Can devotees use positive thinking techniques like visualizations and affirmations?

Can devotees use techniques like visualizations and affirmations, which are basically positive thinking techniques, in their spiritual life for the devotion advancement? Answer, certainly. As long as we don't ascribe omnipotence to the mind. And remember that it is Krishna who is omnipotent and it is bhakti that is omnipotent.

When Srila Prabhupada went to America, he had a vision of temples all over the world and devotees all over the world. And he told people whom he would meet that there are temples everywhere. It's just a matter of time.

Only time is separating us. So what is this but a visualization? Similarly, affirmation is nothing but repetition of a truth that we want to become manifest in our life. So the recitation of shlokas, especially mantras like say, I am Brahman.

This is an affirmation. Although I may think that I am the body right now, by repeating again and again, I am Aham Brahmasmi, what I essentially do is, I create the mental impressions that will help me to eventually become spiritually aware, to come to the level of consciousness that I am the soul. So this is Aham Brahmasmi.

Similarly, if we see the chanting of the mantras, many mantras are centered on the chanting of the holy names of Krishna. That is also in one sense an affirmation that this person whose name I am chanting, that is actually the Supreme Lord and he is my beloved. So by repeating the name of our beloved, eventually that person becomes our beloved.

Or rather how that person is our beloved becomes manifest to us. So similarly, as devotees, if we are not so familiar with Sanskrit language, if we make some affirmations in the language that we are familiar to, then I can control my senses. I can remember Krishna.

I can chant attentively. So that sort of thinking can help us. The mind is basically a machine.

And like the body operates according to certain mechanical principles, similarly the mind also operates according to certain mechanical principles. The principles of the mind are subtler because the mind itself is subtler. So if we as devotees condition ourselves to think negatively, then even in devotional service we will think negatively.

If we think, oh, I am a good-for-nothing devotee, I'll never be able to chant attentively. I'll never be able to do any service responsibly. So that is what we tell ourselves, that is what will eventually happen.

Not because bhakti doesn't have the power to make things right in our life, but because we don't let that power of bhakti enter into our heart because of our negative thinking. Srila Prabhupada was always very positive in his thinking. Even when he was getting no successes, he was not thinking that, oh, I am getting no success in my preaching, probably Krishna wants to make me humble.

That may or may not be the case when we get failures in devotional service. The important point is that we should not lose our enthusiasm in devotional service. And Prabhupada never lost his enthusiasm.

So he always had a positive attitude in the sharing of Krishna consciousness. So by, of course, in many new age sort of affirmations and visualizations, the idea is that I myself have the power to make the reality manifest. So if I think that I'll become an eloquent public speaker, then that power is there within my mind only, and that power will become unleashed, and by that I will become an eloquent speaker.

That is not a devotee's understanding. A devotee's understanding is that actually it is whatever Krishna wants that will happen. But Krishna wants his mission to spread, and for that Krishna is an instrument.

So Krishna can use me also as an instrument. So I should just remove whatever obstacles there are within me which prevent Krishna from using me as an instrument. So one such obstacle is my own negative thinking.

So I must definitely try to remove that. And if affirmations and visualizations can help us to remove that negative thinking, why not? We shouldn't ascribe omnipotence to the mind, but we shouldn't also check Krishna from using us by our negative thinking. It's just as we can adopt some therapies for treating the body.

Similarly, we can adapt affirmations and visualizations as therapies for the mind. Thank you.