Why do our resolutions for inner transformation not last?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
the question was about transformation so we practice something we get transformed but it doesn’t last yes that’s ok because in this world just as we eat food the energy coming from the food doesn’t last but that doesn’t mean we stop eating food yesterday I ate, I lost the energy now so what to do, now eat today again isn’t it so somehow we somehow think that if I make a resolution and it leads to transformation that transformation because it has happened it must last lifelong it is not like that yes there is a transformation that has happened and that is good but there is I would say there is transformation at three levels transformation which happens at the level of our intention I want to change myself that means actually somebody is alcoholic and somebody thinks drinking alcohol is cool that person is a big fool you know that person is thinking I am enjoying but the person is getting more and more trapped but somehow the person is saying I am really trapped now I have to give up so that first level at the level of intention I want to give this up even if the person keeps succumbing again and again but at the first level the transformation happens the intention has come up second level is not just some intention based on some circumstantial situation somebody drank and threw up very badly I had a big hangover, headache I don’t want to go through this again so that is just circumstantially the intention has come but the second level is where there is conviction where I become convinced not just because this consequence or that consequence came but because this is hurting me I have better things to do in my life I don’t want to be like this so conviction doesn’t depend on circumstance conviction comes from internal so at that level it becomes easier because we have an internal motivation to fight it but even then the mind is still conditioned and the mind keeps saying come on do it now if we have made a new resolution then because of the enthusiasm situated in the resolution even if the mind proposes we will say no to it but over a period of time what happens? our conviction slowly starts going down and the mind’s proposition starts coming now when we made the conviction at that time we were aware this is bad for me, I don’t want to do this but after sometime the mind starts saying whatever it is so the mind starts speaking in its own way to undermine our conviction so that is where we need to periodically reinforce our conviction why am I doing this? I am transformed but transformation is not irreversible because the mind is still there just trying to reverse the transformation so that is why we need to have that inner conviction being periodically reinforced by here studying scripture, by associating with devotees by ourselves contemplating the benefit of the transformed way of living and in the last stage is purification when we become purified then the mind itself will not propose many devotees in the past some of us may have been eating meat but after we start practicing bhakti it’s not only that we give up eating meat but suppose we are going by a train or a plane and somebody else is eating meat don’t even feel tempted by that the mind will stop proposing so that is the time when we can say the transformation has become irreversible but we should never think that transformation has become irreversible we should assume that it’s always possible it may reverse and that’s why we have to keep reinforcing our conviction so even if our conviction goes down even if some relapse happens then again we start and then it’s not that because we relapse it was a failure that’s a very important thing see the success of the resolution is not just sticking to the resolution the success of the resolution is what we do with that resolution ok I decided to give this up after giving it up what did I do? ok I was able to serve Krishna, I was able to contribute in some nice way that is what is important we shouldn’t think that after 6 months of resolution there is a relapse and everything is failed do that 6 months of good living is very good and yes there was a slip but I can rise again and I can move on so just like a child who may walk very nicely and falls again just because the child has fallen doesn’t mean that all the time the child has walked out of the waste all the time the child has walked that is practice and when the child rises again he will be able to walk much better so the mind is not only it makes us fall it makes us think you have fallen and therefore stay fallen but we shouldn’t do like that we shouldn’t be misled by the mind and we need to periodically reinforce our conviction that way we can proceed