Ahalya cursed and blessed – 3 I’s for changing our consciousness
Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.
I spoke on this theme of inner change and I started how we want to change but something changes us back to the original although we change for the new. So why does that happen? So I talked about the story of Ahalya, how she gave in to a moment of weakness. She's not a victim, she's not a villain.
She is in between like all of us. We are not entirely bad, we are not entirely good, we are in between. So her weakness was that she felt proud that a person as great as Indra is coming to attract her to him.
So when she became desensitized to her higher duties, to her relationship with her husband, to her dharma, then the desensitization led to her getting completely desensitized and becoming like a stone, becoming a stone. And Lord Rama's lotus feet coming and touching her stone body transformed her. And what happened historically and when Lord Rama came, that can happen in our hearts also.
And I talked about how when we want to transform ourselves, I talked about three I's. What is it? Yes, excellent. The first was inclination.
That we are naturally inclined towards certain things. And this is almost like a programmed response. Some of it can be good, some of it can be bad.
And by the way we act, we also shape our inclinations. It's like an animal slaughterer's son, first doesn't want to kill, but then habitually starts killing. Because they become desensitized.
A stone can't harm anyone, but a stone-hearted person, because they're desensitized towards some people, they can do a lot of harm to others. So when we, ultimately, we want to become purified and have our inclination towards Krishna. Right now we need to be aware of our inclinations so that we can guard ourselves.
And I talked about intelligence is that some people are brilliantly stupid. They use their intelligence to fulfill their lower desires, like using a car gas tank to have alcohol within it. So what we need to do is, instead of thinking of bhakti as a ritual, we use our intelligence to creatively think how can I resourcefully serve Krishna.
Then when we start using our intelligence like this, our bhakti will become stimulating for us. And the last was intention. I talked about how our urges sometimes overpower us, but the urge are not always the same level, they sometimes surge.
And even if we can't resist when the surge happens, even if we can't resist our urges, we can persist between our urges. And I talked about this mind being like a person who first makes us rob a bank and then judges and punishes for robbing it. Like we wake up, my mind says go to sleep in the morning and then beats us up.
Why did you, why are you so lazy? So okay, even if we succumb to the urge, we don't listen to the mind after that. I will maintain my intention to serve Krishna, no matter how many times I fall. We may fall down, but we don't fall away.
And then not only can we persist between the urges, but we can resist the urge also, if we understand that actually this surge in the urge is not going to last forever. It's like a timed arm wrestling match. If I just survive the present round, I will resume on neutral ground.
So by maintaining the intention to serve Krishna, even if we can't have execution right now, we attract his mercy. Because he sees the sincerity, the seriousness of our intention. And then when he gives his mercy, just as he touched Ahalya and transformed, similarly he can touch and transform our stone heart into a soft heart.
And when he attracts our heart, like Krishna steals butter, he steals our heart, then our heart goes with him. It's permanently safe and permanently joyful. Thank you very much.
Hare Krishna. Any questions?