How can we avoid taking steps forward and then backward in our spiritual life?

Answer Podcast:

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Great. The question is, sometimes we take some steps forward in our spiritual growth, but then again, we come back down.
So, why can’t we move steadily onwards? First of all, spiritual advancement is not linear. It’s not a mathematical function that just because I was able to do this, this, this, I have been growing. And if I’m not able to do this, this, I’m not growing.
Yes, there are certain external commitments which are important. But we should not reduce our spiritual advancement only to those externals. What I mean by this is that Krishna is Bhavagraha.
He looks for the emotion in the heart. Now, of course, if the emotion is in the heart, it should be, it will naturally be expressed as action in our life. But, so, it’s not devotion, it’s not just emotion in the heart.
You know, if your wife says to her husband, I love you. Husband has come back from office exhausted. He says, I want my dinner.
So, I love you. I want my dinner. Oh, I’ve not cooked dinner, but I love you.
Okay, if love is there, love is fine, but love has to be expressed through actions. In no other relationship will we accept love which is only internal and never external. So, it doesn’t work in bhakti also.
The devotion that is internal also has to be expressed externally. But when we say Krishna is Bhavagraha, that means he understands that sometimes there can be circumstances in our life which make practice of spiritual life at a high level difficult. So, that is something which we have to learn to adjust.
We should not see that necessarily as a defeat. As like, say, now we were coming for a program, for this program. Now, if the road is clear, we’ll come fast.
If the road is crowded, there’s a lot of traffic, then we’ll come slow. But whether we are fast or slow, they’re still moving in the same direction. So, although at one level, the progress will depend on the speed at which we are moving, but still we are making progress.
Similarly, sometimes our material life becomes crowded with too many things. And at that time, it may not be possible for us to practice spiritual life at a very high level of commitment. So, at that time, Krishna is an understanding God.
He’s not a judgmental God. So, we should not see such circumstantial slowdown in our spiritual life as a defeat. At the same time, we should not use the such circumstance as a justification for never improving.
That means, if there is traffic and I’m going slowly, that’s fine. But if I make a habit of going slowly, when there is no traffic, I’m still going slowly. And then I will never get to my destination in time.
So, like that, we have to be honest with ourselves. And sometimes we make self-created duties. Oh, I have to do this also, I have to do this also, I have to do this also.
So, we have to be honest and make sure that we are investing the time according to what is actually possible for us, not just according to self-created obligations, we dissipate our time away. That’s with respect to the practical realities of our life. Secondly, when we make any commitments, we are very much affected by our circumstances.
A magnet’s natural orientation is North-South. But if a magnet is put in a room, which also has its own magnetic field, then the magnet’s natural orientation gets distorted. It will not point in North-South, its orientation will change depending on the nature of the magnetic field in that particular room.
So, like that, the soul’s natural orientation is towards God. But when the soul is put in a materialistic environment, then that materialistic environment disorients the soul. So, we, if we want to sustain spiritual practices, we need to place ourselves in a spiritual environment.
Of course, we can’t change the whole culture of the world, that is largely materialistic. But at the very least, we need to periodically associate with spiritual minded people. And if the more we can make our social circle a spiritual circle, then we will find that whatever results we make to improve our spiritual life, they will be sustainable.
So, we can talk about them with others, we can, those who have made similar results and are stuck to them, we can learn from their experiences. And we can get mutual inspiration. And sometimes we may need to temper those results.
But that also we can do in a way that is not as I said a defeat, but as a strategic move to make us our progress sustainable. So, thirdly, what we need is often to study our intelligence. See, when there is inspiration, when there is intellectual conviction, we start off on something, this is important, and I should do it.
But over time, the mind becomes too strong. So, there is the price and there is the price. PRI is heady and PRIC is easy.
So, price is what we are going to get. Price is what we pay. So, now in spiritual life, the price is what our mind shows us.
Oh, you have to spend so much time, you have to concentrate so much, you have to give up so many things. But it is our intelligence which can show us the price. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita in 18.37, So, that which tastes like poison in the beginning will taste like nectar in the end.
So, what we see in the beginning is the price. Oh, I have to do this, I have to do that, I have to give up this, I have to do this. So much, how can I do it? I can’t do it.
So, our mind shows us the price. But the price, the lasting fulfillment that we are going to get, that is something which our mind doesn’t show us. It’s our intelligence which will show us.
So, when we make some resolve, at that time, if we use our intelligence to write down based on scripture, why I am making this resolve? Okay, I am doing this thing, it’s not just because others want me to do it. It’s not just because I live in a spiritual circle where everyone else is doing it. That is fine.
But I should have my own conviction. Why am I doing this? So, when our mind starts showing us the price, oh, you have to give up so much, then we can use our intelligence, whatever we have written down based on scripture, to show ourselves the price. Yes, I am going to do this, but this is worth it.
And that way, by using our intelligence to counter the mind’s restlessness, the mind is going to be like a sine wave, up and down, up and down. But our intelligence can bring stability. So, we need to not just study scripture regularly, but actually extract from scripture those points and principles that are relevant for our application and store them with us.
We write them down, memorize certain verses from scripture, repeat certain quotes which we have heard in some classes. And that way, keep that intelligence ready and available for us. So, whenever our determination starts slackening, then we can reinforce, we can sharpen our intelligence and thereby we strengthen our determination.
So, in this way, by recognizing that slowdown is not always defeat, it can be just circumstantial and in circumstances change, we can again accelerate. By keeping ourselves in spiritual association and by equipping ourselves intellectually, we can make our spiritual progress steady. Thank you.
Any other questions?