We know that our employer is important to us. If they are dissatisfied with us, they could fire us and we might end up jobless, homeless, even foodless. Naturally, we try our best to satisfy them.
However, in the arrangement that provides for our needs, might there be someone similarly important — someone whom we are neglecting?
To explore, consider an infant drinking milk from a bottle. He may think that the bottle is the source of its food and may start crying if the bottle falls away. But his mother can and will arrange milk for him through some other bottle. Understanding this, an older child focuses more on the mother than the bottle.
Similarly, when our consciousness is under-evolved and we are in our spiritual infancy, we consider our employer the provider of our needs. But as our consciousness evolves, we start sensing that our employer is a medium through which some higher reality is acting and providing. After all, if there were no air, no sunlight, no rain, what could any employer do to provide for our needs? Nothing. All the fundamentals of existence are arranged by God, as indicated by the Bhagavad-gita (09.18). It is God who is presently providing for us by using our employer as a medium — if one medium doesn’t work, he can and will provide for us through some other medium. Indeed, he is the provider not only for us, but also for our employer.
God is our ultimate provider: what does this holistic understanding imply practically? Does it mean that we neglect or devalue our employer? No, not at all; we offer them all due deference and diligence — we just don’t overvalue them or make them our life’s center. And more importantly, knowing God as our provider means that we no longer neglect him, but try to satisfy him by practicing bhakti-yoga, wherein we offer him our service externally and our heart internally.
One-sentence summary:
Whoever is our employer, God remains our provider — just as we earnestly try to satisfy our boss through our work, try earnestly to satisfy God through our bhakti.
Think it over:
- How does under-evolved consciousness affect our vision of who provides for us?
- What thoughts can help us see more holistically who our provider is?
- What is the practical implication of this holistic vision?
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09.18: I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.
To know more about this verse, please click on the image
Hare Krishna CC Prabhu,
Dandavat Pranaam!
GOD provides a living to all