Life is like a battle. Each day we have to overcome obstacles to achieve our goals.

Among these daily battles, the biggest battle is in ensuring that we give our best energy to fighting our biggest battle. Otherwise, irritation occurring in small battles can make us bungle in big battles.

A reckless driver cuts across our path during our drive to the office and disrupts our rhythm. The problem is small, but the resulting foul mood can mess our key presentation during a critical office meeting. Knowing this danger, we fight an inner battle to evict the small problem from our head.

Our ability to win these many battles in our head significantly determines our ability to win our bigger battles in life.

This principle also applies to our spiritual life. We are souls who have been suffering for many lifetimes in material existence. Finally now we have the opportunity to attain Krishna if we just practice devotional service and battle against our lower desires determinedly. This is our biggest battle, for the stakes are the biggest – eternal happiness if we win and many lifetimes of misery if we don’t. Comparatively, even the biggest battles of our material life are small battles.

But unfortunately, we let our focus in this biggest battle be sabotaged by irritation over small battles. This happens especially during our meditation time when small issues squat over an outrageously huge space in our head. Evicting such upstart thoughts uncompromisingly and untiringly is our biggest battle. The Bhagavad-gita (05.20) assures that those who refuse to be unduly disturbed by worldly ups and downs attain spiritual intelligence and existence.

If we thus battle to keep the biggest battle the biggest battle, we will duly attain life’s biggest victory – everlasting life with Krishna.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05 Text 20

“A person who neither rejoices upon achieving something pleasant nor laments upon obtaining something unpleasant, who is self-intelligent, who is unbewildered, and who knows the science of God is already situated in transcendence.”