Understanding the Shelter of God's Putting
Śrīla Prabhupāda reveals the deep spiritual science behind the circumstances in which the Supreme Lord places the living entities. By studying his instructions, we can understand how distress acts as the Lord's merciful rectification, why He removes material opulence from His devotees, how He deals with the envious, and the perfection of surrendering to His divine arrangements.
Rectification Through Distress
Material logic views distress purely as a negative condition, but spiritual vision sees it entirely differently. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains that when the Supreme Lord puts a devotee into difficulty, it is a deliberate act of kindness meant to rectify the devotee and accelerate their return to Godhead.
- One who is pure devotee, he does not pray to God for any personal interest. Even if he is distressed, he says, "O Lord, it is Your kindness. You have put me in distress just to rectify me."
- The pure devotee, when he is distressed, says - Dear Lord, this is Your kindness. You have put me into distress just to rectify me. I should be put in much greater distress, but out of Your mercy You have minimized this.
- The devotee of the Lord never finds faults with the Lord. Although they may be put in uncomfortable situations even then they offer their gratitude to the Lord, that it is Your mercy. This is the outlook of a devotee of the Lord.
- Lord Krsna put the Pandavas into a distressed condition so acute that even grandfather Bhisma could not comprehend how such distress could occur.
Depriving Material Opulence
Wealth and power can easily distract the mind from spiritual realization. Śrīla Prabhupāda teaches that the Lord sometimes purposefully takes away a devotee's material opulence to crush their false pride and elevate them to a higher platform of eternal life, as seen in the case of Bali Mahārāja.
- When the Supreme Personality of Godhead deprives His devotee of material opulences, this does not mean that the Lord puts him into poverty; rather, the Lord promotes him to a higher position.
- The Lord never takes away material opulences achieved because of devotional service, although He sometimes takes away opulences achieved by pious activities. He does this to make a devotee prideless or put him in a better position in devotional service.
- Bali Maharaja could understand that the Lord had some hidden purpose in punishing him. Consequently he was neither unhappy nor ashamed because of the awkward position in which he had been put by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- Bali Maharaja said to God: daivena nitah prasabham tyajita-srih: "It is to bring me to the right platform of eternal life that You have put me into these circumstances."
The Punishment of the Envious
While the Lord's intervention for devotees is to save them, His reciprocation with atheists is different. Śrīla Prabhupāda points out that because envious persons stubbornly desire to forget God, the Supreme Lord puts them into darker states of existence where their illusion is compounded.
- Because they (those who are envious upon the Supreme Personality of Godhead) want to forget God, therefore God puts them into such condition that they will never be able to understand what is God. This is the version from Bhagavad-gita by the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
- God offers the conditioned soul a material body for his so-called enjoyment, but if one does not come to his senses and enter into spiritual consciousness, God again puts him in the unmanifested condition as it existed in the beginning of the creation.
- Mrtyuh sarva-haras caham (BG 10.34). When Krsna will come and put you death, what you will do, with you clapping and your bank balance? You'll be taken away.
- Every individual living entity is subject to the supreme control of the Paramatma, who puts everyone in different positions of the controller and the controlled.
Surrendering in All Circumstances
The hallmark of spiritual advancement is equanimity. Śrīla Prabhupāda assures us that whether we are put into positions of high opulence or deep distress, our only business is to remain completely satisfied with the Lord's arrangement and continue rendering loving service.
- We must be satisfied in whatever position we have been put into by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and we should try to engage ourselves in His devotional service. Then our lives will be successful.
- This material world is created by the Supreme Lord, but the Supreme Lord does not will that living entities be put in it. The living entities themselves make that decision.
- Why does He (God) put some into difficulty and not others? He is the supreme knower of the Vedic knowledge, and thus He is the factual Vedantist. At the same time He is the compiler of the Vedanta.
- Instead of worshiping the Lord, the living entity, as a parent of the Supreme, becomes an object of worship for the Supreme. At this stage the Lord depends on the mercy of His pure devotee and puts Himself under the control of the devotee to be raised.
Conclusion
Śrīla Prabhupāda beautifully resolves the apparent contradictions of material suffering by explaining the loving shelter found within the Supreme Lord's arrangements. When Śrī Kṛṣṇa puts His pure devotees into distressing or awkward situations, it is never an expression of anger or neglect; rather, it is a highly specialized form of mercy designed to swiftly rectify their consciousness and detach them from the false security of material opulence. A true Vaiṣṇava, therefore, never complains or finds fault with God, but gratefully accepts any difficulty as a minimized reaction to past deeds, engineered for their ultimate purification. In contrast, the Lord puts envious, atheistic souls into deeper darkness precisely because they desire to forget Him, allowing the laws of māyā to govern their fate. The perfection of life is to recognize that the Paramātmā is the supreme controller and to remain entirely satisfied in whatever condition He chooses to put us, using every circumstance as a unique opportunity to advance in unalloyed bhakti-yoga.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category God's Putting. We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.