Narasimha Chaturdashi 2025 Does God care when we are suffering? Philadelphia – Chaitanya Charan

Today on the sacred of teaching, I will speak on the topic of Krishna’s or God’s love for us and our love for us. Specifically, I talk about the topic of, does God care? There are so many things that go wrong in the world. So many things go wrong in our own lives. And when such things happen, it’s natural to get this question.

That even if we accept that godliness, does god care? And oh, lord. He is god in whatever manifestations, conceptions of god are there across the world. For god Nasimuddin, they are one of the happiest manifestations. So the lord, his anger is actually a demonstration that he cares.

So, generally, we get angry about things that we care about. And his his very anger at every form that is manifesting on the Bible, that indicates that he cares, and he cares deeply. So the Lord in his form of Nasimadev is half man. He’s half loyal. He’s half man, half loyal, and full God.

He’s fully manifesting divinity, especially in the divine manner, matter of divine power and divine, specifically, anger. So I recently written a small book on the Bhagavad Gita. It is praise inspired word. Can all of you see this? Yes.

So we will read something from this book and how it relates to the theme of how the lord cares and what does it mean. So basically, in this book, I have taken verses from the Bhagavad Gita and we use them as inspirations for offering prayers to the lord. The Gita is not just a source of wisdom. The Gita is not different from Krishna. The Gita’s verses are like mantras.

They are also like Krishna. So you can offer prayers inspired by those verses. So I’ll take one such one such verse, and then we talk about the Lord’s so basically, in this book, there’s one beautiful picture of deity of Krishna on each page. Then there is one prayer which is like a spiritual or emotional affirmation. Then there’s the Gita words, and then the translation of the Gita words in a poetic form, so that you can feel a more emotional connect with Krishna and with the words of the Gita.

After all, the Gita is a song. But sometimes the philosophy of the Gita, we may forget it’s a song. And then there is a prayer offered based on that. So I will talk about this. So let’s so I’ll read something out.

Do we have a second mic for any chance? Second mic for people to ask your reader or facilitate it. I’ll need to set one up with you. No. It’s okay.

No. It’s okay. So anyway so you can repeat after me. You just repeat. My dear lord My dear lord.

Let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith, not weaken it, This is the context of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna is just beginning to speak to Arjuna. Krishna starts speaking from 2.11. This is 2.1. So those of you comfort with Sanskrit can decide the words after me.

The Lord of the senses spoke with a gentle grace. A doming smile playing upon his divine face. Between the eyes, standing calm and bright, he so laced Arjuna was blending his bride. So this is Krishna and Arjuna in the battlefield. And the key point in this verse is that the contrast.

Arjuna is crying. Arjuna is tears. And Krishna is smiling. The different, people are born in your own families unless they have different reason. What what is the reason?

This is, I have so many problems in my life. Whenever I go to temple, Krishna is smiling all the time. So, yes, it can appear that we are facing so many challenges in life. And does Krishna care? Now we may have some challenges.

If you look at the story of Prahlad and Nasim, Prahlad faced far more challenges than what he faced. It was not just challenges, it was threats threats to his life. And if you see, Prahlad could have had the reason to ask this question even more than us in many ways. Because for him, Sikhiweg, our problems may come from many sources. Generally, when we face problems in life, the problems are broadly because of three factors.

The problem will come because of just the nature of the world. Nature of the world means that if we live in a place which is very cold and it complains so cold, it’s so cold, it’s so cold. Now let’s just say what you’re saying is so old, so old, so old. You get used to it. That’s how it is.

Sometimes the problems may come because of the nature or more precisely it could nature or behavior of the Mhmm. So nature of the world that blocks broadly in many contexts is called as Adi Dahi Klish. Just the nature of the world. Then there is Adi Bhauti Klish. Nature of people or the behavior of people.

So there could be mosquitoes which bite us, and there could be human beings who bite. There are mosquitoes, there’s and then there’s mother-in-law. So we have problems coming from people around us. The nature of people or the behavior of people. And then the third source of problem is the nature or behavior of ourselves.

This is sometimes a hard pill to swallow, But many times, if you see the problem that have come in our life, they have come because of our own actions. Sometimes we get angry over trivial things. Sometimes we end up indulging in things we should not be indulging. Sometimes we make some rash moves, and then we get into trouble. So these are broadly they are are the ethnic.

So now when the sufferings come in life, naturally, we may not miss God. Please help me. Please help me, oh lord. So when sufferings come because of the nature of the world, that’s one thing. You just have to okay.

I’ll look with it. It. Now in the case of Prahlad so this boy has talked with him afterwards. I don’t know what it was typical, teenage adolescence is just going through that phase. The hormones are growing, one is trying to deal with peer pressure, trying to find one’s place and buy.

It’s a difficult phase. I once I did I have done some writing seminars, attended some, I have conducted some also. So many times people say that, I would like to write, but I don’t have ideas. Where do you get ideas to go? Some people have too many ideas, but they don’t have the patience to translate the ideas into reality.

