09.10 – Accidents are no accidents

The word ‘accident’ has become integral to our vocabulary, largely due to the many unfortunate crashes that beset our roads. Words, however, don’t just reflect the world without; they also reflect and affect the world within. Our frequent usage of the word ‘accident’ contributes to making the idea of ‘accident’ integral to the way we conceive the world: as a place prone to sudden, unexplainable, meaningless reversals.

Such a view creates a deep sense of insecurity, a feeling that we try to suppress by withdrawing into a fantasy world of entertainment and multimedia.

Gita wisdom offers us a more realistic way of dealing with the insecurity: the reassuring insight that accidents are no accidents. The Bhagavad-gita (09.10) indicates that all of material nature works under the supervision of Krishna. So, reversals are not accidents but are incidents – purposeful and meaningful incidents that are a part of a larger plan.

Of course, it is not Krishna’s plan that we suffer. He doesn’t cause the accidents; our own past karmic misdeeds cause them. His plan is to free us from accidents forever.

The world is like a hospital wherein we are like patients who suffer complications because of our own past infections. Krishna is the master-doctor who is incharge of our treatment. Under his expert supervision, every complication becomes integrated into the plan for our eventual recovery.

What we need to do is cooperate with the plan.

We may not always understand exactly how the disease and the treatment are unfolding. But the least that we can do is avoid kneejerk reactions. If we continue to faithfully remember Krishna and seek his guidance about how best we can serve him, then we will be guided to play our role in transforming accidents into stepping stones on our inner evolution towards spiritual health and lasting happiness.