Blessing In Disguise

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 31 January 2021, part 5

Question: One of my friends left his body in Mayapur recently. He was doing cow seva there, and he has left behind a wife and two small children. I find it hard to understand why Krishna has taken him away...

Krishna always tests us to see how much tolerance we will have in this situation. You can read the description of Sudam Vipra's life. Sudam is a pure devotee of the Lord, but how much austerity Krishna gave to him! You can see my example also. How much austerity Krishna gave me after Gurudev's disappearance: I am talking now to you here, but I was on deathbed in hospital—I almost died and the doctors did not have much hope because there was a very big haemorrhage in my brain and because I have diabetes I also had a severe neurological problem. It is too much! Do you see how much austerity Krishna has given me? I cannot tell everyone what kind of austerity Krishna has made me go through because of them. I am sitting now in Dum Dum Park, but at some point I did not have even one rupee on me to buy some food outside (let alone to cook)—they had taken everything from here. They had taken everything first from Nabadwip and the second time from here too. It is so much austerity, so much headache. How many court cases they have put against me! You will think that death is better than such life. Yet Krishna brought me back to life, and I understand why He did that—there is still some service to Gurudev due, for that Krishna gave me a new life. Krishna is like that. When Santosh Prabhu got into that car accident, he also left his wife and a young son here. They cannot understand what is Krishna consciousness, but now that they are struggling so much without Santosh Prabhu and they start thinking. To give you some idea, when Santosh Prabhu died, they did not even have food in their house.

There is also another example that Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur gives.

One time, two men went to bathe in a pond early in the morning. One man was going to the mangal arati, so he came to the pond to bathe before the arati, and the whole night before that (it was ekadasi) he had been chanting the Holy Name. On the way home from the pond, that man was suddenly bitten by a snake (the snake was not poisonous, so he did not die, but he was bitten). The other man went to the pond to bathe too and on the way back he found a small piece of gold. What kind of man was he? He had spent the whole night stealing—people slept, and he went house to house stealing. So, why did Krishna send austerity to the man who had been chanting the Holy Name the whole night, while the bad man (the thief) was rewarded with some gold? This question came to Yudhisthir Maharaj, and Yudhisthir Maharaj said that the man who had been bitten by the snake was supposed to die that day but because he had been chanting the Holy Name, he got only a little punishment, while the thief was supposed to become a billionaire that day, but instead he was very poor and only found some small piece of gold.

Then you can think about it—the man who did cow seva will get benefit, and his children and wife must practise Krishna consciousness now, they must think how to manage their life without him. They have to go through this austerity, and they must tolerate it. You can say this is a kind of an exam. Austerity will always come:

জীবন অনিত্য জানহ সার
তাহে নানাবিধ বিপদ-ভার ।
নামাশ্রয় করি' যতনে তুমি
থাকহ আপন কাজে ॥

jivana anitya janaha sara
tahe nana-vidha vipada-bhara
namasraya kari' yatane tumi
thakaha apana kaje

"Understand the essence: life is temporary and filled with all sorts of adversity. Carefully taking shelter of the Name, engage in your work."

(Gitavali, Arunodaya kirtan, 1.3, by Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur)

Krishna will give so much austerity, but 'sukhe duhkhe bhule na ko' (in happiness or distress, never forget the Lord)! When you are sad (when you are in a bad position or in hospital), you only think about Krishna, but when you are happy (when you are in good health), you do not remember Krishna, you do not pray to Krishna. So, Krishna always tests us in this way.

In another way, this is also some karma-phal. We think we have done something bad, some bad karma, and as a result of it we are suffering now. My father died, my husband died, etc.—that happens because we had done some bad karma.

Finally, you think now that you are husband and wife, you have two children, etc.—you had some connection with each other in this life, but in your previous births you were not husband and wife, you had no connection with each other. So, there is no need to show too much attachment for each other. You must try to understand all this.

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