So this is a so one of the answers I give is if you have survived image, you have enough stories to tell for a lifetime. Especially if you have survived image in a culture that is radically different from our traditional culture, our family culture. This is a very tough period. But there are just a group of pains that are there. But if you consider the situation of Prahlad, his pains, we could say, among these three which are the category of the pains you said?

Was it because of nature of the world, nature of people, nature of others, his own behavior? Which was it? The nature of the people. People. Sorry.

How the Bhagavad Gita is depicting this or how the story unfolds that his own father is out to kill him. And this is about to happen. It is probably for the child who is growing up. It’s the most psychological scarring thing that can be imagined. The person who’s supposed to be a protector.

Now, sometimes the parents are just negligent. That itself is a problem. But if the parent is violent, now it is violent because of okay. He will drink alcohol, and we are alcohol abuse, these domestic violence, something like that. That’s terrible.

But this is it is not, like, anger that is causing come from somewhere else, and this was the child gets caught in the crossfire. It is anger directed at the child itself. And it’s knowingly it’s not just like a rush of temper. We’ll talk about why it is not. It it can be enormously scarring for a person, for a child who is growing up.

The very person who is supposed to be a protector is out to destroy me. What kind of world is this? What kind of god would be there who would allow such a thing to happen in the world? So he could easily have asked this question. And now, is it now why was his father angry with him?

Because of his devotion. So he could say that Prahlad could have said that it is not because of the nature of the world that the problem is coming my the problems are solely because of my devotion to you. Isn’t it? It’s all not all, but the main thing Hiranyak Kishipu wanted was that, Prahlad, you stop worshiping Vishnu. He considered the one point of Vishnu to plead like a disease.

He says, this is a terrible thing. Stop it right away. See, for us, most of the times, we consider the relationship if we are practicing devotion and our situation in the world. So whatever situation you’re going to do, if you practice devotion, we expect that the devotion should improve our situation. Now that in many ways, we expect it to improve.

We may in the past, it was more of a karma kanda where God, that, oh, father, thou art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, givers are dealing with them. So people in the past will look for physical needs, physical improvement, to all in daily rains so that any harvest is bound in. And now people may turn towards god, not so much for physical needs, but more for psychological needs. Oh, god. Please give me peace of mind.

One of the most common reasons that we ask people, why do you come to a temple? It is not many people come because of the love for god. Nothing wrong with it. It’s to appreciate whatever reason we come. We come for peace of mind.

And that’s also improvement. It’s a big improvement. Now it’s, it’s very you can’t just buy peace of mind with a pen. So we expect that our devotion should improve our worldly situation. Now in the case of Prahlad, his devotion itself is the cause of the worsening of his worldly situation.

Now when this happens, you know, we practice bhakti. Use a very wonderful, definition of Krishna consciousness. It’s how he says he asked, how will you know that we are Krishna conscious? So he says, if you come in from the temple, come in the temple, come in from the deity. And if you feel that deity is asking us, Krishna is asking us, what are you doing for me?

What are you doing for me? We are all meant to be of loving service to the lord. So, naturally, the lord will ask, what what service are you doing? So if you have that mood, if you feel that, that Krishna is asking, what are you doing for me? That is Krishna consciousness.

Now many times when people come to a temple, their question is, God, what are you doing for me? I have this problem. I have this problem, and I did this pooja, and I did this tapas. It’s time for you. It’s time for you to pay up now.

Come on. Do something. So So, normally, we expect our devotion to improve our situation. And if even the situation does not improve, we get agitated. We start thinking, should I be worshiping god?

Okay. Well, I think this is not working for us. So so now but if our situation starts worsening because of our is natural for any person when they practice in bhakti to get the question. So let’s look a little bit at the prayer order. So do we have another mic?

No. It’s gonna take some time. No. I’m not touching one. So maybe someone has a mic in their throat.

Somebody will hear it loudly. Oh, yes, sir. Please. Can you read the first paragraph? Oh my lord.

Many are the times when I feel lost and lonely, confronted with the perplexities of life. At those times when nothing I do seems to be working, I cannot help but wonder, do you, oh lord, know my plight? Yes. So now we will theoretically know if Krishna is commissioned. Krishna knows everything.

But does Krishna know my situation right now? But does Krishna know how to cope with the situation right now? And does Krishna knows that he came for the situation. So Prahlad is being threatened. He he was practicing his devotion, and he was not even trying to impose his devotion with his father.

It was only his father to ask some questions. That’s the time he would speak. He wanted to learn in your school, and he would speak sublimely sweet points, And those sublimely sweet points would drive his father into a wild rage. So and his father, it’s like the the story that he undergoes, we will go over the story and especially focusing on the climax and on the simulated audience. So how things evolve at that particular time.

So essentially, we see the descent into into depravity, into brutality. Redekashiko is a brutal person, but even everybody, no matter how bad they are, they have some boundaries. That, say, if somebody’s a criminal, they say, I want to rob, but, you know, I don’t want to hurt anyone. Or even somebody who’s a Okay? I will kill, but I am not gonna be killed.

