Beloved Bhagawan, in our country, where we see so much need and poverty, we sometimes feel powerless to help people as we should. What do we do at such times?

Public Satsang at Taj Samudra, Colombo, Sri Lanka  – 4th July 2015

Question: Beloved Bhagawan, in our country, where we see so much need and poverty, we sometimes feel powerless to help people as we should. What do we do at such times? Collective prayer? Can Bhagawan tell us something about prayer and how it can help situations of mass need and want? What can we all do for others if the scope of what has to be done is so big and too much for us to handle?

Swami: The problems in the world are plenty, but what you can do as humans with limited abilities and strengths is only so much. However, you must never forget that man plus God can achieve anything. There is nothing impossible when both God and man join together. God alone will not do; man alone cannot do. When they both join together, anything is possible. However, first and foremost, you must do your part to the best of your abilities. That is why I say, do your best and then leave the rest to Me.

In the story of the Mahabharata, Draupadi, the wife of the five Pandavas, was put to a lot of humiliation in the court of the Kauravas. In that moment, she prayed for help from the elders in the court, but they were powerless. They were bound by their own rules. She prayed to her own husbands, who were strong and supposed to protect her, but that also did not happen. They all put their heads down in shame. She tried, herself, to protect her own honour, by holding on to her sari, and not letting the wicked Dushasana snatch it away, but soon, she was totally exhausted. When she had tried everything that she could do, and still could not achieve, for the need was far bigger than her abilities, Krishna manifested. Krishna took care that what was beyond human ability was achieved that day, and she was protected.

What is most important is, with all your might, with all your strength, and with all your abilities, you must do all that you can. If you have done that, and only then if you pray for succor, help will definitely pour in from all sides. Most of the time, when you do very little and think that is all you can do, and you give up too soon and start praying to God to help, it’s not going to work. If God’s help has not yet come, it means you have still not exhausted all that you can do. That is how everyone should think. Once you have totally exhausted all your strength, skills and abilities, then God will manifest to solve the problem.