A spiritually enlightened person sees everything as the blessing of Krishna. How can we possibly see a catastrophic circumstance as the special kindness of God? This is very, very difficult. No matter how well situated we are in this material world each and every one of us will have to witness our nice situation being gradually or suddenly eroded by sickness, old age, and death. Therefore the occasional upheavals we all experience when dealing with the material nature are a great blessing to help us prepare for the final test at the end of our lives.

It is very easy to philosophize about the suffering of others, but how will we react when that suffering comes to us? This is the real test to determine how much we are actually realized in Krishna consciousness. Will we become completely devastated or will we remain blissfully fixed on the transcendental platform completely beyond the dualities of this material nature? That depends on how we prepare ourselves. So how do we prepare ourselves in such a way that the material nature can never devastate us? This is the most important thing. We must become very solidly situated in Krishna consciousness. We have to be absolutely, totally fixed in our determination to become and remain pure devotees of Krishna. To do this we must have absolute unflinching faith in the words of Krishna and in the words of our spiritual master. This unflinching faith enables us to enter into the sublime understanding of the Bhagavad-gita and the Srimad-Bhagavatam and to always retain a scriptural perspective on everything that is happening both externally and within our minds.

This is confirmed in the Svetasvatara Upanisad 6.23 as follows:

yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau tasyaite kathita hy arthah prakasante mahatmanah

"If one has unflinching faith in the Supreme Lord and the spiritual master, the essence of all Vedic knowledge is revealed to him."

How do come to the position of unflinching faith? We must always continuously think of Krishna. While chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, the words Krishna and Hare can immediately remind us of all the Lord's activities. Since his entire life is engaged in the service of the Lord, a devotee cannot forget the Lord at any time. Just as an ordinary man always engages his mind in material activities, a devotee always engages his mind in spiritual activities. This is called brahma-satra, or meditating upon the Supreme Lord always. The spiritual master initiates his disciples into this practice.