You know, so everybody has certain boundaries. So initially, when Hiranyakashipo sees that his son is, is talking about bhakti, He, Hiradevan Shubhas defined his life by being anti God. He’s not just an atheist, he’s a anti theist. Antitheist. His purpose of life is to destroy Vishnu.

He’s teasing that I will perform more and more austerities, and by the power of Tapasya, I will destroy an issue. And he thinks that, okay, he thinks that Vishnu is so scared of him, Vishnu has disappeared. So I can’t find Vishnu anywhere. If I find him, I’ll destroy him. But till I can’t destroy him, I will destroy all signs of worship of him.

And that’s why he sends his demons to destroy all the sacred releases, all the Yedgesthales. Right? Yedgesthales over here. So, watching that again, remembering this past in this past, what he said is, destroy all signs of worship of him. That and, like, eight people he he has a great ego, and people who have a lot of ego, what happens is the one thing they cannot tolerate is being ignored.

You have a person who has a lot of ego and they come to a particular place, and nobody notices them. They are enraged. So he now he has a lot of ego. He wants to throw around this weight and dominate people, so he thinks Vishnu is like that. So he thinks that if I stop the worship of Vishnu, if I completely end the worship of Vishnu, then Vishnu, because of his ego, will come out from where he is.

And then I can catch you and I can kill you. That’s why he stops all worship. And then his situation is he stops the worship of Vishnu practically all over the universe, and then he finds that very worship of Vishnu which is stopped all over the universe, that worship is happening in his own home. So this is infuriating for him. He thinks that so, he thinks, okay, my child is a small child.

So, normally, what we try to do is that if we like someone, then even if they do something bad, we try to give them the benefit of the doubt. And that’s how it should be, that if we like someone and, say, they eat too much food. Maybe we have prepared meal for four people, and they eat the meal of three people. And then one person has to the remaining three people have to share one person’s meal. Or maybe they have a special dessert and they eat two of the dessert.

Then if we dislike that person, we’ll say, so what a clatter? No sense control. But if we like that person, we’ll say, oh, maybe maybe he was very hungry. Maybe he didn’t do little limited food. We’ll try to give them the benefit of the doubt.

So generally, what happens, we try to find the blade somewhere else. So like that, Virani Krishu says, okay, my son is nice, but maybe some of these Vaishnavas have somehow come and infected. So although he has tried to remove all devotion, but he still know that some people still are practicing Magdi. So he first warns his students, his teachers, you should watch out. You should not let my children, my child associate with bad people.

So for him, devotee the bad people. Not associate, not let them associate. And then he let them off with a warning. Second time it happens. Again, Maharaj said the same thing.

This time he’s angry here. This knocks for a lot of time. Oh. And then he again calls his teachers. He says, okay.

Okay. Now we’ll take care of it. So now that the sequence that is described in different narrative, there is a, there is the Mahabharata, there is the there is Simma Purana, there is the Vishnu Purana, there are other Puranas where some is some narrative is the sequence is described slightly differently. This could refer to how different Kalpas things happen. But the point is that slowly, he starts recognizing first he gets he get he blames the Vaishnav also coming.

Then he blames his teachers, his students’ teachers. You are not taking care of him. And then finally, he says the act, this child, this child is the problem. And then, there is a difference between anger and danger. So anger generally is hot headed.

When we are angry about something, it arises from the circumstances and it stays for some time. Anger is hot headed. But what Hiranyakashipu exhibits is not anger, it is hate. Hate is cold blooded. It is not just one moment of anger that is, oh, this Palla needs to be killed.

We always speak like that. I’ll kill you if you do this. One devotees suddenly showed me, that that child had run up run away, and then the child came back. And then I was talking with the child. It was just a small misunderstanding.

The child had just taken too seriously. The parents but the parent, the father showed me a small clipping, and they were laughing. So there’s a there’s a mother. Her daughter has run away. And she’s a Christian.

She’s praying to God. Oh, God. Please let her be please let my child be safe, and let her come home safely so that I can kill her. So the idea here is that sometimes you may use the word and kill you. So that’s in a very nonlitrous sense.

It’s an expression of anger. But in this case, it was real. He said that, you know, if a part of the body gets infected, then we need to cut out the part, otherwise everything will get infected. So he said like that, and therefore, I need to kiss him. So see, here, what he’s doing is, sometimes when we do something bad, we might just do it in a rage.

So when anger comes up, anger just sidelines our intelligence. No? Sidelines means this put pushes aside. But when hate comes, hate doesn’t sideline the intelligence. Hate recruits the intelligence.

Recruit the intelligence means we use our intelligence to make a plan how to do it and how to justify it or stop it. This is where we rationalize. And if you heard the word rationalize? So when we rationalize, what happens? We tell rational lies.

And when we rationalize, we tell rational lies. So he’s justifying the killing of his own son by saying this is like a seizure, the disease has to be removed. So then, it tries to kill I was talking earlier about boundaries. Even bad people have some boundaries. One of my friends is awarded for a jail.

