Divine Shelter

The Need to Know It and Attain It

The material world offers countless shelters that promise to
fulfill our innate desire for pleasure, but they all must inevitably fail.

by Rukmini Vallabha Dasa

PLEASURE and protection are basic human needs. In fact, the two go together. We seek shelters (protection) that will provide pleasure – shelters such as wealth, career, and family. We find, though, that these offer only limited and temporary results. God’s shelter, however, is beyond all limitations.

We are pleasure seeking by nature. We want to experience unending pleasure, and we constantly pursue it by trying different sources of it. For example, to get pleasure, people seek the shelter of a family. Parents work hard to provide for the family and enhance the quality of the pleasure derived from it. They want the pleasure to last indefinitely by protecting the family from internal disturbances and external threats. People also turn to sensuality, social service, and intellectual pursuits as sources of pleasure.

Worldly Shelters

The sources of pleasure in this world are constrained by various limitations – our ability to experience pleasure from any shelter is limited, the amount of pleasure derived from any shelter is limited, the ability of any shelter to offer pleasure is limited, even the life span of any shelter is limited. For example, a mother cannot offer complete protection for her child. She cannot cure all diseases, she cannot offer all types of pleasure, she has limited money and ability, she cannot always be with the child because she has to take care of herself and her relationships, and she’s subject to disease, old age, and eventually death. The shelter of a mother can offer only limited protection and pleasure, both constrained by time, place, and circumstance.

Similarly, all material shelters offer only limited pleasure and exist only for a limited time. Although we expend a great deal of time and energy procuring, maintaining, and securing these shelters, our endeavors end up in failure and frustration. Are we forever doomed to fail in our attempts to find lasting shelter? No. But we need to find a shelter beyond this world.

Divine Shelter And Its Features

The Bhagavad-gita (2.17) points out that each of us is constitutionally an eternal spiritual being covered by a temporary material body. The actual pleasure we can experience is also spiritual, not material. Our ability to experience spiritual pleasure is not limited by space and time. It can be experienced by taking shelter of God, Krishna, through bhakti-yoga. Krishna’s ability to offer us spiritual pleasure is beyond all limitations. Bhakti-yoga is based on selfless service to Krishna. Since He is unlimited, in bhakti there is unlimited scope and variety for eternity. Therefore the pleasure in devotional service is unlimited – ever-increasing and never-ending.

Krishna’s divine shelter can completely fulfill our innate needs for protection and pleasure. From time immemorial, people have taken shelter of God for various reasons. Some seek protection from distress, some seek material pleasures, and some seek spiritual knowledge and salvation. The story of Prahlada vividly illustrates different aspects of Krishna’s shelter. Prahlada was the son of a demoniac king named Hiranyakasipu. When Prahlada was still in his mother’s womb, he learned from the sage Narada the glories of divine shelter and the means to attain it. After his birth, he was naturally devoted to God. His demoniac father was averse to God and devotion to Him and employed wicked means to dissuade little Prahlada from his devotion, resorting to brainwashing, insults, torture, and even attempts to kill him. Amidst all these trying circumstances, Prahlada, fixed in the Lord’s divine shelter, experienced hope, happiness, security, and satisfaction. 

The Power Of Our Sense Of Identity

Our identity and values are a core aspect of our existence. They define us and our purpose in life. We constantly strive to protect, preserve, and perpetuate our identity and the values associated with it. If we identify ourselves with the body and give utmost value to shelters based on it, we are bound to face much uncertainty and insecurity because the body is temporary and subject to disease, deterioration, and death. Various material factors can affect bodily shelters. For example, we can lose our relationships with our parents, spouse, and children at any time. But there is no chance of feeling insecure when we identify as a spiritual being unaffected by worldly changes and disturbances and value our relationship with God, who is eternal. Prahlada identified himself as a servant of Krishna and valued every opportunity to remember Him and offer Him service. Hiranyakasipu tried to disturb and destroy everything belonging to Prahlada, including his body, his relationships with his mother and friends, and his status as a prince. But Prahlada always felt reciprocation from Krishna and secure in their relationship. When we keep our spiritual identity as our foundation and harmonize our functional identities – child, student, citizen, etc. – with our relationship with Krishna, then we can feel safe and secure, unaffected by worldly threats and tribulations.

Pursuit Of Purpose

The purpose we pursue is another important aspect of our life. It determines the plans we make and the priorities we set. If our purpose is centered on a material shelter like career, wealth, or social status, which are subject to change and destruction, then we are prone to experience confusion, frustration, and emptiness. We will also lack coherence and fullness in life. When we seek divine shelter, however, our purpose is to progress in our relationship with God. As spiritual beings, both we and Krishna are beyond the influence of time and not subject to change and destruction. When we take shelter of Krishna, we can experience stability in life.

Prahlada initially experienced persecution at the hands of his father. Then, after his father’s death, he experienced great prosperity and success. Since Prahlada was fixed in his relationship with Krishna as His devotee, he was equipoised and grounded amidst success and defeat. Because Krishna is behind everything in the world, when we harmonize our worldly activities with our relationship with Him, we can experience coherence and fullness in life.

