Suppose while swimming in a river in one direction, we find ourselves swept away suddenly and dangerously in the opposite direction. Though we may panic initially, calming our thinking will help us reason that the water from a nearby dam may be rushing out. We may SOS the dam incharge requesting the closing of the dam so that we can swim to safety.
Analogously, in our inner world, we try to swim towards Krishna by directing our thoughts towards him. But sometimes our thoughts suddenly go away from him towards sensual or even sinful things. When the anti-devotional direction of our thoughts disturbs and discourages us, Gita wisdom can calm us.
The Bhagavad-gita (14.19) asserts that those who understand the doership of the modes and the transcendence of Krishna attain his spiritual nature. The currents of thoughts in our inner world are largely triggered by the modes. When our thoughts go away from Krishna, that’s usually due to the lower modes of passion and ignorance. Countering the modes by ourselves is difficult, if not impossible. But thankfully we don’t have to fight by ourselves. Krishna is eager to help us. And he is capable of helping us because he controls the modes just as the dam incharge controls the dam’s water-flow.
Earnest prayer is our SOS to Krishna. He responds to our prayer by decreasing the force of the modes, by increasing our capacity to resist their force and eventually by guiding us to the supreme safety of transcendence, beyond the jurisdiction of the modes.
So when our thoughts go away from Krishna involuntarily, instead of becoming disheartened, we can become determined to conscientiously and prayerfully take our thoughts towards him, and thereby witness his power and love in action to rescue us.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 Text 19
"When one properly sees that in all activities no other performer is at work than these modes of nature and he knows the Supreme Lord, who is transcendental to all these modes, he attains My spiritual nature."
Hare Krishna prabhuji,
As always, very beautifully explained.
What is the role of Prarabdha karma in devotion? The configuration of our three modes is in coherence with our prarabhda karma, so how does one conquer their prarabdha so that he or she can at least begin to think about Krishna? Is not our ability to pray determined by the configuration of the modes? Similar, is not the purity of our devotion and our devotional progress linked to our prarabhda and therefore to the guna configuration?
If this is not so, why is devotion interrupted by distractions? If we say it’s our freewill, then even the freewill is not free. The freewill is also under the influence of our gunas if we end up taking a wrong turn. And if it’s guru’s and krishna’s mercy, then that mercy shouldn’t let us fall down or fall away.
Sorry, i am a bit lost. Please do shed light on these questions and doubts.
Your posts and QnAs are very very useful in our devotional journey.
Danvat Pranam,
I have answered here:
http://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2013/10/is-our-capacity-to-practice-devotional-service-limited-by-our-prarabhda-karma-and-the-resulting-guna-configuration/
ys
ccdas
Hare Krsna Prabhuji
Good question posed above by a fellow ” part & parcel of Krishna”, am eager to read your reply.
I always enjoy and benefit from your nuggets of Gita Wisdom. Haribol!
Ys
prabhuji what is SOS means?
SOS means any call for help
SOS stands for save our soul, this is a short code sent to the rescue party by the affected party in a distress situation, since it is difficult to send long messages when physically stuck in a situation, short codes are used to send alerts for help, it would convey the message that the distressed party is seeking help and is in a helpless situation. I hope that helps.
Thank you pr for this article…,
Hare krishna Prabhu jI,
Dandvat Pranam,
Wonderufl article, revealing us the power of modes and love of Krishna.