When people hurt us, we often want to get back at them, hurt them the way they have hurt us. When things go wrong in life, we may want to get back at life’s supreme controller, God, by resenting or blaspheming him.
But attacking God is like spitting at the sky – it is the disfigurer who ends up getting disfigured. Resenters and blasphemers find themselves deprived of God’s enlightening wisdom and empowering grace, thereby becoming more vulnerable to the mind’s trivial tantrums and petty passions.
That’s why when life hurts us, instead of getting back at God, it’s far more intelligent to get God back – to reconnect with him through wisdom and devotion. This is illustrated in the narrative of the Bhagavad-gita.
At the Gita’s start, Arjuna faced a heart-wrenching crisis: he had to fight and slay his venerable elders such as his grandfather and his martial teacher. Prior to this traumatic war, he and his family had been victimized repeatedly by the relentless machinations of his evil cousins. Considering how atrocious his past sufferings were and how agonizing his present predicament was, he could have blamed God for the unfairness of life.
But instead of trying to vindictively get back at God, he sought to get God back by turning to him for counsel. Soon Krishna’s words of wisdom illumined him. And his confusion dissipated and his determination returned, as the Gita (18.73) reveals. His renewed resolve to serve reinstalled Krishna back in his heart, and life’s supreme success followed.
Krishna is present in our heart, at the helm of the chariot of our body. Just as he empowered Arjuna, he wants to empower us too. He is just waiting for us to get him back into our consciousness. Why should we keep him waiting any more?
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