Can we apply this in our lives?
 

I remember watching a scene on TV where:
Kunti asked Krishna that why didn't he help Draupadi before; Krishna replied something like that how could he help her when she was asking help from others.
I think context is when Draupadi was summoned, she kept asking help from different persons, they didn't help, she asked Krishna for help, he helped.

I don't know whether the above story about Kunti is true but it seemed logical to me that God may want to avoid snatching someone else's opportunity of helping. Can we apply this in our lives? Krishna's logic is seeming valid to me for the situation he was asked about but what about prayers by others? If Krishna would have been answering my every prayer, i think then i could have stopped asking others for help but Krishna hasn't answered all my prayers.

Namaste.

Draupadi was kinda known for her lack of faith and ability to surrender to Krishna or heed one thing at the expense of another.

Sometimes God helps through another person, but Draupadi couldn't see that. She's the type who would go to a doctor and a healer to 'cover all bases' just in case one failed because she couldn't place her full trust in either.

It's like placing each foot in two different rowboats, you'll only end up falling in the water and drowning.

Draupadi got her enlightenment in the end though, in front of the Pandavas and Duryodhana.

After she was 'lost' in a game of dice, Duryodhana asked his guards to help her disrobe.

Now, Draupadi was still clutching on to her sari - trying to pull it out of the guards hands...she was still trying to cover her nakedness and her shame with her hands...she still couldn't ask Krishna for help - even though she had her menses and was being publicly shamed, she couldn't...

It was only after she realised this, saw her whole life and everything she had done...she removed both hands from trying to cover her shame and held both hands up high in the air...raised them both, right up there...and in a moment of divine love and total surrender, beseeched Krishna..."NOW will you help me?"

....and He did by becoming her never-ending sari - Draupadi achieved enlightenment.

Aum Namah Shivaya

Can we apply this in our lives?...I will call it...''relying completely
on God''?
Yes...100%...yes. :smile:

Being a self employed person...it may even be more apparent
than a person that receives a steady pay check at a secure job.
I ask no one for anything...yet, God works thru them...
in ways that are hard for some people to even believe.
:notworthy:

...about Krishna not answering your prayers...

Praying to God is a rather farcical thing humans do because God already knows both content and intent before any words are even uttered.

Why would something that would have happened 'as a result of prayer' not necessarily have happened anyway? it is only logical.

Prayer is all about opening up the heart, opening it way up and just surrendering whatever there is of 'self' fully into it.

When the heart is open, this tends to happen anyway and prayer should be an expression of love rather than "I need this answer" or "I need your help" or "please talk to me". Krishna knows all those things already, so give Him something he wasn't expecting, say "I love You" and mean it.

Say "I love you" to God the same way as you would to your beloved, or to your child, or to whomever you feel a deep connection with here on earth.

This may be difficult for you, but find a nice picture of Krishna...one you really like the look/feel of and just gaze at it. Light a candle in front of it in a darkened room and while the picture has your attention, go "You are my everything and my heart is all yours. I may not tell you as often as I should because I presumed you knew it...but I love you so deeply....so much and I am nothing without you and your guidance and wisdom..."

I mean, really go into this and allow yourself to feel it...allow it to touch your heart...allow Krishna to reach there and not just be a 'God' but your true friend, your lover, your life and inspiration (coming from the word inspire-to breathe in). This is prayer.

Allow your Ishta Dewata to be the reason why it is your Ishta Dewata and keep going back to that meaning.

Eventually you'll notice things happening and answers to your prayers and even though they may have not been the answers you wanted or anticipated, you'll see them as answers anyway.

All the best.

Aum Namah Shivaya

You took the words right out of my mouth. Yes...for the exact reason that you gave.

(I had never thought of the Draupadi story in that particular way, and I also want to thank the original poster for sharing that perspective. It resonates with me.)

For me the very second she turned to Krishna that was it...done.
That is the clarity to carry into your life regarding everything...
it is not relying on God 80% of the time...because the other 20% is beyond Him or too small for Him...no...
the job,
the money, the lost receipt...everything in God's World means everything.
Relying and trusting only in Him ...means only in Him...for
every single thing.

There really is no gray area here. I'm sorry I am very dispassionate like a soldier...
there is no thinking about this...it is crystal clear to me.
Rely on God for everything.

I sound so intense about it...I am...:tongue:

Well, I don't hear people say this everyday...I started a thread on this.
:thumbsup:

It took me a long time to get equally intense about it...but I AM now.

When one relies on the limited perspective of the little separatist-ego (our own as well as others), it's the "worm's eye view of the world". When one annihilates the little separatist ego and soars like an eagle into the sky of God Consciousness, one sees the Big Picture, attunes to the "Thy Will be Done" principle, and acts as wisely as possible in the best interests of all. It's actually quite logical but, more importantly, IT WORKS best (at least for me).

Since the insights on this thread are so illuminating, I want to raise a somewhat related issue. In the Ramayana, I was always disturbed by the fact that Ram sent Sita away to the forest despite her being totally pure of any involvement with Ravana. (She had even gone successfully through the trial by fire.) I have an acquaintance, a Vedanta scholar, with whom I discussed this subject. According to him, Ram abided by the rules of society for a king when he did this but, when he returned as Krishna, he cleverly found ways to bend the rules. I'd be curious to hear the comments of the illustrious ones here on this subject as well.

His what my acquaintance had to say on this subject. It makes sense, but it still doesn't completely satisfy me. Somehow, I think that Krishna might have acted differently.

"Ram did not send Sita away. It was his role as a king and his strong adherence to rules that did. He enforced rules down peoples' throat because he thought that that was the right thing to do. That was what his forefathers did. He also saw how they suffered when they let emotions got into their ways.

Ram suffered tremendously to send Sita to the forest. But, as a leader, if your actions disturb your people then you have to choose your people. The laundry-guy that caused this conflict was adamant and Ram had trouble retorting simply because it was Ram against him and not just two mere citizens.

The whole message demonstrates that we cannot forget that rules and logics are just man-made constructs placed for a higher cause. Often people forget this, not because it is their faults but, because of the culture that they are involuntarily born into and expect to carry on without deeper understanding. Majority of people are ok with following. It is just a few that question the status quo. Eventually, when things got so out of hand, that same Ram came as Krishna and showed us ways to bend the rules.

This is the reason people love Krishna so much: he cleverly shows how to live by rules and at the same time bend those rules or even break them."

>I ask no one for anything...yet

Miss Hepburn, then what about the questions you've asked on these forums, please? I'm not talking about like asking questions to start a discussion but questions where it's seeming to me that you're asking members of these forums for help instead of directly asking God:

2016
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...d.php?t=105425
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...d.php?t=105140

2014
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=75154

2013
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=54793
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=50576
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=45626

2011
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=27689
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=27349
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=26412
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=23169
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...ad.php?t=19960