The world sometimes afflicts us with reversals such as financial losses, relationship ruptures or devastating diagnoses. The resulting hurt may overwhelm and paralyze us.

At such times, we need more than anything else the solace of God. The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) underscores that those who become conscious of Krishna can cross over all obstacles by his grace. How does absorption in Krishna help in overcoming obstacles? By redirecting our thoughts.

Amidst problems, what often hurts us much more than the problem itself is our resentment of the problem. If we could just shift our focus from the problem to something more constructive, then our mental energy choked by resentment would become freed, and we could think calmly about what to do.

To help us redirect our thoughts, Gita wisdom provides both an intellectual framework and an experiential pathway. It explains coherently how we are at our core indestructible spiritual beings. We are eternal parts of God, Krishna, who loves us always, no matter what happens in this world.

And the Gita also delineates the process of yoga, especially bhakti-yoga, which enables us to raise our consciousness from the material level to the spiritual level and to experience both the indestructibility of our souls and the infallibility of Krishna’s love for us. We sense that he is with us, guiding us to not just go through the problems but to grow through them.

Even before we get these realizations, just turning our thoughts towards Krishna decreases much of the hurt. Focusing on Krishna fills us with serenity that equips us to respond to the outer misery with greater maturity – we get the strength to change the changeable and the sagacity to accept the unchangeable.

When we thus access Krishna’s power to heal, we go beyond the world’s power to hurt.

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