Can someone be growing spiritually and still relapsing to sense gratification?

Podcast:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Summary

Many spiritual practitioners wonder if occasional relapses to sense gratification mean they are failing to grow. This insightful perspective reveals why spiritual advancement is multifaceted and how to navigate setbacks without losing faith.

• Spiritual Growth is Multifaceted: Advancement in bhakti doesn’t mean all attachments vanish at once; some desires may decrease, while others temporarily resurface or remain steady.
• Bhakti is Always Working: Consistent practice—such as chanting the holy name, performing service, and studying scriptures—ensures continuous spiritual growth that nothing can neutralize.
• Knocked Down vs. Knocked Out: Past conditioning can knock you down, but it can only knock you out if you become too disheartened and choose to give up your practice.
• Common Triggers for Relapses: Temptations usually happen due to external perceptions, internal recollections of past habits, or sudden waves of past karma.
• Treating Temptations Like Sickness: Just like an illness where the exact cause isn’t always clear, when you can’t pinpoint why a desire surfaced, focus your energy on the ultimate remedy rather than getting stuck on analysis.
• Weathering the Storm: By holding on firmly to Krishna through your daily practice, you will successfully weather storms of old desires and material distractions.

Key Takeaways

• Never give up: Discouragement is your worst enemy; keep chanting and serving regardless of intermittent setbacks.
• Hold on to Krishna: Focus on your connection with the Supreme, trusting that the power of bhakti will eventually outlast any temporary temptation.

Full Transcription

Can someone be advancing spiritually and yet be relapsing into previous bad habits? Answer, yes and no. It depends on which context we are talking about. Often the example is given of an anchor, where if we are trying to, if we do not row, we will be rowing vigorously, but if you are not pulled up the anchor, then we will not be moving.

That is an example that is given. And that is a reasonable example at one level. Nothing wrong with it.

And that indicates how it is our responsibility to rise above our attachments, to cut them off, depending on whatever terminology we use. So, from that metaphors perspective, we can say that if there is a material attachment, which we are holding on to, then we cannot be rising spiritually. But spiritual life is complex and attraction to Krishna can also be multifaceted.

And sikh and similar can be our attachment to worldly things. So, some attachments may go down, some attachments may stay or resurface. Some, in some activities, our attraction to Krishna may increase steadily.

In some activities, our attraction to Krishna may stay steady, but not increase. In some activities, we find that our attraction to Krishna also goes up and down. So, then what exactly is happening? Overall, we can say that if somebody is consistently practicing bhakti, that itself indicates that they are advancing.

That every day that the holy name is being chanted, every day, the seva, some seva is being done, some hearing and studying is being done. We are growing toward Krishna. So, nothing can neutralize or even minimize the potency of bhakti.

So, no matter what happens, the first thing as devotee you should remember is never let anything else that happens in our life make us so disheartened in our bhakti practice that we give up the practice of bhakti or we think that the practice of bhakti is not worthwhile or not working. It’s always working. So, there is a difference between, like in boxing, there is a knock out and there is a knock down.

So, our past conditionings may knock us down, but they can’t knock us out. It is we who, it is we ourselves who knock ourselves out when we become too disheartened to continue the practice of bhakti. So, never let ourselves be knocked out by our own discouragement.

That is the first point. So, irrespective of, as I said, because the way spiritual advancement works in its subtlety, the way in its multifacetedness, the way material attachments act out in our heart, again in their multifaceted way, that means some going up, some going down, some staying as they are, we can’t really always figure it out. So, what we do is we stay connected with Krishna and we continue our service to Krishna.

That is what Krishna appreciates in the Apicharya Sudracharya verse. What is appreciated? In determination, in intention, the devotee is well situated. Now, having said that, why might something like this happen? Why might relapses occur? Generally, they occur because of two factors in combination with some other factors.

There are external perceptions. See, we live in a world where sensuality is so easily perceivable, especially with our devices now. The distractions and temptations and other things from the world are so easily available to us.

And there are internal recollections. So, generally, relapses occur either due to an external perception, external internal recollection of some past or a combination of both. And then we have also sometimes some things might just happen due to past karma, just as we all understand that past karma can bring some distress in our life in terms of an accident happening, a job being lost, health becoming spoiled.

And so, similarly, past karma may also lead to the surfacing of certain desires. And that may be that certain extremely tempting objects we encounter externally or certain agitating memories surface in our consciousness without any apparent reason for it. Either way, when this happens, our key principle should be to hold on to Krishna.

We try to analyze as much as we can. Just like if we get sickness, we try to analyze what caused the sickness? Did I eat something inappropriate? Did I not take care of my health? Did I expose myself to some infection? And sometimes we can find a reason. And if we find a reason, then we address that.

But sometimes we cannot find a reason. And sometimes even doctors may not be able to diagnose a particular problem, but still they give some treatment. And we wait it out.

The same applies to temptation also. Where we can find a reason, we address it accordingly. If we cannot find a reason, that means we cannot find an immediate cause.

So, we cannot address the immediate cause. Then we focus on holding on to Krishna and we understand that addresses the ultimate cause. So, we in that way address the ultimate cause and we move on toward Krishna that way.

And if we just hold on to Krishna strongly enough, nothing in the world will hold on to us that strongly for that long. So, rather than thinking that, oh, I’m still on the sensual platform, am I advancing spiritually? We understand that as long as I’m practicing bhakti, I am growing spiritually. But some conditionings may be overpowering me intermittently.

And I’ll try to deal with them as well as I can. And that way, we will weather out the storm. If we just hold on to Krishna, sometimes we have to weather out the storm of distress.

We also sometimes have to weather out the storm of desires that arise due to various circumstances which we may not always be able to figure out.