Krishna Is In The Heart: How Criticism Becomes Stimulus for Growth

12 August 2025  

In the Bhagwat Gita, Shree Krishna reveals to Arjuna that He resides in the heart of all living beings, embodying their beginning, middle, and end. He also shares that among the senses, He is the mind, and that the Soul within each of us is, in essence, God Himself. When faced with criticism or condemnation, recognize that Krishna is at work, using others as stimulus for growth. Though the process can be challenging, it is through these experiences that HariHar shapes devotees into resilient, selfless, and detached individuals.  

~ Sudhir Singh

In the Bhagwat Gita, Shree Krishna tells Arjuna something that changes our perspective to see the entire world. He says that He resides in the heart of all living beings. He is the beginning, middle, and end. Among the senses, He is the mind. And in the form of Consciousness also known as Soul (Aatman), it is He who resides in all mortal human beings. In essence, Consciousness, itself is all pervasive God. When this very understanding settles in our hearts, people stop looking like opponents and start looking like instruments in a larger Leela.

This truth is tested the most when criticism arrives. The moment we choose silence, discipline, or a different path, the world reacts and at that point, the Gita invites us to see differently. When faced with criticism, recognize that Krishna is at work. He is using people as stimulus for growth. The words may still hurt, but they are no longer the final judgment on our worth. They become tools in the hands of HariHar, the force that both preserves and purifies. The process is not comfortable. It burns ego, it burns the craving for approval, it burns the reflex to react. Yet it is this very fire that shapes a devotee into someone resilient, selfless, and detached. Resilient enough to stand steady in noise, selfless enough to serve without keeping accounts, detached enough to do the duty and release the result.

For this kind of life, we need more than intelligence. IQ can open doors, but it cannot keep the heart steady when those doors close. That is why Spiritual Quotient and Emotional Quotient are required to be successful in life. Spiritual Quotient is the ability to see meaning beyond the present moment. It is the remembrance that the same presence sitting in my heart is also sitting in the heart of the person who is criticizing me. With SQ we stop taking every comment as an attack and start asking what is being taught. SQ gives direction and purpose. Without it, even achievement feels empty because we do not know why we are achieving.

Emotional Quotient is the ability to meet that teaching without losing ourselves. It is the trained mind that Krishna calls His own among the senses. With EQ we can feel hurt without becoming hurtful. We can hear feedback without collapsing, and we can set boundaries without turning cold. EQ protects our relationships while we grow. It teaches us to respond than to react, to regulate than to suppress, to stay human under pressure.

When Spiritual Quotient and Emotional Quotient work together, endurance is born. SQ gives us the why and the who, the assurance that we are not alone and that the Divine is within. EQ gives us the how, the skill to walk with people while we walk toward our purpose. A sharp mind without SQ and EQ may win arguments but lose peace. A person with SQ and EQ may lose a few battles, but they win the larger war of becoming.

Silence is the first gateway to yoga because it is in silence that we hear this most clearly. The Soul in me is God. The Soul in you is God too. From that place, criticism is no longer poison. It is prasad. It is the shaping hand of HariHar. So the next time words come at you, take one breath before you answer. Ask what is being taught, and ask how you can respond without abandoning yourself. That small pause is where transformation begins. Walk like the eagle above the wind. Let the noise pass. Let the shaping continue.

She who is Uma is verily Vishnu Himself

In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, it is stated that when Krishna (Aadi Shakti in the form of Param Purush) wanted to perform Divine Leela in Braj, He (Aadi Shakti) meditated on Lord Shiva and Shiva Himself descended on earth in the form of Radha to perform the Raasa.

~ Sudhir Singh

Ya Uma Sa Svayam Vishnuḥ

(She who is Uma is verily Vishnu Himself.)

There is a line in the Tantras and Puranas that dissolves all duality in one breath: Ya Uma sa svayam Vishnuḥ. She who is Uma is verily Vishnu Himself.  

It is not poetry for poetry’s sake. It is a map. It tells us that the force that preserves and the force that protects are not two. They wear different faces for different moments.

1. Two Names, One Vow:  

Uma is Gauri, Parvati, the calm yogini and the mountain’s daughter. Vishnu is Narayana, the Preserver, the one who descends when Dharma bends.  

To call Uma as Vishnu is to say: compassion and courage come from the same source. When the world is steady, that power flows as Vishnu. When adharma grows loud, the same power rises as Shakti. The water is one, only the direction of the river changes.

2. The Leela in Braj: 

The Devi Bhagavata Purana shows this unity through Leela. It says: when Krishna, also known as Maa Aadi Shakti in the form of Param Purush, wanted to perform Divine Leela in Braj, He meditated on Lord Shiva, The Cosmic Consciousness. And Shiva, The Pure Cosmic Consciousness, Himself descended on earth in the form of Radha to perform the Raasa.  

The Preserver becomes the Lover. The Yogi becomes the Beloved. Krishna is Vishnu also known as Shakti abd Radha is Shiva. In the circle of Raasa, they are not separate. They are the dance of Purusha and Prakriti, inseparable.

