Question
I don’t mean anything extravagant, but at least whatever is enough to feel happy with the process and hopeful about pleasing Krsna.
Answer
Krishna gives mercy to everyone, devotees or not devotees. But, in general, most people have a difficult time understanding, recognizing and accepting what mercy is.
Non-devotees may think that mercy is to have daily bread. Others, to become famous. Others, to get a beautiful wife and have nice kids. Others, to become rich and powerful.
Some devotees think that mercy is to come “to do service” in the States or to become temple presidents, GBC, and so on and so forth.
Mercy is also to have to spend 13 years in exile, like what happened to the Pandavas. Mercy is also to have to spend years without real possibilities to preach and so fulfill the order of his spiritual master, like what happened to Srila Prabhupada for a period of his life.
During moments like those, we might not see that as mercy, but later the Lord’s plan becomes clear.
Mercy is also having to pay our karma, partially or entirely. Mercy is also events that we see as bad such as a disease, or failures in anything we do.
When everything goes sour (and it happens often) we may cry, “but Krishna, why don’t you give mercy to me that I am struggling in bhakti-yoga?”
We certainly need more maturity to understand what mercy is. If we are patient and stay the course in the future it will become clear.
On the other end, what choice we have if not to accept what comes to us, even if it does not make us happy? Can we reverse the course of our upcoming situation?
Whether it is a leftover of our past karma or the direct mercy of the Lord, the only thing we can do is tolerate.
This is a section of the book “Brilliant as the Sun”.
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