Be Steady in All Circumstances

Due to our materially conditioned natures the pathway back to home, Godhead is not always smooth. Therefore we sometimes face tests that are so severe that they can even be emotionally devastating. So how to deal with this? The key is to be always steady in one's devotional practices through thick and thin. Just like when we are sick and the doctor prescribes some medicine for us, even though we feel sometimes very bad, we faithfully take the medicine every day on the doctor's order. In this way we gradually recover from our diseased condition. In a similar way if we will faithfully execute the orders that we receive from the spiritual master in all circumstances, we will gradually emerge from the dark night of the cycle of birth and death into the beautiful fully illuminated existence of ecstatic divine consciousness, Krishna consciousness. Therefore we should be steady in our practice of Krishna consciousness in all circumstances never allowing anything, no matter what it is, to divert us to even the slightest extent from this wondrous golden road of unlimited devotion.

Be Steady in Your Practice of Krishna Consciousness
Krishna and His Associates are Waiting for Your Glorious Return
to His Eternal Transcendental Kingdom, Goloka Vrindavan

Answers According to the Vedic Version

Question: Do You Really See God?

Dear Gurudeva!

I wish to ask you one thing. Do you really see God? If so, please tell me how you see Him. Or do you only see His presence in feelings? It's my humble request.

Thanks,

Your humble listener,

Lisasaji

Answer: Here's How to Make a Proper Discernment.

You have asked me if I see God, and the answer is certainly that I am seeing God at every minute. Because God is omnipresent, everyone is seeing God at every minute. But the God-seeing of the Krishna conscious person and the materially conditioned person are quite different. The conditioned soul sees God in
His not so pleasant form of death. That Krishna is death is confirmed as follows in the Bhagavad-gita:

mṛtyuḥ sarva-haraś cāham

"I am all-devouring death."
--Bhagavad-gita 10.34

The conditioned person in the material energy sees God in a very fearful way because when God appears in the form of death He takes away everything that the conditioned person holds to be near and dear.

But the Krishna conscious person sees God within and without in His beautiful all-attractive feature as the all-merciful Supreme Personality of Godhead at every minute. Therefore the Krishna conscious person does not live within the material energy like the materialists. He is living within the Lord's spiritual energy experiencing the Lord's unlimited absolute benevolence at every minute.

You are asking how I am seeing God. Am I seeing him indirectly as a materialist, or am I seeing directly him as a Krishna conscious person? In this regard please understand that many people have claimed that they can see God. But how can we confirm whether they are telling the truth or not? So the real point is that we have to become learned in the science of the Bhagavad-gita to know who is actually Krishna conscious and who is not. So if we want to know if a particular person can see God or not, we have to carefully study the Bhagavad-gita as it is and carefully study the particular person also. In this way we can know whether he can directly see God or not.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari