The foolish man who sentimentally and ignorantly prayed to Kṛṣṇa to be saved from drowning, but could not recognise that Kṛṣṇa WAS answering his prayers for help by sending so many to help him.

Don't be like the foolish man on the roof during a flood who IGNORANTLY prayed to Krsna in the following pastime.

A man was stuck on his rooftop during a great flood and prayed to Krsna to be saved. 

Soon a man in a rowboat came by and shouted to the trapped man on the roof, 

"Jump in, I can save you from this flood, I am here to help you."

The stranded man on the roof shouted back, 

"No, no, it's OK, I'm praying to Krsna and He is going to come personally and save me."

So the man in the rowboat went on.

Then a large houseboat came by. 

"The man in the houseboat also shouted, 

"Jump in, we have plenty of room here, we can save you from this flood, the flooding is getting worse, come with us."

To this the stranded man on the roof shouted again back, 

"No thanks, I'm praying to Krsna ONLY He can save me, I have this faith."

So the motorboat reluctantly went away too.

Then a helicopter came by and the pilot shouted down to the man trapped on the roof, 

"Grab this rope and I will lift you to safety."

To this the stranded man again replied, 

"No thanks, I'm praying to Krsna and He is going to save me, I have faith that Krsna will personally come and save me."

So the helicopter reluctantly flew away as well.

Soon eventually the water rose higher and higher above the rooftop and the man drowned.

After the jiva-soul left the material body, he was taken to Yamaraj the Lord of death and discussed his situation with Yamaraj. 

The jiva-soul who was in the material bodily vessel (now deceased) said to Yamaraj the Lord of death-

"I had faith in Kṛṣṇa but He didn't save me, He let me drown. I don't understand why!"

To this Yamaraj replied, 

"Kṛṣṇa answered your prayers, He sent you a rowboat, a houseboat and a helicopter, what more did you expect from Him? 

Kṛṣṇa tried to help you but you were so foolish you could not see that it was Kṛṣṇa all along who was trying to help you".

Yes, it is not that Krsna has to personally appear to save His you, He can come in many different ways or send many different living entities to help you like the next story where Krsna helped Srila Prabhupada.

It was early February 1973 in Sydney Australia when Srila Prabhupada developed an infection on his finger from a paper cut while opening mail. 

The infected finger got worse over a few days and eventually Prabhupada asked us to bring him a Doctor who could administer penicillin to clear up the infection.

Within a day after the Doctor gave Prabhupada penicillin, his finger was healing nicely, and eventually completely healed.

One young immature devotee could not understand why Krsna did not directly heal Prabhupada's finger.

This young devotee saw Prabhupada was constantly chanting Hare Krsna, translating Srimad Bhagavatam's 3rd Canto, and preaching to the devotees.

So this young boy asked Prabhupada -

''Srila Prabhupada, you are always chanting Krsna's name, working late at night translating Sastra into English and preaching to the devotees, why didn't Krsna directly come and heal your finger that caused you so much discomfort and pain? After all you are Krsna's pure devotee''

Srila Prabhupada smiled and answered and showing great faith in Lord Krsna and great compassion to this young devotee-

''Oh yes Krsna was so kind He immediately helped me, it was Krsna who sent me the Doctor who gave me the penicillin that eventually healed my finger''.

So the lesson learnt here is Krsna does not have to personally appear and wave some magic wand to heal a person, it does not work that way, the fact is Krsna is more inclined to help those He is seeing doing everything they can to help themselves.

Yes, God (Krsna) helps those who helps themselves, this is the secret of advancing in spiritual life.

Krsna is very pleased when we do our best to look after our health and deal with sickness, diseases and pandemics intelligently. 

By using vaccines like vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020/21 that has killed many devotees including sannyasis and Gurus, is a good way to protect yourself and those around you.

Srila Prabhupada - "Regarding your question, we must utilize our intelligence fully for serving Krsna. Serving Krsna does not mean that we sit idly and say that Krsna will take care of all our business. No, that is not depending on the Lord; rather it is laziness. Depending on Krsna means to act always in Krsna Consciousness, realizing that Krsna is the ultimate Controller of all results. I hope you understand this properly" (Letter to Bhagavan, 22 September, 1969)