Sometimes life’s challenges leave us confused. Devotee-seekers may face such confusion when deciding, say, which spiritual master to take initiation from or which ashram to choose. If we just keep worrying about what to do, living in our head, we often end up feeling more confused. This confusion eats away at our enthusiasm to practice bhakti and makes us succumb to the lower modes. And captivation by the mode of ignorance aggravates our confusion, thereby further slackening our devotional service and taking us away from Krishna.

To avoid such misfortune, we need to recognize that confusion can also be a temptation. Anything that takes us away from Krishna is a temptation. While lust, greed or anger are easily recognizable temptations, confusion which manifests the anartha of moha (illusion) is often a subtler temptation that takes us away from Krishna while making us feel that we are pondering how we can best go closer to him.

To see confusion as a temptation is not to deny that some situations are actually confusing – it is to deny the situation the power to erode our devotion. No matter how confusing the situation, we can always take some small clear steps towards Krishna by, say, chanting, praying or consulting devotee-guides as does Arjuna when dealing with confusion (02.06) in the Bhagavad-gita: he seeks illumination from Krishna (02.07).

When faced with confusion, we can strengthen, not slacken, our devotional service by diligently practicing a form of bhakti that we find illuminating such as, say, studying scripture. Thus we protect ourselves from the lower modes and rise to the mode of goodness that helps resolve confusion. Moreover, by our committed practice of bhakti, we please Krishna, who in due course of time guides us in his own inimitable way about how we can best come close to him.

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