We may sometimes be victimized. How can we deal with the resulting devastation? By ensuring that the emotional dimension of the victimization doesn’t aggravate our distress.

If the victimization hurts us physically, we usually do the needful for physical healing. But emotionally, our mind frequently does the opposite of what is needed for healing. It replays the distressing events repeatedly and torments us with questions that lead us to dead ends – questions such as, “Why did this happen? How dare this person do like this? If only I had not done that, this tragedy could have been averted.”

If we keep agonizing over the victimization, we start identifying ourselves as victims. But we don’t need to. We may suffer a painful loss, but we don’t have to define ourselves in terms of that loss as, say, an orphan, a widow or a refugee.

How can we avoid identifying ourselves as victims? By gaining spiritual knowledge that reveals our essential identity and ultimate purpose. The Bhagavad-gita explains that we all are souls who are parts of Krishna and are meant to delight in loving service to him. No victimization, however severe, can take away our identity that we are parts of Krishna. Nor can it take away our purpose of serving him – whatever our situation, we can serve him in some way or the other.

Bolstered by this understanding, if we take small steps in Krishna’s service, he will open new doors for us and guide us to a better life. Ultimately, by serving him steadily, we will have not only a better life but also an eternal life of pure love for him. That divine love will render inconsequential all our physical and emotional wounds. And it will elevate us from being temporary material victims to becoming everlasting spiritual victors.

Think it over:

  • How does the mind hurt us instead of healing us?
  • How can victimization shape our identity negatively?
  • How does spiritual knowledge help us rise beyond victimization?

To know more about this verse, please click on the image
Explanation of article:

Podcast:

Download by “right-click and save”