So he says, even more prisoners, if the prisoners come to jail because of some child abuse, even prisoners look like children. Then the child those child abusers are kept in some kept in some they’re kept in seclusion, solid confinement. Otherwise, prisoners will harm the person there. So everybody has boundaries. So even Hirany Kishipu has some boundaries initially.

He thinks this is my son, I cannot kill him. So he tells others to do the dirty work. He says he has assistance. You kill him. Now they all try to kill him, but none of them succeed.

And often, this is seen as a miracle. And yes, it is. That the miracle is he’s thrown down a mountain and nothing happens to him. He’s kept at a burning fire. He is bitten by snakes.

He’s put in the path of trumpeting elephants. And none of those efforts, they were injured. So that is a miracle. However, if you look at Vaishnavacharya’s commentaries, look at the commentary, that is not the biggest miracle. See, miracles are basically broadly, they could be of two kinds.

One is things that happen to us. Things that happen to us. To us means that something as she happens. So here, he’s threatened, and he’s he’s no power, Prahlaj, just a small five year old boy. As a five year old boy, how can he defend against anyone?

He’s cut. He survives. So that’s a miracle. But if you look at the Bhakti tradition’s commentaries, the bigger miracle is not his safety. That his safety is definitely miracle.

But the bigger miracle is the things that happen through us. That the bigger miracle is his his purity, his determination, his devotion. The technical word is fidelity. Fidelity is faithfulness. That despite all this happening, his devotion is not cheap.

And that is the bigger miracle. Srila Prabhupada would sometimes be asked, can you perform some miracles? And Prabhupada would often point to his some of his disciples, and he would say, these are my miracles. But what is the miracle over here? The biggest miracle that matters is the change of the human heart.

There can be many miracles that you can have. Somebody can make somebody can make an object disappear, somebody can make an object appear. Many different kind of miracles can happen, and they have some bad now. But the biggest miracle is the change of the human heart. The change of the heart means what?

A person’s heart is directed towards selfishness, towards ego, towards dominating others, and that person becomes selfless, gentle, caring. That’s the change of heart. That’s the miracle which will actually make bring real happiness in our hearts, and that’s the miracle that will bring happiness in the world. So the miracle from the Bhakti tradition is not just that Prahlad survived all these attacks. That is true.

It’s also that Prahlad’s devotion survived. Prahlad’s fidelity to the Lord, his faithfulness to the Lord was unshaken. Not even once did he have second thoughts that I should worship the Lord a lot. And and that is the glory of Shivrabhu bath also. Shivrabhu Bhat came to America.

In many ways, everything that could go wrong went wrong. You know, if some people believe a lot in fate and some people believe in science, you know, okay, this is educated that God wants to do this is educated that God wants to do that. Now, sometimes that’s a science can tell us something, but if you look at the science of what happened, there’s so many signs for Prabhupada. Right on his journey, he got a heart attack. Hey, this is why God doesn’t want me to do this.

And then after that, everywhere he went in Pennsylvania, people the his host treated it like a curiosity object, not a spiritual teacher. He don’t want to give it from me. Then he got to pure heart, and there the person said that, okay, he didn’t say it but he can’t speak, because then his philosophy was different. And finally Prabhupada came to counter culture and just when something good seemed to be happening, there’s one person David Allen who seemed to be about to And then what happened, this person went on he took he had a he used to take drugs before he had a, drug and relapse, and he went crazy and came to attack the robot. And well, is this mission gonna work, ma’am?

These people ever change? No. The fact that Bhopal did not give up his mission, that itself is an error. Even if Prabhupada had not succeeded, the fact that Prabhupada built hundred day temples and all 70 boats inspired millions of people to become devotees, that is definitely miraculous. But the fact that Prabhupada’s devotion survived all their tests, that is also a miracle.

So Pradhalad’s devotion surviving is a miracle. And when the threats come in our life, the question comes, does God care? So when the whole world seems to be screaming to us, no, he doesn’t care. If God had been caring, why would Pranlal be subject to such a danger? Why would Prabhupada have his prospective disciple turn against him and ready to attack him?

So when the world’s world’s evidence seems to be screaming to us, no, God doesn’t care. At that time, are we ready to turn away from the world? Are we ready to hear a source beyond the world? So that is what Purna loves to me. Let’s look at the next paragraph.

Will anyone else like to read? Sure. Yes, please. Yeah. Go on.

If you if you do know is that the one you want me to read it? Yes, please. Yes. If you do know my suffering, then why do you not step forward to stop it? If instead of stepping forward to help me, I came to know that in those moments, you were smiling while I was suffering.

Oh, lord. How would I be able to maintain my devotion to you? Thank you. So basically, here, Arjuna is suffering and Krishna is smiling. So if we come to know that when we are going through something terrible, terrible situation, then the lord is smiling.

Can you even get it? How can you be smiling with this situation? If somebody goes to a therapist and the person is breaking down and the therapist is smiling, you know, probably, the client will sue the therapist for emotional wounds, emotional injury. Isn’t it? How can the child smile, mister Chaim?

