“Why is Krishna not helping me?” We may get such doubts in times of trouble.

Krishna always helps us. When we feel otherwise, that’s because our intelligence is finite. In contrast, Krishna’s benevolence is infinite, and so is not always comprehensible to us.

To help us understand Krishna’s help, we need his help, as he offers by sharing Gita wisdom. The Gita declares that we are not our bodies but are eternal souls. Our bodily misidentification is a disease and the material world is like a hospital. Just as a patient’s real life is outside the hospital, our real life is outside material existence – in Krishna’s eternal world of love.

The doctor’s best help is to reinstate the patient in his or her real life. Similarly, Krishna’s best help is to reinstate us in our eternal life. The Bhagavad-gita (14.02) declares that eternal life awaits those who seek shelter of its wisdom (idam jnanam upashritya).

When we seek the Gita’s shelter, we learn to see problems not as signs of Krishna’s neglect but as parts of his therapy. Problems come due to our past karmic misdeeds, but Krishna expertly integrates those problems into his treatment so that we grow spiritually through them. If we remember him, as the Gita repeatedly recommends, we experience inner peace even amidst outer trouble. This increases our realization of our spiritual identity, thereby accelerating our recovery from material misidentification.

Of course, Krishna often helps at the material level too, but in his time based on when it won’t interfere with our spiritual recovery just as a doctor gives painkillers when it doesn’t interfere with the treatment.

When we stop demanding Krishna’s help at the material level and strive to remember him irrespective of what happens materially, we realize that Krishna has never stopped helping us.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 Text 02

“By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain to the transcendental nature like My own. Thus established, one is not born at the time of creation or disturbed at the time of dissolution.”