14.19 – Let the thoughts that go away from Krishna take our thoughts towards Krishna
Suppose while swimming in a river in one direction, we find ourselves swept away suddenly and dangerously in the opposite direction. Though we may panic initially, calming our thinking will help us reason that the water from a nearby dam may be rushing out. We may SOS the dam incharge requesting the closing of the dam so that we can swim to safety.
Analogously, in our inner world, we try to swim towards Krishna by directing our thoughts towards him. But sometimes our thoughts suddenly go away from him towards sensual or even sinful things. When the anti-devotional direction of our thoughts disturbs and discourages us, Gita wisdom can calm us.
The Bhagavad-gita (14.19) asserts that those who understand the doership of the modes and the transcendence of Krishna attain his spiritual nature. The currents of thoughts in our inner world are largely triggered by the modes. When our thoughts go away from Krishna, that’s usually due to the lower modes of passion and ignorance. Countering the modes by ourselves is difficult, if not impossible. But thankfully we don’t have to fight by ourselves. Krishna is eager to help us. And he is capable of helping us because he controls the modes just as the dam incharge controls the dam’s water-flow.
Earnest prayer is our SOS to Krishna. He responds to our prayer by decreasing the force of the modes, by increasing our capacity to resist their force and eventually by guiding us to the supreme safety of transcendence, beyond the jurisdiction of the modes.
So when our thoughts go away from Krishna involuntarily, instead of becoming disheartened, we can become determined to conscientiously and prayerfully take our thoughts towards him, and thereby witness his power and love in action to rescue us.
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14.19 – When one properly sees that in all activities no other performer is at work than these modes of nature and he knows the Supreme Lord, who is transcendental to all these modes, he attains My spiritual nature.