So the so at such times, you know, when the world’s evidence doesn’t seem to support our emotion, at the time we need to look beyond the world. We need to look at scriptures. We look at the times in scriptures when there have an interaction between the things in the law. Because Krishna has arranged this world in such a way that the evidence of the world will always be mixed. That sometimes the evidence of the world will strengthen our faith in God.

And sometimes the evidence of the world will question our faith in God. Why? Because this world is made for those souls who do not want to become anything to do with God. Now when I was introduced to Bhakti about thirty years ago, I started, actually, I was introduced to Bhakti my childhood, but I was reintroduced to the philosophical dimension of Bhakti, I’m happy here. So, Satapur, I don’t have anything to do with God.

I don’t need God for anything. So for people that, if this God came Yeah. I don’t care if God cares or not. This we can be apathetic towards it. But for those who are a bit devotionally minded, so so people may come to such conclusions because the world’s evidence will never be completely unambiguous.

So that it’s saying that believers need no reasons, non believers accept no reasons. So the word is such that believers, those who have faith, they will have experiences from within their hearts and confirm their devotion to them. And those are non believers that will come up with some explanations for somehow that actually just takes explanation how this doesn’t go anything. So that’s how things will go on. So that’s why we cannot rely on our eyes alone for the evidence of God’s presence, God’s training, God’s love.

But in history, there are some times when this veil of Maya rings, and then the Lord appears. And the Lord’s love manifests in the world. And those are the times that we need to dwell on. Those are the times which should become the homes for our heart, the homes for our thoughts. And it is by remembering those incidents that we gain strength, we gain perspective.

Now hybrid tradition has such powerful founding stories. So for example, the Jewish tradition, the the journey of the people to the chosen land, that’s the story that they enter it derives straight from. In our tradition, it is the Ramayan, the Mahabal, it is the Mahagotam. Why? Because in daily history, we may not see God’s hands all the time.

But there are some times in history that God’s hand is seen. And those who are to be devoted, they need to be able to remember those times. And that’s how our beings are staying our way. So can we go to the next part? Yes.

Oh, like today? Any other lady? Question, Navees? Yes, please. What is this?

Bless me, darling. Bless me to remember, oh lord, that you are never smiling because I am suffering. It is through my suffering that I’m becoming more open to your calling. So Krishna is not suffering smiling because we are suffering. Krishna is smiling because, say, a a a if there’s a doctor.

And sometimes the doctors, they can they can observe someone, and gaze, you got this disease, you got this disease, but the patient is in denial. I don’t have any disease. So then, the if the disease symptoms are more so slightly, And that’s when the patient comes to doctor. Please, I need your help. So the doctor smiles not because the patient is okay, but because the patient has come to a place where they will get cured.

So it is that when we are going through difficulties, it is not that Krishna doesn’t know our difficulties. We can read this once again. You, my lord. You know my pain. You know my pain.

You feel my pain. You feel my pain. And you want to heal my pain. And you want to heal my pain. So the lord is there, not just somewhere up there, high in the sky, far away.

The lord is in here with us in our own hearts at the bottom. So he knows what we are going through. And if he’s not intervening, then that there’s a reason for that. Now what is that reason? We’ll talk about that, and I’ll conclude.

So this last part will take two hours. So basically, now what we’ll talk about is this one graph which is four quadrant diagram, which explains this concept. That is love and then it’s anger. Now, love and anger, can both of them go together? There are four possibilities.

If there is no love at all and there is no anger, then there is simply apathy. You know, I don’t care for you, and because I don’t care for you, I don’t care what you do also. Once I’ve tried to do mediation between two people, and one of them said, I know you are handling it to other person. No. I’m not handling it.

But if you don’t care for a person at all, it’s apathy. Now if there is no love and there is anger, then that is envy. So there is love no love at all. There is hate. The opposite of love would be hate.

Especially if there’s anger, then that is envy. Now as far as Krishna is concerned, Krishna is never in this category. Krishna always loves everything. So we are talking not from our love perspective. We are talking about the lord’s love.

We are talking about the does the lord care? Does the lord care? So this I can tell you your interpretation. I’m the beneficiary of all many beings. We’ll talk shortly about how.

He’s the beneficiary even of inner. Now now if there is love and there is no end, No. That is sweet expressions of love are there. So when we are someone who cares for us, celebrating these cool sweet ambiance. Now we could talk about romantic love, where there’s a lot of, emotions and hormones and all that.

But when there is not not those hormonal kind of infatuation, but here, there’s a deep sense of ease that is there. We call it serenity. When there is love, and there is nothing to agitate the mother. We’re just being we are happy with being with that person. So that is serenity.

And there are times when there is love and desire. And that actually shows the intensity of the love. So now love can be seen in both ways, through the absence of anger and through the presence of anger. Say, for example, somebody has done something which hurts us a lot. But because we care for that person, we don’t yell at that person.

We try to stay calm. That shows love. Normally, we’ll get very angry and yell at the person, but because that person is very important for us, we try to stay calm. So that’s one aspect. Now suppose somebody is an suppose a child is Mother will give a scolding to the child.

