Question: When difficulties arise, some devotees try to take shelter of Krishna, but others seem to lose faith and take shelter of old habits, e.g. intoxication or other materialistic activities. Is there anything one can do to help those devotees, and if so what should one do?
(Answers by His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj)
17 Nov: We should know that conditioned souls due to their aversion to Supreme Lord have been hurled down here in the prison house of the world. This world is not the place of real peace and bliss. The prison house is the place of punishment of the culprits. As we find that a diseased person cannot treat himself, he is to go to an expert doctor for treatment. Similarly, for the treatment of worldly disease— birth, death and threefold afflictions, bona fide expert spiritual doctors are necessary. You will find scriptural evidence for this in Srimad Bhagavatam (11.3.21)—
tasmad gurum prapadyeta jijnasuh sreya uttamam
sabde pare ca nisnatam brahmany upasamasrayam
Therefore, after submitting to Guru the votary should ask for eternal welfare. Bona fide Guru must have the qualities— He should be well-versed in the scriptures and should have realization of the Ultimate Reality Supreme Lord.
Mahadeva said to Parvati Devi, ‘There may be so many pseudo Gurus to snatch money from the disciples, but they cannot remove sufferings by prescribing actual treatment. A real bona fide Guru is very scarce.’ When you want quality, you cannot get quantity. If you are to increase quantity, you are to sacrifice quality.
Absolute Bliss is Supreme Person— Para-Brahma. He is Omnipotent and Omniscient. There is nothing equal to Him or more than Him. Absolute Bliss can take initiative. He is not unconscious cipher. We commit a Himalayan blunder when we think that Actual Bliss is subservient to us. Nobody in the universe with challenging mood can have contact with Him. Those who make such attempts for realization of Absolute Bliss by their finite intellectual and mental endeavour will be totally frustrated and that Transcendental Spiritual Blissful Realm will remain ever-sealed for them. We cannot approach Him by the process of ascension. He will descend to a completely surrendered soul. It is categorically said in the Gita (7.15) — the mischievous and demoniac persons will never submit to Supreme Lord. Just after that it is also said— four kinds of persons who have got previous eternal spiritual good impressions will have the aptitude to worship Him.
In respect to this, evidence is referred to here in Srimad Bhagavatam (7.6.3),
Prahlad’s advice to demon boys— ‘O demon boys! Embodied souls owing to their connection with bodies, have produced passion of sense-organs for corresponding sense-enjoyments. But such material enjoyments will come automatically without endeavour, according to previous destiny. Nobody wants misery or pain but it comes automatically because of previous misdeeds. Hence, it is not proper or necessary to make efforts to get worldly pleasures, because by such endeavour, duration of life will be wasted. We will get eternal welfare by worshipping the Lotus Feet of Supreme Lord Krishna. But we will never get such benefit by endevouring for material pleasures.’ Due to previous impressions of bad and good deeds of the aspirants, waves of current of bad and good thoughts will remain in their minds. A sincere votary will try to subdue evil thoughts and enhance good thoughts. Then by that the momentum of evil thoughts will be less and momentum of good thoughts will be increased. As stated in the Gita (6.34-35), Arjuna asked Krishna, ‘O Lord! mind is too much restless. Mind is more difficult to control than wind.’ Krishna said, ‘I agree to this, but you are very mighty. It is not impossible to subdue the mind. You can suppress it, control it by your endeavour in two ways— ‘abhyasa’ you are to practice concentration of mind on your object of worship repeatedly and ‘vairagya’ practice of detachment from material non-eternal things (negative procedure of practice) and attachment to Supreme Lord (positive procedure of practice).