One day, in Vrindavan, the gopis were drawing water from the village well. After filling their vessels, they called Krishna, who was playing nearby, to help them place the pots on their heads. Krishna pretended not to hear. He continued to laugh and play. Ignoring them, he ran away. The gopis had no other option but to help each other stack the pots on each others’ heads themselves and return home.
When they reached their doorsteps, they found Krishna waiting, eagerly waiting to help them take them down. “Where was this enthusiasm when we asked you to help us keep the pots on our heads?” they asked in annoyance.
Krishna smiled innocently and said, “What can I do? My job isn’t to put burdens on people’s heads but to remove them!”
Human beings also create their own suffering in life due to their misconceptions and then keep brooding over them. Once, a man was standing on a train with his suitcase on his head, crying loudly. Seeing him crying, another passenger asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”
The man replied, “This suitcase is too heavy. I can’t carry it!”
So, the other passenger said, “Then just put it down!”
The first man replied, “No! How can I? I only bought a ticket for myself! I didn’t buy one for my suitcase.”
The poor man in this story does not realize that whether he carries the suitcase on his head or not, the train is still carrying the weight.
This is how our condition is today. We find it so hard to surrender to the divine. In life, we can only put forth our best of effort and surrender the rest to the divine will. It is in that state of surrender that the Lord accepts all our burdens. Sorrows are our creation — not God’s.
If we want to be able to face them, then we need to unburden ourselves of them, like how, in olden times, workers would place their loads on platforms by the side of the road to get some rest. We need surrender, which when viewed from another angle is nothing but Self-confidence. It is the confidence that the Divine will take care of everything. Self-confidence is like the booster rocket that is required to break free from this gravitational pull of our limitations. It is like the fuel in the tank of a vehicle that takes the vehicle ahead.
There are people who keep blindly investing money in their own business even if it is incurring losses. This is not the kind of self-confidence Amma is talking about. We can never sleep near the den of a serpent, as we will be in constant fear that the snake will emerge and bite us. Anxiety about the future, lack of faith —these are the snakes we carry within. We need to surrender such anxieties at the feet of the divine. We need to put forth our effort and leave the rest to Divine will. We have to develop acceptance of all situations.