But that scolding is also an expression of love. Now scolding should never be the only expression of love. Then what happened is love is not seen at heart. But the thing is that it is only because I care for you that I’m angry. So sometimes you’ll be angry with the child, you say, for I’m not some mischief or if somebody’s hurting our child.

You know, we will anger that person. That would also be a sign of love. The point is that in the world, that Krishna’s love is there, Krishna when a devotee is going to suffer, it is not that Krishna does not care. So most of the times, that love is seen through the serenity of Krishna. Most of the times what happens is Krishna is severely.

Now now we talk about Krishna and there are a few times in history when Krishna’s anger comes out. That Krishna’s love is expressed through his anger. So now when Krishna is serene, Krishna is peaceful, that doesn’t mean Krishna never cared? Well, not exactly. Krishna cares, and Krishna shows his care by enabling us to also experience serenity even in the middle of the air, even in the middle of the pain.

So this is the amazing thing of bhakti that in bhakti, you will say, what is God doing for me? Does God care? If by bhakti, it’s not just emotion, it’s not how much we dance in khipus. It is not how much we roll in ecstasy. A bhakti is actually how much is our heart centered Krishna.

How much do our thoughts find their own in Krishna? Our thoughts’ own is in Krishna. What does it mean? See, we may for various jobs, we may go to various places, but yeah. You can.

Yeah. Various, jobs, we may go to various places, but as soon as the job is done, we come back home. So like that, we may have to think of various things in the world, but as soon as the things are dilute, our thoughts come back to each other. So for us, when we practice bhakti, what happens is almost mystical, there’s an internal effect of bhakti, and there’s an external effect of bhakti. The internal effect of bhakti will be that we will find that we are peaceful even in chaos.

That if we start practicing bhakti, how do we know Krishna is carrying the external problems are there? But in the past, those problems would have shaken us, shattered us. Now, when you start practicing those problems will seem to affect us so much. And that is Krishna acting from within our heart to calm us. Now Krishna can do that, Krishna will do that, but we need to turn towards him.

We need to fix our memories. We need to remember him. And that’s what I said is the miracle. So was Lord Nrsimhadev not helping Prahlad till all the time when he was being prosecuted? Yes.

Dhanushimade was there. And it was because of the Lord’s presence in Prahlad’s heart that Prahlad would stay calm. Prahlad was not affected. So this is something which I I earlier I said people feel peaceful when they come to the temple. How does that happen?

Actually, we’re coming closer to the presence of Krishna. So essentially, when we grow spiritually, when we habituate ourselves remembering Krishna, Regularly, we practice Bhakti. We come to temple. We do our mantra jamba. We do our kija.

What happens? Initially, for us, the world is very big, and Krishna is very small. And in fact, this is what Indra says in his prayers. He says, we used to worship you before, but this Hriday Kashi was terrorizing us, and that’s why we had to stop worshiping. But as we grow spiritually, as we become advanced devotees, the world becomes small and Krishna becomes big for us.

So this was the situation of Indra, and this was the situation of Prahlad. And so although there was a huge threat for Prahlad, for him the world was small. Krishna was pleased with him and he was worshiping Krishna. So if if the world is big, then what happens? The world’s ups and downs, they also become very big.

Sometimes our mind makes them even more big. But if the world is small, then the world’s ups and downs also become very small. So that’s how, as devotees, if we practice Bakfi regularly, we will find that our resilience will increase, that life will still batter us with problems, but we won’t be that affected by the problems. The problems will not shake and shatter us to that degree because we will have a connection with our lord. And that, the lord is the bigger reality.

The lord has a bigger plan for us. So when we understand Krishna is the bigger reality, Krishna the world is smaller, Krishna will take care of things that the world will do for us. When a devotee if we have the devotional vision, what happens is, I understand that my vision is a finite vision. And this finite vision is not the final vision. The finite vision is not the final vision.

So right now, within my finite experience, I may not be seeing Krishna intervening and helping me, but this is not the final vision. There are times when Krishna is helping the past. There are times when Krishna will help me in the future. Right now, let me not make my present experience the basis of all my decisions. So Krishna, when he doesn’t seem to be active, he doesn’t seem to be doing anything.

He doesn’t seem to be concerned. He’s still active, and he’s giving us strength and certainty from within. Krishna says, if you become conscious of me, you will pass over the obstacles of the world. What does that mean? The world along with its ob along with its obstacles will become smaller.

And by my connection with you, you will become big enough to go over those problems. So Krishna’s love is seen by the peace that we experience when we go through the difficulties. When you you know that I have both here. So in February I was at 11, I was once really chanting in one of the temples in India. And when I was chanting, I didn’t notice, because somewhere, at those times, I I would not use crutches.

I used to wear a brace. My the brace had a walking stick. So I was walking, and I didn’t notice that there was a little water over there somewhere. And my leg went under the water, and I slipped. I slipped, and I completely fell.

