Even when we have knowledge, we can’t apply it – what to do?
If we are practically not able to do what to do for all of us this gap between knowledge and action is always there now why is it there because our intelligence understands faster than our mind the intelligence is like a mother the mind is like a child so if the mother sees my child is sick the mother will take the child to the doctor and the doctor very clear take this very complicated it can become very complicated so morning up to evening take this and don't let this child take this when they tell this the child is small, child will not understand the mother understands so our intelligence is like the mother when we hear the philosophy when we hear wisdom the intelligence understands but the mind is like a child who is restless so we have to understand that this is a child to some extent the mother tries to control the child sometimes the child insists too much, the mother may have to choose her values and let the child do something but the child is also growing up and as long as the child grows up, the child will also become mature so we do want to control ourselves but we don't have to define our bhakti in terms of our sense control the focus of our bhakti is simply connecting with Krishna so our intelligence will always understand faster than the mind and that's why there is a difference between knowledge and action because we are often impelled by our mind's feelings to act so what can we do firstly don't be discouraged it's just natural, it happens with everyone at least we can be grateful that at least my intelligence is understood so we have the knowledge, we have accepted the knowledge and even if we can't do the regulative side of bhakti so well we can focus on the affirmative side of bhakti that means chant as much as possible, associate with devotees study Bhagavad Gita by these affirmative activities we are still improving ourselves our intelligence is becoming stronger and even the mind is becoming clearer sometimes the mother say the child has got a disease which requires a lot of restriction and then the mother may also become a little sentimental, oh no I can't deprive my child of so many things I will be okay so like that if our intelligence is not convinced we may pander a little bit but as you keep practicing bhakti both the intelligence becomes stronger and the mind also becomes clearer so as the mind starts becoming clearer then the mind also stops proposing for forceful and as the intelligence becomes stronger the intelligence becomes more and more equipped to resist so first principle is don't become disheartened it's just a universal principle a gap between knowledge and action and as far as practical is concerned we can try to create some practical barriers for ourselves that means if we find that they say I tend to eat too much or I tend to sleep too much then try to create some practical support system as I said if we sleep too much then we have not just one alarm but we have two alarms or have somebody else tell somebody they can wake us up try to create some practical support system see for changing ourselves internally external change is almost always necessary and almost never sufficient so if a person is a drunkard in that person's house say he is above a bar he will never be able to enjoy every time they go to their house they desire to drink the external change is necessary but external change alone is not enough even if they take a house far away from a bar if the internal change has not been made they will go find a bar somewhere and go there and drink so we want the internal change but sometimes external change can be a very valuable support so for example as I said whatever practically we can do to support our internal motion because when the desires come up the desires come very forcefully but they don't usually stay that forceful all the time so if during the time when the desire is forceful somehow we can tolerate it after the desire stops so the desire is up it stays for sometime and if I get a strong desire to eat something but that is not available and I have to go somewhere, buy it and get it and eat it or cook it and eat it and I also know it's very fatty it's not very good for me and by the time I start cooking it slowly what happens is my emptiness starts to go away you may have seen sometimes in movies if a thief wants to come and rob a bank or something like that then the thief just comes and gives a blow on the head of the guard and the guard gets knocked off and the thief is going inside and is trying to steal but if in that period the guard comes back what are you doing? the guard catches you so like that sometimes when desire comes desire just knocks our intelligence it becomes unconscious it was paralyzed for sometime but during that brief period when the intelligence has become paralyzed at that time we can resist the desire if we don't have the facility to immediately indulge in the desire then by that time by the time we go to the object get that object and enjoy it what happens? during that period the intelligence says I don't need to do this so we can be patient just keep practicing bhakti externally try to create some balance thirdly we can try to find out some way in which we can internally direct our thoughts towards Krishna if you find some way all of us may find some way in which our thoughts move nicely towards Krishna some of us may like hiltons some of us may like some quotes some of us may like some pictures of the darshan of Krishna some of us may like to hear from some devotee so whatever it is in Krishna Bhakti it can easily absorb our consciousness in Krishna we keep that readily accessible for us so keep a picture beautiful picture of Krishna fill this with devotion whenever the mind gets agitated look at that because basically how the desires allure us desires allure us by creating a sense of deprivation in us if you don't do this you are missing so much this is so wonderful this is so irresistible so desires allure us by creating a sense of deprivation but if at that time we provide ourselves some source of spiritual satisfaction its nice I am not feeling so deprived then we have new goals so by just being patient by trying to create some barriers to protect ourselves and by finding channels to direct our consciousness towards Krishna we can gradually learn to increase our self self so this voice which comes is this the voice of mind or intelligence how to differentiate voices come so it is mind or intelligence how do we know which is the voice which comes from within if it is generally towards short term impulsive pleasures it is the voice of the mind if it is guiding us towards something which is in term in harmony with morality and spirituality in harmony with spiritual knowledge then we can say that the voice is intelligence sometimes inner voice can also guide us inner voice can also guide us we are about to do something something says don't do it but the inner voice guides us so we have to have an external parameter or external benchmark based on which we can evaluate where the inner voice is coming from yeah any question.