When adversity paves the way for prosperity (Gita Daily)

Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10, Text 10

When we practice devotional service, we often expect that we will automatically get protection from worldly adversity. So we become baffled on discovering that devotees are not exempt from material adversities.

We naturally get the question: Why?

Many millennia ago, this same question was asked by the virtuous king Yudhishthira to Krishna. The gist of Krishna’s answer in the Srimad Bhagavatam (10.88.8) is that material adversities pave the way for the devotees’ spiritual prosperity. Let’s see how.

The eternal, unchangeable reality is that our relationship with Krishna is our only real prosperity. Everything in this world is material and temporary, whereas we as souls are spiritual and eternal. So nothing of this world can give us actual happiness; none of it is our real wealth. Still, we sometimes get allured by worldly things, imagining that they will make us prosperous.

That’s why Krishna occasionally allows adversities to take away our pseudo-prosperities so that we are left with no alternative except to turn to him for shelter — and thereby realize how our relationship with him constitutes our only true prosperity. Of course, it is not Krishna, but our own past karma, that causes those adversities. But Krishna orchestrates them so that they become opportunities for us to realize our actual prosperity.

Read More – http://www.gitadaily.com/2013/07/26/when-adversity-paves-the-way-for-prosperity/