3. Narasimha and Maa Pratyangira: The Same Fierce Protection: 

This unity becomes clearest in their most fierce forms.  

Lord Narasimha* is Vishnu’s man-lion avatar. He did not come to debate Hiranyakashipu. He came for Prahlada. Half-man, half-lion, appearing at twilight, neither on earth nor in sky, he is Dharma that refuses to compromise. His roar is protection. His claws are justice. He says: faith will not be mocked.

Devi Pratyangira* is worshipped in Shakta and Tantric traditions as the lion-faced Mother. She, too, appears with fire, with a lion’s face, to cut hostile energies, fear, black magic, and spiritual obstacles. She does not negotiate with darkness. She dissolves it.

Look at them together and you see it: same lion, same fire, same vow.  

That is why the sages say they are not different. Both are the fierce compassion of the Divine. One restores order from outside. The other clears obstacles from within. Both arise when sincerity is under attack.  

The Mother and the Preserver wear the same armor.

Silence Is the First Gateway to Yoga

Silence is where yoga actually begins. Before asana, before pranayama, before any technique, there is the decision to stop, a decision to start the journey within, a decision to be still. But what I am saying should not be taken wrongly: not to escape the world, but to stop arguing with it inside your head. We are so used to noise — the noise of opinions, of planning, of replaying conversations — that we mistake it for thinking. But real thinking, real seeing, starts only when that noise settles.

Every tradition points to this first. In Patanjali it is called Pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses. In Sri Aurobindo it is the turn inward, away from outer agitation toward the psychic being. The reason is simple. You cannot train the body or the breath if the senses are still running after every distraction. Silence is the training ground. It teaches the eyes not to scan, the ears not to hunt, the mind not to react. That is sense training, and without it, yoga remains exercise.

Silence also prepares you for the way the world responds to anything new. First people laugh at you for sitting quietly, for choosing books over gossip, for not joining the noise. Then they criticize you for being distant, serious, impractical. And finally, if you keep putting in the endeavours, they accept you. Silence is what carries you through all three stages without wasting energy on defense. It gives you the steadiness to observe from above, like an eagle above the wind.

This is where what I call Pessimoptimism helps. Look at reality with clear eyes. See the chaos, the criticism, the limits. That is the honest part. And then choose silence anyway. Choose to sit for five minutes with coffee and breath. Choose to read one paragraph and let it sit in you. Choose not to answer every provocation. That is optimism with dexterity. It is not denial. It is protection.

Asana makes the body ready. Mantra makes the mind focused. But silence makes you available to yourself. It is the first gateway because everything that comes after — courage, clarity, teaching, work — flows from a centre. The moment you enter silence, you stop performing yoga and you start living it.

Laugh, Criticize, Accept

Pargat Sir during my B.Ed. often said us this in his lecture:  

“First people will laugh at you, then they will criticize you and finally, they will accept you. Only we need to keep on putting endeavours.”

Then our understanding was only this much that Sir did this only to motivate us.  But now I truly understand what he really meant to say us.

Every new idea looks mad at first. The world laughs because it doesn’t fit the old template. Then it criticizes, because it threatens the old template. And much later, quietly, it accepts — because the idea proved itself by staying.

I felt it first with my own ideas.

When I spoke about pessimism, people thought. “He sees the dark first.”  

When I spoke about Pessimoptimism — seeing the dark clearly, and still choosing to work in it — they laughed. “Too complicated. Just be positive or negative.”

Then came the criticism. “Impractical.”  But before Wright Brother, the concept of Aeroplane was also impractical. Isn't it? “Confusing.” “Why make a new word?”

But I kept putting this in my writing by all my endeavours and preparing my students for the worst too as life is not a bed of roses. The concept is quite simple. The optimists invented aeroplane and pessimists invented parachutes and pessimoptimists like me discovered the judicious middle path: looking at reality with rationality, and still move with dexterity.

And we need to comprehend this too that pessimism without work becomes paralysis and Optimism without eyes becomes denial.  

Slowly, the same people who laughed started asking questions. Then they started using it.

That’s the cycle Sir meant.  

Don’t fight the noise. Don’t chase acceptance.  

Keep working. The world catches up later.

Truth doesn't Belong to One Person

When I first read Sri Aurobindo, I was shocked. 

Not because he was new to me. But because he had already said what I had been finding on my own.

I had been thinking about a yoga that is complete in itself. Not yoga as exercise, not yoga as escape, but a Purna Yoga — a yoga of the whole life. Body, mind, senses, and soul, all trained together. And there he was, writing about it decades ago.

I had been thinking about the psychic power, about training the senses, about going deeper than books and lectures. And there he was again, describing the same inner work with a clarity that felt like he had read my mind before I wasn't born even or maybe I was in another form then. Spirituality says that life and death are unending cycle. As I have been fascinated to know about myself since my childhood, I always strive to know about it. Often I feel curious about myself. Am I only the mortal body or a mind who keeps thinking endlessly? Or I am someone beyond all these and just using mind and body as tools. 

