“Yo, Krishna! Why You Messin’ With me?”

Yesterday I gave a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.5.19. in this verse, Narada Muni tells Vyasadeva that devotees of Krishna, even if they might fall into an unfortunate situation, aren’t “fallen” like materially engrossed people who fall down (think Bernie Madoff). In Prabhupada’s purport, he says devotees who want to simultaneously strive for material stuff are “foolish,” and that Krishna sometimes takes everything away from them until they feel “helpless all around.”

What makes their (Krishna devotees’) position different? “Because they can do nothing but remember the lotus feet of the Lord again and again.” Their lives have been transformed forever by contact with God. their ambitions will never be quite the same. Something has changed for them, and changed forever, even if they’re not fully able to appreciate what that “something” is, or if they’re not able to fully devote themselves to the spiritual path.

This isn’t so for devotees of anything else, like hanggliding, rock climbing, golfing, or antique cars. None of those pursuits can give the same total, absolute rush as contact with Krishna. Hanggliding may be really, really fun, it can’t free you from the laws of karma. In fact, you may wind up as a bird in your next life.

I then read from Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.88.8, where Krishna explains that whatever happens in a devotee’s life is not simply “karma”—they’re not just “getting what they deserve” as a result of their desires and actions. Once a person steps even slightly outside of the karmic system—e.g. has some contact, some service, or some information about the specifics of spiritual reality—that experience carries such clarity, freedom from anxiety, and spiritual satisfaction that nothing in this world will ever be able to satisfy them ever again. You can try to “go back,” in other words, try your best to forget Krishna and act selfishly, but you can never really go back. Your natural, pleasure-seeking nature won’t tolerate it. At least not for long.

So then whatever happens to you, for the rest of eternity, isn’t just karma. It’s Krishna pulling you closer (even if you resist His pull like crazy). Krishna may take everything away from you, for example. He will mess with you. He may mess with you more than you believe He ought to be messing with you. You may go bankrupt, wind up in jail, get sick, suffer in your relationships. You will not like it. You may think, “Why should God mess with us, if He loves us?”

Because He can see—with perfect, omniscient clarity—how miserable our temporary existence is here in the land of birth, death, old age, and disease. Because He knows that the only thing that will make us perfectly fulfilled and happy is to serve Him. That’s why we exist. We’re meant to be cooperative parts of an infinitely blissful play of events, and when we slack off on that and try to be the center of events, we get depressed. So He messes with us, even though we might not like it. the good news is, we eventually come around to His way of thinking, and when we do, we’re grateful for all the littleinstructive slaps.