Sometimes when a car doesn’t start, people may come around to push it, to get it to start. At such times, the combined efforts of the driver from within the car and of others from without frequently gets the car to move. But if the driver inside is nonchalantly napping or worse still is forcefully pressing the break, then others will soon stop pushing and leave the car to its fate.

Similarly, we need to know that others can’t push us for long if we actively oppose being pushed thus. We all go through phases of discouragement when we need some push from others to come out of our own mental worlds and keep pressing on in life. While helping each other is a natural and necessary part of living and loving, still such a thing is not something that can allow us to abandon our own responsibility.

The Bhagavad-gita is the word of God – Krishna’s divinity is repeatedly declared in the Gita. And yet despite his omnipotence, the Gita (18.63) concludes with informing Arjuna and through him all of us that we deliberate and decide as we desire. Ultimately, even God can’t push us permanently. He can give us the intellectual push that comes from Gita wisdom and he can urge us to place ourselves in spiritual association that will give us some push too. But beyond that, if we repeatedly show our lack of interest in spiritual growth, then Krishna will leave us to our means. Thankfully, Krishna never leaves us entirely – he stays in our heart and waits for us to exhibit even the slightest spiritual desire that he magnifies and multiplies to propel us towards supreme auspiciousness.