frustrated

[piyush12july]

sometimes i feel,i am following krishna consiousness as i am frustrated from my continuous defeat..dont know if faith is coming from within..this feeling is neither helping me to progress in material life nor in krishna consiousness ..what should i do??please take me out of this dilemma..

[vgopikrishna]

Dear Prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances.

1- Regardless of what our situation is we must continue with our Devotional Service - Strictly follow the Four Regulative Principles, Chant 16 Rounds Daily, Observe Ekadashi, Read Srila Prabhupada's Books, Associate and Serve Vaishnava's. By practicing this Seriously, Strictly and Sincerely we will learn to take Shelter of Guru and Krishna every moment and then whatever happens externally does affect us.

2- In difficult times i found that talking to and associating with Devotees helps tremendously. Please remember that we will always need help from other Devotees to make progress in Devotional Service. Alone, we will get lost. ISKCON as a society primarily exists for this Purpose - It gives a platform for Devotees to help each other and collectively Progress in Devotional Service.

3- Lastly please remember that this Material World is a place of Dualities and everything here is Temporary. We must practice (Serious, Strict and Sincere Saadhana) to overcome these Dualities (I know this is easier said than done).

4- You can listen to some wonderful lectures that can help you increase Faith and deal with Difficulties. A good place to start would be viewtopic.php?f=7&t=407 followed by http://audion.iskcondesiretree.info.

5- HG Sankarshan Prabhu wrote a wonderful message in his Daily Broadcast Message yesterday:

What to do when turmoil hits?

Even though we do not like turmoil, as long as we are in this material existence by the laws of this material nature we will be hit by turmoil again and again. How we deal with turmoil will either make us or break us on the pathway of spiritual enlightenment. Therefore it behooves us to learn how to deal with turmoil in the proper Krishna conscious manner.

The first thing to remember is that everything is going on under the superintendence of Krishna. This means that we have absolutely nothing to fear except forgetfulness of Krishna and that if even in the midst of the greatest turmoil we can always remember Krishna we will never be defeated in any circumstance. This is guaranteed as follows in the Bhagavad-gita:

yatra yogeśvaraḥ kṛṣṇo
yatra pārtho dhanur-dharaḥ
tatra śrīr vijayo bhūtir
dhruvā nītir matir mama

"Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion."
--Bhagavad-gita 18.78

Of course, in the short run victory may not always be apparent, just like it is sometimes said that one may lose a battle but win the war. So we always have to keep a long range vision of what is ultimately beneficial for our deliverance from this material existence, not for our enjoyment of this temporary place. By keeping this long range vision we will always be able to perceive the loving mercy of Lord Sri Krishna blessing us at every step, and thus we can always remain peaceful and happy even in the midst of the greatest turmoil.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

6- http://vedabase.net/bg/2/14/en

mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino 'nityās
tāḿs titikṣasva bhārata

O son of Kuntī, the nonpermanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons. They arise from sense perception, O scion of Bharata, and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga.