Suppose a tribal who has never heard of gold is walking under the hot sun and spots a gold slab jutting out of the ground. But not knowing its value, they decide to use it as a shade from the sun.

Similarly, we being troubled by some scorching problem in life may come to God and pray for relief. Just as the gold slab can provide shade, similarly worshiping God can provide relief. But to see him merely as a means to get relief from some worldly problem is to grossly undervalue him. No doubt, he wants to free us from all problems, but that can’t be done as long as we stay attached to worldly things. Why? Because that very attachment is the root cause of our problems – the temporariness of those things sentences us to suffering when we lose them.

To become free from misery, we need to redirect our love from the temporary to the eternal, from the world to God. This means appreciating God’s true glory: not merely as a problem-solver, but as the ultimate object of our love, as the Bhagavad-gita (07.19) indicates.

Still, the Gita (07.16) appreciates relief-seekers because they seek relief by approaching God, not someone else; just as the tribal is fortunate to be seeking shade through a gold slab, not something else. Just as the tribal can realize their fortune on meeting someone who knows gold’s value, similarly, we can realize our spiritual fortune on associating with saintly devotees, for whom God is the goal, not the tool to some worldly goal.

Gold can be immediately encashed once its value is understood. But the sweetness of pure devotion to God is appreciated gradually through purification and realization. So we need to associate with devotees regularly to relish our fortune.

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