15.07 – Completeness comes not by material amelioration or mechanical reconnection, but by emotional redirection

We all frequently feel that something is missing in our life. In fact, our entire life with its varied pursuits – career, wealth, position, spouse, children – is essentially a quest for completeness.

Sadly however, no matter how much we succeed in these pursuits, the sense of incompleteness never goes away. In the initial euphoria when we succeed, we may feel complete temporarily, but soon the something-missing feeling returns to haunt us.

Gita wisdom explains why the pursuit for completeness through material things is a lost cause. The Bhagavad-gita (15.07) states that we are all eternal parts of Krishna. A part of the body, say, the hand, is best situated when it is connected with the whole body. Similarly, we as souls attain our full value, utility and power – our sense of completeness – when we connect ourselves with the Complete Whole, Krishna.

As long as we don’t connect with Krishna, we remain captivated by the promises of the mind and senses that material improvements will make us complete. But all we get is a draining and unending struggle (manah shastanindriyani prakrti sthani karshati).

We can connect with Krishna through the process of devotional service. Sometimes we may feel incomplete even while practicing devotional service. Why is that? Because linking ourselves with Krishna is not just a matter of mechanical reconnection, as in the case of a severed bodily part; it is a matter of emotional redirection. As we are sentient beings with free will, we need to consciously and constantly choose Krishna instead of worldly substitutes for him.

Each day, each minute, each moment that we choose Krishna, we move closer to him. When he becomes the center of our emotions, the object of our dreams, the Lord of our heart, everlasting completeness becomes ours.