We help ourselves best by remembering that we are helpless without Krishna

“Help!” That’s how a person fallen in an ocean calls out for rescue. But suppose that person is intoxicated and so doesn’t even realize the danger, leave alone call for help.

Might that be our situation?

Gita wisdom compares material existence to a vast ocean wherein we souls are being tossed by the waves of material desires. The pleasures these desires promise turn out to be temporary and unsatisfactory – they leave us craving and slaving for more. No matter what self-help techniques we try out or what external help we seek at the material level, nothing changes the disappointing nature of material pleasure. Wave-like desires keep tossing us around, harried and helpless.

Surrender is the spiritual equivalent of a drowning person’s call for help.

Being supremely compassionate, Krishna is always ready to help us overcome material nature. All we need to do is surrender to him, as the Gita (07.14) declares. Surrender is the spiritual equivalent of a drowning person’s call for help. We express our surrender by practicing bhakti-yoga wholeheartedly. By so doing, we let Krishna help us – we open our heart to receive his help, which comes frequently in the form of higher wisdom and taste.

Unfortunately however, sensual pleasures that seem available just around the corner often intoxicate us. This inebriation blinds us to our precarious condition and takes away our impetus to call for Krishna. Thus, we unwittingly sentence ourselves to the turbulent material ocean.

Regular study of the Gita empowers us to see through the façade of sense pleasure. It reminds us how helpless we are without Krishna and how much we need him. This reminder inspires us to seek his help. By thus opening our heart to him, we help ourselves in the best possible way, for we let the best possible help – Krishna’s light and love – rescue us from the ocean of illusion.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 Text 14

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