​Initially, bhakti doesn’t give as much happiness as sensuality – how to persevere then?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
in the beginning bhakti does not give as much pleasure as material things that’s why often bad habits become very difficult to give up so what can we do in that situation yes actually if we think bhakti simply as an activity I chant Hare Krishna and then you know I compare the happiness that I get from chanting Hare Krishna with some other sensual activity you know ok this chanting is good but you know that is great that’s what we may feel but then we have to see bhakti not just as an activity but bhakti is a whole way of life and vital for the practice of bhakti is the association of devotees when we associate with devotees regularly we get our social needs also fulfilled within a devotee community when that happens then we can actually resist the lures of material pleasures much more easily so bhakti gives us a higher taste but still because the past conditions are so strong the momentum comes very quickly very forcefully rather and they are pushed towards indulgence in whatever wrong things we may have done in the past but if we are and the association of devotees we start getting more and more higher taste and if we consider whatever bad habit we may have actually if we consider the graph of the desire the urge for that bad habit normally at this level it’s not that bad habit is tormenting us 24 hours a day there are certain times when the desire spikes up shoots up and that time it feels intolerable I can’t resist this but but in the intervening time once the desire is shot up desire calms down afterwards it shoots up again so in the intervening time between the shooting of the desire what do I do if at that time I am practicing bhakti then I am purifying myself I am connecting myself with Krishna I am preparing my consciousness for experiencing higher happiness and gradually the spikes will become more resistive so rather than worrying about giving up bad habits, bhakti is essentially not centered on what we give up bhakti is centered on what we take up so we, if we think I have to give up this I have to give up that our focus is very negative but if we think, if we try to fill our life with constructive activities in the mood of service to Krishna then gradually whatever bad habits we have, they will get crowded out and even if they cause some relapse rather than getting too disheartened by them ok, I fell down, let me rise again and let me keep practicing bhakti and gradually the power of the desire will go down so rather than worrying too much about comparing bhakti and other worldly activities solely in terms of pleasure at our level we can see it as a way of living if we associate with devotees if we fill our life with the activities of bhakti, we will get greater meaning, greater sense of purpose we will get a good community of friends around us and with that fighting of the bad habits will be much easier and not only that, even if the bad habits attack rather than worrying too much about the spikes we can focus on what we do in between the spikes and then gradually the spikes will become more manageable and then they won’t