(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 11 September 2016, Durban, South Africa, Sunday Feast Lecture)
Krsna does not have work to do; everything is simply going on by his desire. Whatever Krsna desires will happen. If we should have this power, it would be dangerous. If whatever we desire would happen, we would be in trouble since we have conditioned desires which we sometimes regret later. We always have to work for a long time for our desires to be fulfilled which is good because we then have time to rethink our desires. There is always an element of struggle for us. But struggle for Krsna is nice because then struggle becomes meaningful.
There is the story of a boy who worked hard to buy a ring for a girl. He was thinking of her the entire time he was working, therefore he actually worked for her! Similarly, we must work for Krsna then we can be in a state of mind where we are not affected by material conditions whether we are in hell or somewhere else. If we change our condition instead of trying to change our surroundings, we can actually be happy with whatever situation we are in.
Kunti devi prayed for trouble because in troubled times she always remembered Krsna. She was not affected by the hardships of this world; she had a state of being equipoised. We maybe cannot reach that state but we can get close to it. We can create distance from the mind; from our emotional experience. Thinking, feeling and willing are functions of the mind but we can spectate on those once we are distant from it and get grounded in our spiritual life.
*Notes taken my Nimai during the lecture