Accepting Impediments and Arrangements

TRANSLATION "My dear King, do not be agitated and anxious because your sacrifices have not been properly executed due to providential impediments. Kindly take my words with great respect. We should always remember that if something happens by providential arrangement, we should not be very sorry. The more we try to rectify such reversals, the more we enter into the darkest region of materialistic thought."

PURPORT Sometimes the saintly or very religious person also has to meet with reversals in life. Such incidents should be taken as providential. Although there may be sufficient cause for being unhappy, one should avoid counteracting such reversals, for the more we become implicated in rectifying such reversals, the more we enter into the darkest regions of material anxiety. Lord Krsna has also advised us in this connection. We should tolerate things instead of becoming agitated.

(Lord Brahma speaking to Maharaja Prithu, Srimad Bhagavatam 4.19.34)

While we certainly must attend to illness, fire, accidents, circumstances which are causing impediments to our service, etc -- we must not become obsessed with the situation. There is a time and place for simply accepting these things as providential.

(Explained by HH Romapada Swami)