obstacles are servants of the lord

Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyas and He wanted to go to Vrindavana, but Lord Nityananda Prabhu tricked Him to come to Lord Advaita Acarya’s house in Shantipura. Lord Chaitanya stayed there for some time dancing and chanting with the devotees. The devotees recommended to Sacimata that the Lord should go to Jagannath Puri instead of Vrindavana because there Lord Jagannatha (Krishna) lives, and also it was very close to Navadvipa.

A devotee told the Lord that it was not a good time to go to Jagannath Puri because there were rivalries amongst various kingdoms. He said, "They will capture You and torture You and kill You if they catch You. At this time there are not only conflicting kings but all sorts of dacoits who are very, very dangerous. It is better if You wait till a better time; now there are too many obstacles."

Lord Caitanya very boldly declared “When is there ever a time in this material world when there will be not obstacles? I will go to Puri now.” When Advaita Acarya heard this he became ecstatic, he called out "My Lord, what obstacles can possibly disturb You on Your path to Lord Jaganatha?"

Then Advaita Acharya said something that we should all meditate upon, and it will greatly benefit us in our spiritual life. He said, "My Lord, all obstacles are Your servants therefore You will certainly be able to achieve Jaganatha Puri."

All obstacles are the servants of the Lord and the Lord’s mission to the world is to help everyone go back to Godhead. So if all obstacles are the servants of the Lord, they are all serving the Lord by coming in devotees’ life to help them go back home, back to Godhead. When difficulties and hardships come in our spiritual life, we should know that these are the servants of Krishna coming before us to give us the opportunity to purify our hearts and become true devotees of the Lord, and a devotee never gives up hope.

devotees are never discouraged

In the face of great obstacles we have two choices: we can either give up hope and lose our Krishna consciousness, or we can see the wonderful, wonderful, opportunities that Krishna must be giving us in this condition and thus make progress in our Krishna consciousness.

Every obstacle that Krishna put Srila Prabhupada in only glorified him all the more for the whole world to appreciate. When you think about how he was penniless, how he suffered two heart attacks, he was living alone in New York with no one to help him amongst the most sinful people - to understand this hardship only increases our love for Srila Prabhupad. Krishna allowed these obstacles to take place only to serve the mission of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. This is a very great mystery that should be understood within Vaishnava culture that the obstacles that the Lord puts on the devotees are specially meant to increase the Krishna consciousness of that devotees and to glorify that devotee.

In a positive spirit, if we see the opportunity to surrender in that difficulty, then we accept the mercy of the Lord. Therefore the devotees are never discouraged, because we are servants; we are ready to serve Krishna in any way at any time according to His desire.

without love there is no question of happiness

When I was in America, I gave lectures almost every day at various universities. I have given lectures at Harvard and MIT a few times, but I would regularly give lectures in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, etc. And what I found in the atmosphere of colleges in America is so corrupt and so degraded, even though they are factually teaching the highest systems of knowledge in the fields of science, technology, business, computer operations and so on. But as soon as the students leave their classes, there are drugs, there is illicit sex, there is alcohol. There is absolutely no management or control over their senses. 

Students become completely selfish: intoxication and illicit sex makes them completely self-centered and selfish. They get the qualities of lust, greed, envy and pride, and then those same students attain tremendous amounts of immense power by the knowledge they are acquiring. And when they come out of school, what do you expect they are going to do with the powerful knowledge that they have simultaneously acquired with greed, pride, envy, lust, anger and illusion? They are going to take that power, and with greed in mind, with no sense of compassion, mercy, or self discipline, they are going to create havoc and chaos in the world. 

And if you doubt what I am saying; read in the newspapers, look at the world, it’s the educated class of men that are causing these big problems. Where is man’s love and concern for his fellow man? 

Without love there is no question of happiness. And you may be turning your heads and saying, “What is this guy talking about, it’s useless!” But believe me, I have been in your position. I lived in a country which is far more materially progressive than you can imagine, and I have lived within that society, everything at my hands, and I have had every opportunity to take over big companies. 

And so you may be saying, "Oh! What’s this religion, it’s not practical.” But I am speaking of  practicality to you. Consider that some of the wealthiest people in the world, the upper-class income society of America, has the highest rate of suicide in the world. They are more prone to suicide, sleeping pills, and psychiatrists than any other class of men on planet Earth. This is a statistic. 

Do you think that by becoming powerful and wealthy that you are going to find happiness in this life? You will not. At the same time, it does not mean that you can’t be a multi-billionaire, big chairman or president of a board, or a successful businessman. If you find integrity within your own self consciousness, and you find knowledge and happiness and love within, then in any situation you can prosper.

hope for humanity lies within

Look at the mess the world is in today. Do you think it is the uneducated presence that is producing the chaos in the world today? This world is plagued with so many problems that nobody knows what to do anymore. 

Everyone just has to put the blinders over their eyes and think, “Well! I am going to make my life the best I can make it. But as far as the world’s problems... forget it, they're too complicated, the world has gone too far." Even the biggest politicians and scientists in the world are throwing their hands up in the air and saying, “It’s too late.” Look what a mess we have made!!! The ozone is breaking down, the water is polluted, the air is polluted, and there is nuclear radiation filling the earth, ready to break out of its' storage compartments and pollute the ground. 

Population explosions, food shortages, terrorism popping up everywhere, there are wars practically in every corner of the world..! There is crime! There is endless rise in alcoholism and drug addiction! There are horrible and incurable diseases that are threatening the existence of mankind! Do you ever read the newspapers? I’m sure you do. In America, drug addiction is growing so much; some cities are so plagued with drug addiction that they do not know what to do. It’s growing by the day. AIDS is expanding day by day, more and more, and they say by the year 2020, if the disease keeps growing at the rate it is now, one-fourth of Americans will die of AIDS. And so what to speak of pollution in the air, the green house effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rising oceans... and actually, one fifth of the land of today within fifty years may be under water. And it goes on and on... and on.  

These are all man made problems, not natural problems. They are manmade due to mis-management; mismanagement of the environment. And where does this mismanagement of the environment come from? 

Mismanagement of the self. People are victims of lust and greed and pride and envy and illusion and anger. People are engaged in horrible activities which are creating horrible consequences, which affect all of the environment for all life on earth. 

There is a need for self-management. If a person learns to find peace within his own heart, if a person understands knowledge of God that is within his soul, then free from all these obstacles (anarthas) within his mind, he can live in this world effectively and with full concentration, with full determination. The energy that is not being diverted into other directions, and which is turned inward, that person is doing real good work for oneself, one’s family and ultimately, the entire human civilization.