Answer
Śrīla Prabhupāda explained that when a cat carries a rat in its mouth, it is carrying it to kill or punish it. This represents the destiny of a materialistic person, who experiences the reactions of karma under the strict laws of material nature.
However, when the same cat carries its own kitten in the very same mouth, it does so with affection, care, and protection. Although the kitten is carried in the same way externally, the purpose is entirely different.
Similarly, difficulties and reverses also occur in a devotee's life, but they are not simply the blind reactions of karma. They are manifestations of the Lord's kindness and mercy.
Śrīla Prabhupāda also explains elsewhere that a devotee may have severe suffering destined according to past karma, but Kṛṣṇa often reduces that suffering considerably. He gives only the amount that is necessary for the devotee's spiritual progress.
The Lord gives just the right "dose" of difficulty to help the devotee remain fixed in devotional service and to deepen his realization of the temporary and miserable nature of the material world.
King Aṅga expresses similar realizations through the sufferings he undergoes. Likewise, devotees learn valuable spiritual lessons through the challenges they face.
What appears to be suffering for the body is actually a gift for the soul.
For the body, it may seem like pain, inconvenience, or punishment. But for the soul, it becomes an opportunity for purification, realization, and spiritual advancement.
Therefore, following the example of King Aṅga, devotees learn to accept both happiness and distress (sukha and duḥkha) as the mercy of the Lord and continue steadily in devotional service.
A devotee understands that suffering does not come independently from destiny alone. Rather, the Lord uses the circumstances created by destiny according to His own divine will.
Without the Lord's sanction, nothing can happen.
Therefore, when difficulties arise, the devotee accepts them as arrangements made by the Lord for his spiritual benefit and strives to learn the spiritual lessons they are meant to teach.
