When life’s problems overwhelm us, we usually become disheartened in our spiritual practices like chanting. Those problems distort our vision and make us feel as if they are bigger than even Krishna. Consequently, whenever we think of Krishna during such times, we often justify the deterioration of our spiritual practices: “Krishna, you understand how big this problem is. I need to deal with this first before I can resume proper chanting.”

Gita wisdom helps us understand that resuming proper chanting is the first way to deal with any problem. The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) reminds us that if we become conscious of Krishna, he will, by his grace, help us to cross over all problems. His grace often expresses itself as a perspective-restoring insight: Krishna is far bigger than any problem. He can arrange to solve our biggest problem instantaneously or he can guide us to solve it gradually.

This insight enables us to beat the problem– and the mind that is fretting over it – down to size by proclaiming to it how big Krishna is. This inner proclamation corrects our vision distortion; we no longer see the problem as overwhelming. We realize that, just as Krishna’s grace has enabled us to weather many problems in the past, so it will enable us to weather this problem too. This realization frees us the anxiety-inducing grip of the problem on our mind. Then we discover reserves of mental energy that had been choked earlier and spot solutions that we had missed earlier.

Thus, when we start seeing the bigness of worldly problems as opportunities to deepen our awareness of the bigness of Krishna, problems will no longer agitate us, but will stimulate us instead.