How can we make the right choice a habit instead of an austerity?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, we try to resolve, but sometimes we relax.
So, how can we make the right action or habit instead of something which requires conscious work? There are two distinct aspects in this. Suppose, say, on one side I have sugarcane, on other side I have carrot and I am hungry. Now, the healthy food is carrot, take that.
And the tasty food is sugarcane, enjoy it. So, for us, at the first level, at least I have to understand that this carrot is healthy and although this is very tasty, this is more healthy. But what happens, the taste itself, this is much more tasty.
So, for us, we have, ok, this is one choice, this is one choice. So, often the lower choices appear to be the tastier choices. And even the higher choices are healthier, they require a lot of willpower to go through.
But the process of Bhakti Yoga helps make the healthier choice also the tastier choice. How does that happen? It happens because we connect with Krishna. Krishna is sarva-akarshiti Krishna.
He is the all-attractive source of everything. The Bhagavad Gita says in 10.41, you can sit. I will always stand here.
The Bhagavad Gita says in 10.41 that yad yad vibhuti-matsatvam shreem-dur-jita-meva-va tattva-deva-bhagacchatvam mam tejo-amsha-sambhava It says that whatever is attractive in this world, its attractiveness reflects a spark of Krishna’s super-attractiveness. That means that somebody looks very beautiful, somebody eats very delicious, something is very intellectually stimulating, something is very adventurous. All these things, they have their appeal.
But their appeal is a reflection of God’s supreme appeal. So that’s how the people who look very good, they look good. But that beauty, it’s temporary.
It is there for a few years. After that it goes. But that beauty is meant to remind us of the supreme spiritual beauty.
Some people have brilliant intelligence. But that intelligence is also there for a few years, few decades. Afterwards, it’s no longer there.
So everything attractive in this world, the Bhagavad Gita’s philosophy helps us to connect with their souls. So when I see, okay, this is carrot and this is sugar candy. This is what I have to eat.
But I would prefer to eat. And this is how, for us, initially, even the process of spiritual growth and self-improvement will appear. I know I have to do it, but it’s not so attractive.
But as we infuse ourselves with a mood of devotion, as we purify ourselves by the practice of bhakti, our tastes themselves change. We start seeing that the healthier course of action is also the tastier course of action. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that param drstva nivartate.
When we get the higher taste, when we get experience, the higher happens to be higher. Then the struggle to give up the lower ceases. So determination is the first step.
But determination plus devotion leads to purification. Determination means, I feel like doing it, but I’ll do this. When I couple this with devotion, then purification means the taste itself changes.
I start liking this. So basically, another example we could give for this is a floor. The floor is inclined in a particular way.
As soon as the water falls, it will flow in this direction. Now I can push the water in that other direction, but it will require a lot of force. If I want the water to flow in that direction naturally, I have to reconstruct the floor, so that it becomes inclined in that direction.
The process of devotion, it is initially the process of redirection. Initially we require willpower. I feel like doing this, but I will do this with determination.
But by doing this, by pushing the water in this direction, by pushing our thoughts and actions in the direction of Krishna and service to Krishna, the floor itself will get reconstructed. When the floor is reconstructed, then we go beyond relapse. Because we have already got a higher taste.
The taste itself doesn’t remain. So without that, there is always a potential for relapse. And in today’s world where there are so many temptations, it’s not a potential, it’s quite a probability of relapse.
So we need determination, but we also need purification. And that purification happens through devotion.