​How can we overcome a bad habit that has been very difficult for us to give up?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So if you find that there are some things which you try to do, maybe you procrastinate things and you are trying and trying to correct that but you can’t correct it. So is there some prayer or something which you can do practically? See firstly, we all have to learn to choose our battles.
There are many things wrong inside me also. But if I try to correct all those things, I will get paralyzed, I will get overwhelmed. So initially when we are starting our journey for self-improvement, we also need self-confidence that I can do this.
So if you have found a habit that has been very there for a very long time, it’s very difficult to give up, then we have to see how things work for us. Sometimes it may be advisable to choose a smaller battle. And some habit which I know I can do this if I just put in some effort, but I am not putting that effort.
And then we put in that effort, we change ourselves, we improve ourselves, that gives us confidence, you know, yes, I can do this. Then we can take a bigger battle. So if some habit is repeatedly troubling us, then don’t invest yourself emotionally too much in conquering that bad habit, that undesirable habit only.
Find out something else which you can do that gives us confidence, and then we move on, then we can deal with a bigger habit. That’s from the practical point of view. Of course, we have to see what inspires us.
Sometimes, you know, taking up a big challenge may inspire us also. But then we have to see realistically whether I am improving by this or not. As far as praying is concerned, there are many Sanskrit prayers and there are many Vaishnav songs.
Vaishnav songs are often very simple. So if we find within the Vaishnav songs some prayer, which we can connect with very easily, then that is something which we can recite. Or sometimes we may hear a verse, and the verse we can convert into a prayer for ourselves.
That means the verse is in Sanskrit, Krishna giving an instruction. But I can convert, Krishna, this is what you told me to do, please help me to do it. So Krishna tells, you know, If you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.
So Krishna can say, Krishna, please, you will help me to cross all obstacles, but I need to become conscious of you. Please help me to become conscious of you. So we have to find out whichever prayer works for us.
As I said that each mind is an individual mind. And it’s not that the prayer that works for me will work for you. So you can look at, when you hear classes, read prayers, find out whichever works for you.
And even the language also, we can verbalize the prayer in English, we can verbalize it in Sanskrit, we can verbalize it in Bengali, whatever language it is. It can be our native language also, that’s fine. The important thing is, we have to find out, what is the path by which our consciousness can go towards Krishna, our emotion can go towards Krishna.
So once we find that, then that will, we can tap that more and more. So when we are memorizing prayers or memorizing songs or memorizing verses, we don’t even need to memorize a full verse or a full song. Just like, bhajahure mana shrinandanandana abhayacharanaravindare.
Just one line, abhayacharanaravindare, abhayacharanaravindare. Just one line may calm us down. So this is more pragmatic.
We find what works for us and do that. Does it answer your question? Thank you.