06.22 – Stability and maturity that takes us beyond adversity

Life can bring adversity upon us at any moment. To protect ourselves, we often take insurances like life insurance, health insurance, car insurance.

Such insurances may help us regain the external things lost during adversities. But they can’t protect us from the internal trouble and trauma caused by those adversities. To gain that inner protection, we need to expand our consciousness so as to perceive the higher spiritual reality of life. The Bhagavad-gita (06.22) indicates that when we develop spiritual perception, we remain undisturbed even amidst life’s worst adversities.

How do we remain undisturbed? Because our spiritual vision provides us stability and maturity:

Stability: We recognize the existence of an eternal spiritual reality that is never affected by the worst material adversities. More importantly, we as souls belong to that invincible reality. And most importantly, Krishna, the supreme spiritual reality, exists as the benevolent overseer of all of reality. This vision provides a deeply reassuring stability that is akin to finding solid land when flooding waters threaten to inundate everything.

Maturity: Children may cry bitterly when their sand castles are destroyed by flooding waters. But when those same children grow up and mature, they don’t cry. Why? Because they are no longer emotionally invested in their sand castles. Similarly, we become distressed, even devastated, when material adversities damage or destroy the things in which we have emotionally invested ourselves. Thankfully, we can redirect our emotional investment from worldly things to Krishna by practicing devotional service. This redirection doesn’t require us to reject or neglect material things, but it enables us to value Krishna most. By thus maturing spiritually, we remain undisturbed amidst material adversities.

Thus, by perceiving and grasping life’s spiritual reality, we can attain a stability and maturity that takes us beyond adversity.