And this leg was already very weak because of, polio, and I had osteoporosis and other things. And I felt it was a minor fall, but a severe fracture. Yes. Several hours of surgery had to be done. And I have an old friend who’s named East.

He said to me, he wrote the name and said that he was in, you were in the temple of God. You were chanting the news of God. And at that time, you had an accident. So what is the use of your worship in God? So, actually, that was one of the most transformative spiritual experiences for me.

I I fell out of this terrible pain. I tried to chant, but I just don’t focus on the chanting. See, Bhakti is our mechanic. So, one month, what the way I connect with Krishna the most is through the Bhagavad Gita. Reciting the Bhagavad Gita’s words says, remembering the Bhagavad Gita’s words says, contemplating.

So I thought Gita’s also were not just source of wisdom. They are, like, personal friends for you. So somehow, at that time, I started reciting the Gita’s verses. And I started reciting the verses of the Gita, and I felt as if the pages disappeared. I said, what happened?

Then I stopped chanting, again the pages came back. And initially, we thought it was not a very big fall. We thought it got a problem. But, the pain kept persisting. Then we went to, doctor.

The doctor’s we need his excellency, and he said, hey. This is you’ve almost been severely ill. I said, time. And I found that I was almost lifted above the fever. When I finally I came to the hospital where we have the only hospital in Mumbai, I was chanting the verses, not out of devotion to Krishna, but out of wanting to avoid the pain.

I hope one day I’ll chant my devotion. But the point was, and I told him this, see that same experience which from an atheistic perspective will be, what’s the point of worshiping God? In the temple of God, while chanting the ring of God, you fell down and you had an accident. But that same experience from an external perspective and internal perspective. Is there any doubt?

No. That was one of the experiences that convinced me about the reality of Krishna consciousness to elevate oneself, elevate us above our body situation. That doesn’t mean we get ourselves into pain unnecessarily. It’s not that we put ourselves into pain and see, let us see if I can remember it, so I can go walk. No.

Not like that. But the point is that Krishna may not seem to be intervening, but Krishna is intervening. So, Pabralla, the fact that Krishna was there was what enabled him to stay fixed in his devotion. And there are times when Krishna manifests his anger. So finally, when Hiranyakrishiko decided enough is enough, what happened?

He sent the sun back to school, and he said, let’s see. Maybe this is just a phase that can go through. Some people think when you practice Bakhtin’s satisfaction, they go away. His father said, now I will take matters in my own hands. He wanted to not just kill Prahlad himself, he first wanted to kill Prahlad’s spirit.

And therefore, he said, where is your Vishnu? You claim to worship him, Dimuganar Singh, saying he’s everywhere? Is he here in this pillar? And that’s it. Very noisy, I’m thinking.

Like, almost a matter of yeah. Of course, he’s there. And then, Hiranyakashi was fully confident that he will now prove to Allah to be false. Which the problem with the world is that often the foolish people are super confident. And the bigger problem with the world is that the wise people are super doubtful.

So atheists are confident there is no God. And thieves are worried when God is in the God, really there will God help you. But this sound was so scary. And this time when the Lord manifested, that form that had never been seen before, that form was seen. Namroka Namahamushan.

Not an animal, not a human being. Hiradekashipu had many blessings by which he thought he would never be killed. But in every blessing, there is some room bone. He could have immediately hurt Hiranyakashipu apart. But he was waiting.

He was waiting till it was sunset. And then it was sunset. Hiranyakashipu thought that, you know, see, in this particular battle, Hiranyakashipu was smaller. Normally, the odds are against the devotees. But in the similar way, he manifested it in giant form.

And Hiranyakashipu thought, I’m still winning. But then within a few moments, when the Lord saw the sunset, the twilight, he just grabbed Hiranyakashipu, dragged him to the place between the inside and outside of the room. And there, just now he was dragging an a knock and he was just trying to get out. Now Viranya Kashipu had wanted to break the spirit of her, and the Swindale broke the spirit of Viranya Kashipu. Because for her dedication, she knows, I am so powerful, I can control everyone.

And the Lord came there, but before he came there, he was completely dominated. It’s like, you know, sometimes two boxer, somebody I’m a charpit boxer, And there, one boxer catches the other boxer in one deadly group. Then I’ll go away. I can’t do anything at all. It’s reduced to complete helplessness.

And then Lord, this is what they Europeans go to India for health tourism. They get surgery done over there because it’s cheaper there. So an American came there. He said, what is this? This is the original subject.

So were they successful? Yes. Operation successful? Patient. So now lord Nasimuddin, but he was very angry at Tiranakashipu, but that anger was not towards the soul of Tiranakashipu.

And it was Prahlad also, he he saw his father being killed. He did not he did not feel joy. Oh, you tried to kill me. Now you have been killed. Nor did he feel remorse.

Oh, my father has been killed. Dad, what is his emotion? His emotions concern. Because there could be joy, but you tell it now, you try to challenge me, my devotion, that’s not what happened to me. Sometimes some devotees get pleasure in some bad happening to those who are forced to doubt.

