10.10 – Be intelligent enough to know what to do when you don’t know what to do

Life often puts us in perplexities. When we don’t know what to do, what do we do? Some people respond with kneejerk reactions, others, with paralytic inaction.

What is needed is careful contemplation of the choices and consequences. However, if the uncertainty overwhelms us, it doesn’t let us think productively; like a ceiling fan, our thoughts go round and round without going anywhere.

For such situations Gita wisdom offers generic guidance. When we don’t know what to do, it urges us to be intelligent enough do what we are essentially and eternally meant to do – serve Krishna lovingly. The Bhagavad-gita (10.10) assures that Krishna personally guides those who serve him lovingly. This doesn’t mean that we run away from the perplexity, but that we don’t let the perplexity stop us from running towards Krishna on the standard tracks of devotional service.

All of us have our favorite devotional activities – chanting, praying, reading inspiring passages from scriptures, for example – that help us to connect emotionally with Krishna. By engaging sincerely in those activities, we feel his calming and comforting presence. We realize that beyond the haze of uncertainty created by our present material circumstances is the certainty of the eternal reality that Krishna loves us and that we are meant to love him, thereby creating the emotional stability necessary for clear thinking. This clarity results not just by our intellectual analysis or spiritual experience but by divine grace, for Krishna always guides those who want to serve him.

When we follow this generic advice to serve Krishna lovingly come what may, we will be pleasantly surprised at how we get specific and precise insights to untie the knots that in our thinking internally and in our circumstances externally.

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To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.