For gaining inner mastery, the greatest coach is omniscient Krishna. If we mold our life according to his guidance, he helps us unleash our spiritual power to regulate our mind. Fortunately for us, Krishna is eager to work with us – so eager in fact that he always stays with us in our heart as the Supersoul. Yet we are often apathetic or even averse to him. And then we wonder why while pursuing our dreams, we often turn out to be our own worst enemies.

How turning to Krishna empowers is demonstrated at the start of the Bhagavad-gita. Though Krishna was with Arjuna on the same chariot, eager to work with him, Arjuna still became paralyzed by his mind’s muddled moralizing. But when he became ready to work with Krishna, after hearing Krishna’s guidance given through the Bhagavad-gita, he became empowered to win, as the Gita’s conclusion assures (18.78).

What applies to Arjuna applies to us too. In the chariot of our body, Krishna resides and awaits. If we turn devotionally toward him, he will guide us to manage our messy mind and act effectively. 

Thus, the Gita’s concluding assurance could be universalized as: whenever we become ready to take help from Krishna, who is ever-ready to help, our future will be bright.  

 

Think it over:

  • Has the lack of inner mastery ever sabotaged your ability?
  • How can turning to Krishna empower us?
  • What can you do to increase your readiness to work with Krishna? 

 

 ***

18.78 Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.

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