If No One Is Going To Save You

By krishnasmercy on December 10, 2024 • ( 0 )

“My dear father, I am very respectfully and humbly inquiring. What is this arrangement? Why you are busy in making some sacrificial ceremony, what is the reason, and what is the result? For whose benefit is it and by what means will it be accomplished?” (Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.24.3)

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कथ्यतां मे पित: कोऽयं सम्भ्रमो व उपागत:
किं फलं कस्य वोद्देश: केन वा साध्यते मख:

kathyatāṁ me pitaḥ ko ’yaṁ
sambhramo va upāgataḥ
kiṁ phalaṁ kasya voddeśaḥ
kena vā sādhyate makhaḥ

“You have likely heard this criticism before. It says that religion is for the weak. It is for those who cannot do for themselves. It is for those who like to believe in fairytales, in make-believe, keeping their head above the clouds. They think there is some invisible man in charge of everything, coordinating the outcomes to events in just the right way such that everything will finally make sense.

“This criticism often has corresponding advice. These people are giving it to us straight, after all. They say that no one is going to save us. There will be no final rescue. There is no God. There is no intelligent coordinator. The fact that the seed of the tomato will only produce tomatoes and the seed of the cucumber will only produce cucumbers is merely an accident. There is no special configuration inside, though the result is so predictable, so rock-solid, that the process never deviates.

“The criticism says that the only hope is our fellow man. They are the only people who can save us. We should not hold out hope for some higher being to provide rescue. It is thus foolish to follow religion. It is silly to ponder issues which will never be resolved, which can never be proven through empirical data.”

If it holds true that no one is going to save us, then it also means that no one will put us into difficulty. After all, adversity is merely the other side to salvation. If there is a chance at peace and calm, of a desired condition, then it means there is also the potential for an undesired condition. If there is an up, there must be a down. If there is a rich person, there is also the poor person. The happy may one day become unhappy, and vice versa.

We see that there is certainly difficulty. It is not always triggered by an identifiable force. For instance, the children within the womb have no other support system. If they are put into the difficulty of trying to avoid lethal attack from a knife, there is nothing they can do to escape. There is no mechanism by which they can call out for help.

Meanwhile, another child is part of a pregnancy that makes it safely to term. They enter this world without issues. They grow up in a safe and thriving community in the suburbs. They attend good schools, gain admission to the top universities, and enter a respectable occupation as an adult.

What is the cause of the difference? There was no human being who directly intervened, necessarily. It is not that the one child called out for help and the other was left stranded. In one case, man was the cause of disturbance. In the other case, the same abstract force of man was responsible for the lack of disturbance. The less intelligent will attribute the difference to luck. It was chance, you see. It was simply the case of misfortune that the one child was attacked while in the womb.

Genuine religion is for explaining the cause, for removing the blurry picture. A wise person will never walk away from the discussion at the point of chance, which is unknown. They understand that this concept of “chance” or “luck” is merely the lack of identification of the proper cause. We only refer to “chance” when we are in ignorance. When we do not know better. When we are unaware of how the world works.

पुरुषः प्रकृति-स्थो हि
भुङ्क्ते प्रकृति-जान् गुणान्
कारणं गुण-सङ्गो ऽस्य
सद्-असद्-योनि-जन्मसु

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi
bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṇān
kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgo ‘sya
sad-asad-yoni-janmasu

“The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 13.22)

Bhagavad-gita explains that the living being experiences good and bad amongst various species due to the association with gunas. The meeting with gunas, which are components to the collective energy known as prakriti, is due to karma. This is action and reaction. This is doing something and then experiencing the result. That result may not manifest immediately. When the result does arrive, it may not remain visible for an extended duration. But there is always action as the cause behind a result.

अदृष्टगुणदोषाणामध्रुवाणां तु कर्मणाम्
नान्तरेण क्रियां तेषां फलमिष्टं प्रवर्तते

adṛṣṭaguṇadoṣāṇāmadhruvāṇāṃ tu karmaṇām
nāntareṇa kriyāṃ teṣāṃ phalamiṣṭaṃ pravartate

“Unseen and indefinite are the good and bad reactions of fruitive work. And without taking action, the desired fruits of such work cannot manifest.” (Lakshmana speaking to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Aranya Kand, 66.17)

If karma, which is driven by choice, is the original cause, then does that not leave the individual in the same place? They are reaching out for help, to get the attention of a higher figure, but they are merely in the midst of their karmic cycle. They are experiencing the negative reactions to their work. They are suffering because of their choices.

The distinction is that the system of karma does not negate the concept of a central controller. The first Govardhana Puja celebration was living proof. The people of the community were accustomed to worshiping Indra, the king of heaven. They took to certain karma to expect a certain phala, or fruit. That result was sufficient rainfall to nourish the ground, which would in turn feed the cows.

The darling of the community, the young son of Yashoda and Nanda, once suggested worshiping the nearby Govardhana Hill. This was a different kind of karma. It could not be found anywhere in scriptural texts. It did not align with prevailing customs, either. Krishna gave sufficient rationalization, that the same fruit which was achieved in worshiping Indra would be satisfied through honoring Govardhana. The equivalence was implied in the question of “kim phalam” posed to the father, Nanda Maharaja.

The people followed Krishna’s advice. The immediate result was a satisfied Govardhana, which literally voiced its pleasure over the festivities. It was then recommended that the tradition continue into the future, that the people worship the same Govardhana every year.

“When everything was complete, Krishna assumed a great transcendental form and declared to the inhabitants of Vrindavana that He was Himself Govardhana Hill in order to convince the devotees that Govardhana Hill and Krishna Himself are identical. Then Krishna began to eat all the food offered there. The identity of Krishna and Govardhana Hill is still honored, and great devotees take rocks from Govardhana Hill and worship them exactly as they worship the Deity of Krishna in the temples. Devotees therefore collect small rocks or pebbles from Govardhana Hill and worship them at home, because this worship is as good as Deity worship. The form of Krishna who began to eat the offerings was separately constituted, and Krishna Himself along with other inhabitants of Vrindavana began to offer obeisances to the Deity as well as Govardhana Hill.” (Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Vol 1, Ch 24)

The second result was devastating in nature. It was the consequence that the people were afraid of. They had skipped the yajna in honor of Indra. That perturbed king of heaven then retaliated with rain capable of destroying the entire world. The people and their cows were set to be washed away. They were supposedly suffering for their karma of trying a new system of worship. They had no hope but to pray to Krishna. They asked that He resolve the calamity.

Though only a young child, Krishna obliged. He craftily turned Govardhana into the world’s largest umbrella. He held that hill up in the air to create shelter for the people. This physical object, a literal shield of protection, also symbolizes the protection afforded the devotees of the Lord. Through their decision to surrender to Him in earnest, they leave karma behind. The supposedly invisible is actually within plain sight. He stands before the devoted souls as Giridhari, the lifter of Govardhana.