In this world of duality and impermanence, suffering is inevitable. We have a need to make sense of difficulties so that we can proceed in life. Because the material paradigm is not based on the actual purpose of human life and the world, it can provide only a superficial explanation for the distress we go through. For example, the material paradigm may attribute our distress to ill luck, incompetence, or lack of order in our life. Any respite provided by a material shelter is temporary and filled with duality, which means that it can entangle us in future suffering, as scratching an itch aggravates the itching. A material shelter can also degrade us into vices like intoxication. On the other hand, God’s divine shelter can help us make sense of the difficulties we go through, such as when we understand the concept of destiny and the journey of the soul through multiple lives.

Krishna’s love for us is eternal, unconditional, and uninterrupted. Devotional service to Him is imperishable and beyond dualities. Prahlada, amidst all reversals and rejections, found acceptance and assurance in his relationship with Krishna. He cherished every opportunity to serve Krishna and looked forward to more and better opportunities to do so. Divine shelter offers true solace and hope.

Real, Sustainable Completeness

Contentment is an outcome of feeling complete under a shelter. Completeness needs to be measured in breadth as well as depth. When one is full – when one’s sensual, emotional, intellectual, and egoistic needs are fulfilled – one does not have any external demands and expectations. A material shelter like a spouse or money may initially promise or give a sense of completeness, but it cannot be sustained and wanes in a short time. On the other hand, the sense of completeness offered by the divine shelter is real and sustainable because Krishna is eternal and His love for all souls is eternal. Krishna is all-attractive, most attractive, and ever attractive. The completeness experienced in Krishna’s shelter is eternal and immunizes a devotee against seeking anything external. Prahlada was fully absorbed in remembering Krishna, and he lost all attraction to royal opulence, comforts, and indulgences and the promises of power, prestige, and popularity as a prince. Divine shelter offers sustainable satisfaction.

It is natural for the mind to offer various material propositions for pleasure. Through a material shelter like family relationships, profession, or wealth, some material desires get fulfilled and there is some respite. Nonetheless, the mind continues to bring other unfulfilled material desires to the forefront. Lord Krishna describes the materially absorbed mind as one’s worst enemy (Gita 6.6). Under divine shelter, the material desires stored in the mind get gradually purified. As the mind become free of lust, anger, greed, and other vices, one can experience tranquility beyond any external influence. Prahlada was pure. He saw everything in relation to Krishna and lost the desire to enjoy. He saw his father with compassion and thus did not harbor any malice toward him for his actions. This kind of tranquility strengthens ones focus on the divine shelter.

Any material shelter requires that we deal with matter constantly with our body, mind, and words. This plants desires to enjoy matter (Gita 2.62). In this way one gets entangled more and more. Life becomes complicated because of a network of material desires and the anxieties associated with them. On the other hand, divine shelter frees one from material involvement. The deeper we go into the divine shelter of Krishna, the more we are freed from material needs and desires. Because Prahlada’s life centered on remembering Krishna, he lost all interest in the topics of worldly politics and diplomacy taught in his school. One’s life becomes simpler when one takes divine shelter.

We can access Krishna’s shelter anywhere, anytime through service to Him, dovetailing all types of engagements of body, mind, and words. Serving Krishna does not require any preconditions. There is no discrimination based on color, race, education, or social status. He values inner sincerity above external competence. If the required paraphernalia are not available, service can even be offered within the mind. This is not possible in mundane and selfish relationships where externals and results are given greater importance than attempts and emotions.

Krishna’s shelter is not meant to just offer protection from material entanglement but to offer a personal and everlasting relationship with Him. He has an exquisite, enchanting form and numerous wonderful qualities, such as compassion. He performs countless pastimes with His loving devotees. His qualities and pastimes inspire us to nurture our relationship with Him. When we develop pure love for Him, we can serve Him eternally in a mood of servitude, friendship, parenthood, or amorous love. Krishna can simultaneously love everyone and make everyone feel loved.

Attaining Divine Shelter

The first step in attaining divine shelter is to understand what it is and the need for it. We are helped in this understanding by learning about devotees who attained Krishna’s divine shelter in the past. Considering the limitations and futility of other shelters in the world also helps, as does studying bhakti texts like Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Bhagavad-gita. Our learning will be more effective in the company of like-minded souls. Clear knowledge and right understanding lead to correct and committed practice of devotional service.

Devotional practice, bhakti-yoga, consists primarily of hearing about Krishna, chanting His names, and rendering service to Him. We integrate these devotional practices into our daily life, balancing them with our family and worldly responsibilities. As we become steady in our practice and pure in heart, Krishna reciprocates and offers His shelter more and more. Then we can deeply experience all aspects of Krishna’s divine shelter, which begin with security and progress to unparalleled sweetness.

Rukmini Vallabha Dasa, a disciple of His Holiness Radhanath Swami, began practicing Krishna consciouness in 2010 and serves full time at ISKCON Pune. He is a research student at Bhaktivedanta Research Center, Mumbai, and blogs at https://spiritualwisdomonline.com.