Why does devotion change our mind’s tendencies temporarily?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, our practice of bhakti seems to affect the mind only temporarily in a positive way. After that, the mind seems to relapse back to its old ways.
So, how can we avoid losing hope? How can we maintain faith that the process will work and we will change? There are two distinct things over there. One is the immediate effect, and the other is the overall effect, which we see the rest of our life. Now, when we chant, actually, the effect is subtle.
Purification is a gradual process. It is basically the sound vibrations that we are hearing that are percolating deep down into our consciousness, and they are changing the consciousness from there. So, such changes, because they are from deep down, they will take time.
It is just like if we had barren land, and we put water over there. Not in barren land. We had like a desert land.
We put water over there. The water, it just goes in. And I put so much water, it’s gone.
I put water, it’s gone. But actually, it’s not just gone. If you keep putting water, keep putting water, gradually, that desertified land, that desertified nature will change.
And gradually, it will become fertile. It will be conducive for growing, for the growth of crops. So, basically, some lands may be very much of a desert, and they may require a lot of water.
But the water is not getting wasted. It is changing. It’s just that the change is not visible on the top.
So, for example, there are changes, change of desires, and there are change of values. Change of desires means that every day when we wake up, we may battle with the same old desires. There is greed, there is anger.
And what is the change that is happening? There is worry, there is change of emotion. It’s not happening at all. The change of emotions, it’s not happening.
But below that is a change of values, a change of conditions. You see, in the past, say, in the past, somebody used to, he had a particular condition. And sometimes people, when they become angry, or if you look at materialistic people, they look forward to sensual desires.
They look forward to ways in which they can trigger themselves sensually, and I think that is a new angle. As you keep practicing bhakti, we may also be troubled by sensual desires. But when the desires come, we think, okay, now, how can I avoid those desires? So what has happened? The same desire has come, but the value has changed.
Earlier, I used to look forward to that desire. Now, I am looking to avoid that desire. So the change of value, change of value is substantial.
And we can look at it from different ways, whichever we think about. Change of values is a far more reliable parameter of inner change than simply change of emotions. Because the emotions will keep flickering.
That means certain undesirable emotions come to me. Then, when those emotions come, what is my response? In the past, if my mind was wandering, I just said, forget this chanting business. But now, when my mind is wandering, I think, this chanting is important, I have to get my mind to focus.
How can I do it? It’s wandering, what do I do to make it focus? So basically, the mind may not change immediately. But the very fact that our attitude towards the mind has changed indicates that a substantial change has happened. Imagine there is a situation where there is a child and there is a mother.
And then, whatever the child says, the mother does that. Now, such parenting would be quite irresponsible. A child wants to play with fire.
A child wants to go and dance in the middle of a street. Whatever the child says, the mother starts doing that. And the mother would not be responsible for that.
Now, once the child starts doing something mischievous, the mother says, no, you should not do this. Now, what has happened? The child has not changed. But the mother has changed.
Mother, no, you should not be doing this. Mother tries to stop the child. Basically, within us, there is the mind which is like a child, there is the intelligence which is like the mother.
In the past, the intelligence was also subordinate to the mind. What has the mind decided? We use our intelligence to fulfill it. But now, at least the intelligence has grown up.
And now, they say, no, we should change this. So, the intelligence, the intellectual conviction, it comes faster. But the mind’s change comes gradually.
But the mind will also change. Just like a child, it is also going to grow. A child will grow badly.
It will take time, but the child will grow. So, we don’t… If we become discouraged, thinking that the mind is not changing, in spiritual life, we always have to have the attitude by which we are encouraged. So, if you feel discouraged, you can look back and see how far we have come.
At least in terms of externals, all of us have had certain habits, certain attitudes, certain indulgences, which we have been able to break free from. If you look at the general, moral, spiritual level of the world today, and where we, as devotees, are practicing, we are substantial at a higher level. We are not saying this in an arrogant, self-congratulatory sense.
It is just an objective sense. It is. So, when we feel discouraged, we need to look back at how far we have come.
And it is a substantial instance. And that gives us hope that if I keep moving forward, I will move on. So, the change of the mind is a gradual process.
But every day that we are endeavouring, it is growing. It is like if a mother becomes very impatient, every day she feeds a spoon to the child and takes a measuring tape. How much has the child’s height increased? The height is not going to increase like that.
Every day the child is eating, the child is growing. But the growth will be gradual. So, every day that we are chanting, every day that we are practicing bhakti, the mind is growing up.
The mind is growing up. And over a period of time, we will find that just like when the sun is rising, rising, rising, in the morning the sun is rising, the sun is continuously rising. But initially when we wake up, it is dark now.
It is dark. It is light now. We realize the sun rising is gradual.
Our realizing that the sun has risen, it happens at one particular moment. Like that, every day we are practicing, every day we are practicing, we are practicing. And then at one particular point, we will realize, Oh, yes, I know, it is not really, it is not worth it.
Let me also repeat it. Let me focus on Krishna. That is how it will happen.