07.26 – Might we be blocking the progress of a work in progress?

Suppose a child lying on a mother’s lap sees her mother stitching and weaving a cloth. The needle seems to come in and out of the cloth. But the mother knows what she is doing and how. In due course, she will adorn her precious child with the exquisitely embroidered sweater.

We all are like that child observing Krishna’s actions in our life. The difference of course is that we are not just the child; we are also the cloth being embroidered. We are works in progress; we all need so many refinements to become the wonderful persons that we can and should be.

We usually know that we are works in progress. What we often overlook, though, is that we are not the only ones doing the work. Krishna is also at work on us; we are his precious children. Consistently and compassionately, he is working through the events of our life and the experience of our heart to guide us towards the wisdom and devotion that will manifest our latent spiritual qualities. Every event and experience is like a stitch in the embroidery. To our finite and fallible vision, many of the stiches seem to be pointless, even painful.

But we don’t see the overall shape, the big picture. Krishna sees not just the big picture, but the entire picture. He knows everything and everyone – past, present and future, as the Bhagavad-gita (07.26) asserts.

As long as we don’t see Krishna’s hand in the work that is in progress, the work makes little progress; our bewilderment and resentment block Krishna. If we just cooperate with Krishna’s plan faithfully and patiently, time will show us the wonders that the Master Weaver can do to us and through us to the world.

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O Arjuna, as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, I know everything that has happened in the past, all that is happening in the present, and all things that are yet to come. I also know all living entities; but Me no one knows.