The strangest part came during my B.Ed. in BCM College of Education, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana.

The first time I was given a chance to come to stage, I spoke. I don’t remember planning it. It was just an extempore. To be honest, I hardly prepared anything. That day the words just came. Later, when I read Sri Aurobindo’s Philosophy of Education, I froze. Whatever I had spoken that day was completely aligned with what He taught to His disciples! And believe me, I had not read him before that day! After the speech, my teacher of Philosophy, Dr. Gurwinder Singh Ji said, "Sudhir, today, you spoke about Sri Aurobindo. Have you read about Him?" My reply was, "No Sir!"

That was a shocking moment. Not because I had spoken what Sri Aurobindo said many years before but because it felt like two minds, separated by time, were looking at the same mystery of life.

Maybe that’s how truth works. It does not belong to one person. It keeps appearing. 

The world may call it coincident but for me, it's more than that...

I don’t claim to be anyone. And how can I? I was just an average student during my school time. I was the one who afraid to speak and write in English. However, I managed to score 50% marks just because my grammar was good. But that's how destiny works. The universe assigned me something which I always afraid to do. Rest my students can better tell.

The Ones The World Calls Mad: The Judicious Middle Path II

The world never dares to fight two kinds of people: one who holds power, and another who looks mad but is sometimes the wisest.

~ Sudhir Singh

History remembers them. Shah Hussain sang on the streets of Lahore and was called a drunk. Bulleh Shah was dismissed as a fool for speaking to God in the language of the common man. Kabir was too sharp for both temple and mosque and Ramkrishna Paramhans was mocked in 19th century Calcutta for weeping in the temple of Maa Kali. Osho Rajneesh, too, faced this during his life span as he speaks truth without using any filter and it caused unrest among the so called civilized society which live behind multiple faces. The crowd could not argue with them, so it labeled them.  

I saw the same pattern closer when I read the blog of my Professor cum guide, Dr. Sunil Aggarwal. His Guru, Shree Ramchandra Gandhi was also declared “mad” by people who could not meet his level of clarity. To call someone mad is the oldest trick to avoid listening. When logic fails, people reach for ridicule.

Look at present India. The ruling government spent years trying to frame Mr. Rahul Gandhi as “Pappu.”.  The project was simple: if you repeat a caricature enough, people stop seeing the person. They simply accept what is repeated on the surface.  

But caricatures crack under pressure. In Parliament, in Bharat Jodo Yatra, in his conversations with students and farmers, a different Rahul Gandhi emerged. Not the TV clip, but a man who listens first, who quotes the Constitution, who chooses to walk instead of shout. Call it wisdom, call it stubbornness --- but it is not the image they sold.  

This is a sort of indoctrination done in politics. The saint is called mad because he refuses the game. He does not play for applause. He speaks plainly, walks long distances, and lets the noise exhaust itself. Power fights power with power. The “mad” one fights with stillness, repetition, and truth. That is why the world never dares to fight him directly. It prefers to mock from a distance.

Students who agitated in Jantar mantar are called impatient and vulgar. The same words used for saints of past. But students need to understand that agitation without inner quietness becomes performance. Wisdom without power looks like madness. Power without wisdom becomes arrogance.  

The middle path is not in the middle of lies. It is what the eagle does: rise above the heat, see both light and dark, and choose when to descend.

So let them call names. Let the winds talk.  

Keep writing, keep walking and remember what the Former Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh Ji said, "Honestly I believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media."

The Middle Path: Pessimoptimist

Once I wrote: “It can be synthesised easily if thou can see the depth of thy mind with rationality and dexterity. Don’t be pessimist or optimist, rather be pessimoptimist like The great Buddha. If ye see only dark like an owl, ye miss the light. If ye close eyes like a dove, ye become prey. So, it is better to choose the judicious middle path like an eagle or the immense Sky.”

 — Sudhir Singh, 23rd Feb 2017  

That line keeps returning to me these days. 

We live in a time when every street feels like a microphone. Present Indian politics is loud, reactive, and allergic to pause. News cycles turn into verdicts in minutes. Loyalty is measured by volume, not by thought.  

And in Jantar mantar, students are found agitating. Some for jobs, some for justice, some for dignity. The anger is real. The questions are real. But anger without stillness burns the one who holds it. Agitation without reflection becomes noise that feeds itself.  

In all of this, I have returned to three things: coffee, books, and a few friends. 

Some prefer noise. Some prefer whispers about others. I prefer pages.  

Coffee teaches bitterness without malice. Books teach truth without applause. Friends who understand this need no explanation.  

There is a quiet power in choosing stillness with clarity. When you sit with a book and a cup, the world does not stop. But you stop performing for it. You stop being bait for every provocation. You become like the immense Sky --  above the heat, watching both light and dark, having no desire to move.  

To be with inner quietness is not to be apolitical. It is to be unaffected in the noise. It means you can witness the agitation, feel for the students, read the politics, and still not lose your centre.  

Let's feel that inner void inside us.