To understand God’s provision, first understand God’s vision by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09

People sometimes ask, “If I devote myself to God, will he provide for my needs?”

Yes, definitely; but to understand his provision, we need to first understand his vision.

God shares his vision with us through scripture. TheBhagavad-gita expands our vision of ourselves beyond the temporary material body to the eternal spiritual essence – the soul. As we are eternal, we are meant for something far better than struggling for survival in a death-filled world or at best struggling for pleasure in a misery-filled world – which is what provision at the material level essentially boils down to.

Just as a doctor may temporarily restrict patients from some food to expedite treatment, sometimes Krishna may temporarily withhold some things from us to expedite our spiritual recovery.

Krishna’s provision for us is something much better – the provision of the means to attain life eternal and with it joy eternal. That means is the process of yoga, culminating in bhakti-yoga, which is the easiest way to rise from material consciousness to spiritual consciousness.

Additionally, while we are in material existence, he provides for our material needs too. When he provides heat, light, air, water and food for all living beings, even those not devoted to him, won’t he provide for his devotees? He definitely will, as the Bhagavad-gita (09.22) assures.

But just as a doctor may temporarily restrict patients from some food to expedite treatment, sometimes Krishna may temporarily withhold some things from us to expedite our spiritual recovery. But at such times he will make himself especially available through his remembrance, thereby enabling us to realize how such remembrance enables us to tolerate and transcend worldly miseries. When we thus take shelter of him, we realize that absorption in him is our most fundamental necessity, our greatest solace, our ultimate shelter.

When we thus learn to see Krishna’s provision through a holistic vision of our core identity and our core necessity, we will understand that he never leaves us without provision.

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But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form—to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have.