Why Krishna gives ailments to Gurus who are His representatives?
A male devotee (name hidden) asked like this:
“Hare Krishna prabhu ji, I have one question, when we are sincere devotee of lord krishna, even though in our past we might have done some henious acts but now we are devotee of lord. Cant lord forgive our past sins? Am talking about the guru ……………….. I don’t know him, so please forgive me if am sounding rude. Am just clearing my doubts.
Am talking about his condition that when someone is a devotee or representative of lord then how come one can become this much affected physically.”
REPLY:
Since i consider it as my duty to remove some wrong perceptions from the mind of every single devotee, I have been replying to every genuine doubt asked in good intention as the devotees may hesitate to ask a few sensitive questions to other devotees.
They are asking the doubt coming in their mind and if I clarify them, they will become clear and start to respect the system more.
Who said that the Gurus and devotees of Krishna should not be given diseases, pains and problems?
It is not true that Krishna gives ailments to the gurus and devotees. The ailments and pains are voluntarily accepted by the gurus and the devotees. Let us see that in detail below.
Krishna will consider clearing a qualified devotee’s pains by moderating karma in his account IF THAT QUALIFIED DEVOTEE PRAYS FOR IT.
But, SUH A QUALIFIED DEVOTEE WILL NEVER PRAY FOR ANY FAVOUR FROM KRISHNA. He will be ready to face any pain in the process of serving the Lord.
So, Krishna allows them to clear their karma by facing the reactions, but in FAST TRACK mode.
(How Krishna clears the karma? READ HERE.)
In fact, they will face more.
If anyone is destined to go back to Krishna soon, Krishna starts to clear that person from all his pending karma because one can’t enter into Krishna’s kingdom with the trace of uncleared karmic reactions.
So, Krishna is in a position to clear the pending karma of that devotee and make him pure from karmic storage as early as possible.
The non devotees may be allowed to face their karma in phases in every birth. But, Krishna does not give more births to his dedicated devotees. He wants to take that devotee back to Him at the earliest.
So, he gives the reactions of his karma of all the previous births IN FAST TRACK MODE in this birth or in a very few births itself, without giving more births.
Being a guru is not a cool job. As all of you know, the guru-disciple relation involves karma transfer. Hundreds of disciples may commit offenses. These offenses will affect the heath of guru only. If one likes to serve Krishna as a guru to deliver more disciples, he has to face these pains. No other way.
If all the disciples follow all the devotional rules strictly, the guru will remain healthy. We can’t expect that all the disciples will follow the rules strictly. So, though a guru performs all his sadhanas strictly, the violations of his disciples will add day by day and affect that guru.
(How to take Diksha (Initiation) and become a disciple of a guru (spiritual master) in ISKCON? READ HERE!)
That is why, I do not support accepting a guru until you start following the rules. A devotee should not accept a diksha guru if he is not following the rules properly.
Out of mercy, i.e., to deliver more disciples, a few gurus accept more disciples. They are ready to face the heat of the bundle of karma from hundreds of disciples. Krishna too makes them capable of bearing those karma. However, because of the more number of disciples committing offenses, a few gurus may be more affected.
A guru himself willingly accepts those pains and the pains are not given by Krishna. However, Krishna too gives the gurus the capacity to bear them though they seem to suffer outside.
Of course, the health is affected. But, he is given strength by Krishna to bear that pain. That’s all.
(Why don’t you recommend to us which Diksha Guru to choose in ISKCON? READ HERE!)
No one will willingly accept more and more pains. But, the gurus accept more disciples knowing that it will affect their health.
Why?
It is their mercy towards fallen souls. They like to help more devotees to go back to Krishna. So, they take this risk. Krishna too gives them energy to bear the pains.
Until a guru is accepting the karma of disciples, he will be adding more and more pains for himself. But, since his intention is great, i.e, to deliver his disciples, Krishna gives him capacity to bear and burn his accumulating karma.
As a disciple, atleast we must resolve that we should not be a cause for the pain for our guru and tell these facts to as much erring disciples as possible.
Hope this has cleared your doubt why Krishna gives ailments to Gurus though they are His representatives.
(Why our problems continue even after initiation if guru accepts our karma? READ HERE!)