(Kadamba Kanana Swami, March 2011, Melbourne, Australia, Lecture)
When we look at all the devastation in the world, all the pain and suffering, then we think, “It’s too much! It is! It really is!”
The only way to rise above it is to look at the bigger reality – how there is eternity and how these temporary ups and downs are not so important. We should ascend this temporary reality. We should not allow ourselves to become so involved in this reality. So again and again, we have to remind ourselves that through our embodiment, we are inclined to become involved in this temporary reality. It is difficult! We cannot see the whole picture. We are like a small piece on a chess board – all we see is our own square. We don’t see the whole board.
But we have to always remember, “No, no! It’s part of a bigger plan and Krsna is simply purifying the living beings and bringing them back to him.” The living being is going through this cycle of birth and death, and when he gets a chance to express independent desire, it will be taken away. In this way, slowly the living being is being cured from this particular conditioning so that he can return to Krsna, in the eternal spiritual world. Once he is there, it is like he has been away only for a moment. Only for a moment! All this time in the material world… only a moment in eternity! So we have to practise again and again to see the bigger picture!
