10.10 – Transform disappointment into his-appointment

When life confronts us with disappointments, we can transform them into his-appointments, into opportunities to connect with Krishna at a deeper level and thereby enrich ourselves. The Bhagavad-gita (10.10) proclaims that whenever we strive to serve him with a devotional attitude, he gives us the intelligence to come closer to him through all situations.

Let’s see how this can happen during disappointments.

Gita wisdom sets the conceptual foundation by educating us that among all our external and internal assets, devotion alone will stay eternally with us. Moreover, among all our assets, it alone will propel us to the eternal destination: the realm of sublime spiritual love, Krishna’s personal abode. That’s why the Gita urges us to recognize cultivating devotion as life’s foremost goal.

Our worldly goals are valuable to the extent they aid us and others in cultivating devotion. Otherwise, from the perspective of eternity, they are distractions that dissipate and devour our precious time. Usually, when we become successful materially, those successes exhilarate us and infatuate us with hopes of similar future successes. Consequently, we no longer feel the necessity or at least the urgency to cultivate devotion. We thus start jeopardizing our eternal spiritual prospects for temporary material pleasures.

To protect us from this colossal loss, worldly disappointments often serve us as essential priority reminders. They freeze our worldly infatuations and force us to re-gather our spiritual bearings.

At such times, if we seek solace and guidance from Krishna, we will get extraordinary inner experiences of his love and grace. These realizations will not only deepen our spiritual convictions but will also empower us to emerge more focused and balanced. We will be less vulnerable to distraction by worldly successes and thereby more capable of contributing effectively to the world by doing Krishna’s will for our and others’ ultimate good.