The father was not getting that joy. And the same time, his emotion was said, oh, people will think because of me, my father was killed. His emotion not at all self centered. The emotion was centered around his father’s. He said, he did a pray to him, Narasimhadev.

Please deliver my father. And what did the Lord say? That actually, that 40 generations of a devotee’s family are all amplified because that person becomes a devotee. So for the lord, although he was angry with Rendi Gashibbu, that anger was not a when he was basking and bathing in the Lord’s presence, the Lord smiling joyfully on him, the Lord listening profusely, the Lord seeping him on his lap, the Lord putting his hand on his head, So for him, even after he got the word, the word did not suddenly come big for him. He still remains small, the Lord remains big.

So there are times in our life when we will see Krishna’s end in our life. We’ll see things happen in such a way, yeah, this this good can happen without Krishna. There is synchronicity, there is what we call serendipity. Things do happen. And there are things like that have happened in history.

So when those happen, we gain conviction from those vapes that actually Krishna is there and Krishna cares. And because Krishna cares, that is why he is he it’s not that he cared at that time, he doesn’t care now. He always cares. So let me remember your smile, Amit, I saw to him, as a sign of your confidence and competence that you can tackle in any and every problem no matter how gigantic it seems to be. So last sentence, who would like to read this?

Yes. Not that the Lord doesn’t care. If we are suffering and the Lord seems to be smiling, that doesn’t mean he does not recognize, he doesn’t care. It just means the Lord is having some plan. He’s taking his time.

He is capable. The Lord could have been killed in a negative way. The Lord let this time pass so that the world would know the glory of the beloved. And how glorious is the devotee that Sometimes it is seen through the actions that happen in the world. Many times it is seen through the actual changes that happen within our God.

In how our hearts stay steady in the love of our Lord. So let’s summarize. I talked about three main points. I talked about how we understand that Lord’s love as does Krishna care, does the Lord care? That was the compliment that.

Yes. When we were discussing this, normally, when we practice bhakti, you know, we have a certain expectation. What is God doing for me? When we go through life, we practice devotion, and we expect it to improve our worldly situation. And that’s a reasonable expectation.

But sometimes, instead of improving the worldly situation, what happens is our situation may worsen. And at that time, how do we process? So if we look at the world itself, the world’s evidence can sometimes strengthen our faith, because some things happen which can strengthen our faith. But many things can happen in the world which can weaken our faith. So that’s why we cannot rely on the world for our faith.

Then what what do we do? We turn towards scripture. And there we discuss the divine dynamic that there is the dynamic of love and anger. So the lord is never having apathy that there’s no love and no anger. The Lord never has enmity towards anyone.

So these two are not true at all. And what is true? That the Lord when his love is there, but there doesn’t seem to be any anger, there doesn’t seem to be any concern, that is where the Lord gives us serenity. The Lord helps us to experience an almost mystical calm, even when the world is a permanent place. So this is where what happens, we are here and initially the world is big and God is small for us.

But eventually what happens? The as we grow spiritually Eventually, what happens is that the world becomes for us, the world becomes small, and Krishna becomes big for us. So, this is the situation of Hralal. This is a a serious devotee. This is the situation of Indra who represents more of a materialistic kind of devotee.

So, now this serenity comes because Krishna has become bigger than the world. And we see the last part. So when there is there are times when Krishna experiences expresses intensity. Intensity is where the lord’s love becomes manifested in his word. So the lila that is performed over here, this lila and such lila, not only lila, these should become the home of our hearts.

It is by remembering these things, these past times that the lord intervened, that the lord protected devotees. The lord’s protection became manifest at a material level. Like, the he was Jagra Upadam is Jagra America, is this, like, it is written in the nectarian pastor in Jagra Jedda that is giving me strength, so this becomes the home for our cause. And then, with that, what happens? We accept that my finite vision is not the final vision.

So we, with faith, with patience, we wait. We keep maintaining our devotion to the Lord and that devotion will be vindicated. He said, Prahlad was glorified. The Lord had a bigger plan, but he did not intervene at a particular time. So maybe the Lord will intervene in this time.

And the miracles that the Lord does and miracles can sometimes be external where the situation just changes dramatically. That the miracle can also be internal, where we can be peaceful even amid the chaos. The external miracle is the chaos just disappears, the trouble disappears. The external miracle is that the trouble may remain, but we don’t really trouble. We may have it with trouble, but, you know, we live with pain rather than pain rather than in pain because we now live with our Lord.

So let us pray, you are the simile that, my dear Lord, the day you have demonstrated your Prahlad’s love for you and your love for Prahlad, Let this Ghela become the home for my heart. Let me remember that this historical evidence of your love for for those who are devoted to you, and let that remembrance sustain me In times when I feel the load, when I feel the problems are overwhelming, let me remember you, oh lord, and find serenity and shelter in strength in that remembrance. Let’s recite this once. My dear lord, can you repeat after me? My dear lord, lord.

Let your smile in. Let your smile in. Amid my suffering. Amid my suffering. Strengthen my faith.

Thankyou.