Why God Doesn’t Stop Every Bad Thing — The Gita Explains

Everyone has reached that place in their life or point in their grief, betrayal, illness, or helplessness, when from the depths of your soul, one raw question rises: Where is God now? You prayed. You believed. You let go. But the pain remained. The silence was louder. And the absence was deafening. It feels almost cruel. Almost abandonment. But what if… it is not?

Unlike blind optimism or fatalism, Hindu philosophy doesn’t ask you to suppress your suffering or pretend everything is fine. It invites you to step into the fire of your experience—and asks not “Why me?” but “What now?” According to Vedanta and the Gita, suffering isn’t evidence that God has withdrawn. It’s a tool. A message. A mirror. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna breaks down on the battlefield. He drops his bow, paralyzed by despair. And what does Krishna do? He doesn’t hand him a way out. He awakens him to the battlefield within. He teaches him: “This body is temporary. The soul is eternal. Rise.” (Bhagavad Gita 2.18) Suffering, then, is not punishment. It’s the beginning of awakening.

In spiritual terms, pain is purification not punishment. We rarely grow when life is easy. But when it hurts, when everything falls away-ego, certainty, control, that’s when the soul becomes visible. Suffering strips away what’s false, so that what is eternally true in you can rise. You stop asking God to fix the world. And start seeing the world as your classroom.

We’re trained to expect God as a rescuer. But in Sanatan Dharma, God is not always the one who removes the storm. He is the stillness inside it. “I am the fire, the rain, the silence, the doubt, the faith, the beginning and the end,” says Krishna. (Gita 9.19) Sometimes God doesn’t respond in words. He becomes the experience that reshapes you.

Think of a seed buried in soil. It must crack in darkness before it can sprout. Likewise, many mystics say: “You do not meet God in light. You meet Him in surrender.” When you're stripped of external identity titles, relationships, even hope so what remains?Awareness. Consciousness. Presence. That is God. Not as someone “up there,” but as the witness inside you that refuses to collapse.

When Arjuna is at his lowest, Krishna doesn’t say, “Let’s avoid this.” He says, “Stand. Act. Detach.” Not from love. But from outcome. From ego. From the illusion that life owes you comfort. “Perform your duty, free from desire for results,” Krishna says(Gita 2.47). This is God’s real answer in suffering: Not escape, but evolution. Not comfort, but consciousness.

So where is God when you suffer? Maybe He’s not in the rescue but in the resilience you didn’t know you had. Maybe He’s not outside your pain but inside your awareness of it. Maybe He’s been there the whole time not to prevent the fire, but to help you walk through it and emerge changed. Because in Sanatan Dharma, the greatest form of God is not the one who fixes your life… It’s the one who awakens you to your eternal self. And sometimes, the only way there is through the dark.

Unlock insightful tips and inspiration on personal growth, productivity, and well-being. Stay motivated and updated with the latest at My Life XP.