Life sometimes slaps us with pointless problems and senseless sufferings. To aid us in responding positively, Gita wisdom offers us an encouraging insight: the world is a school, and the events of our life are integral parts of the curriculum.

The Gita shares this insight not as a nebulous sentiment, but as the key element of a coherent worldview that helps us understand systematically how life’s educational process works and what we need to do to learn.

The first thing to learn is the futility of resentment. When we resent what is happening, we just cannot learn from it. We can free ourselves from such resentment by understanding Krishna’s benevolent role amidst life’s apparently malevolent events.

The Gita (13.23) states that Krishna as the Supersoul in our hearts oversees and permits whatever happens to us. That whatever happens to us is caused by our own past karma is preliminary spiritual knowledge. Gita wisdom builds upon this knowledge by outlining Krishna’s specific role in the unfolding of our karmic reactions. He is neither the active imposer nor the passive spectator, but is the proactive selector who ensures that those reactions come upon us in ways that educate and elevate us.

To accelerate our education, Krishna aids us both externally and internally. Externally through the Vedic scriptures, he informs us about the overall direction and destination of the recommended learning trajectory. And internally as the Supersoul, he helps us get realizations through specific life-events. To benefit optimally from his guidance and progress swiftly along the learning trajectory, we need to cultivate a loving attitude by practicing devotional service.

When we thus take Krishna’s guidance in facing life, every moment transforms into an illuminating experience as we learn and grow towards life’s ultimate fulfilment: eternal love.