How can we change ourselves for the better as quickly as possible?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Jai How do we bring change as quickly as possible? All of us ask this question.
Even I ask this question to myself. There are things which I also want to change. I would say that there are different ways in which we practice bhakti.
You know about three modes of material nature, goodness, passion and ignorance. They are broadly categorized by different conceptions of our capacity to control. In the mode of ignorance, we think that nothing is in my control.
In the mode of passion, we think that everything is in my control. And in the mode of goodness, we realistically assess what is in my control and what is not in my control. And this applies not just to the outer world but also to the inner world.
If I am in the mode of ignorance, then if I make some resolution and I can’t keep it, I just keep it. Then I will not be able to do it. Because we fail to do it once, we feel nothing is in my control.
Now in the mode of passion, when we make resolutions, we think that I am going to do this and I am going to be perfect at it. Today I decide I am going to wake up from tomorrow morning early and I should be able to wake up for the rest of my life. We overestimate our capacity to control.
In the mode of goodness, we learn to estimate realistically. So to err is human. We are all imperfect.
And Bhaktivinoda Thakur says that from imperfection, perfection will come. Or as commonly said, practice makes man, makes us perfect. So therefore, rather than thinking that I want to immediately change and I want to change positively forever, what we can focus on instead is that decide not a goal, but a value.
When I say a goal, a goal is like a destination. I want to go up to this mountain. If I get to that mountain, I succeed.
If I don’t get to that mountain, oh I fail. But a value is like a direction. I want to go in the eastern direction.
So, a value is something a value is something which we can pursue steadily. So for us, if I decide that I want to do my sadhana as seriously as possible and that means I want to move in this direction, I want to wake up in the morning. That’s one goal.
So rather than wedding ourselves just to that goal, we can wed ourselves to the purpose. The purpose is I want to do sadhana well. And yes, I can do it well if I wake up in the morning.
That means I sleep early at night. Sometimes it will just not be possible. Because I have tried like sometimes it is possible.
Yeah. Like two weeks, three weeks and then I give up and then I feel like it is not possible. Okay, so that’s what.
What happens is that don’t when we take a resolution to do something which needs to be done everyday, then we invest ourselves too much in the resolution itself rather than in the purpose of the resolution. So, if I do it for three weeks and then I am not able to do it, I feel, oh, I couldn’t do it. But it’s a thing that three weeks that I did, I got purified by that.
I made spiritual advancement by doing it for three weeks. Okay, now some situations have changed. Now I was not able to do it.
Okay. Now two, three days you have lot of project deadlines and you have to stay awake late night. And you, okay, some two, three days it doesn’t happen so well.
Then you can say, okay, it may not be possible now. Let me start it again after that. So, if you focus on the purpose of growing towards Krishna and you see this as a process waking up in the morning.
So, don’t make waking up in the morning as the goal. That, you know, moving towards Krishna is the purpose. That is the value we want to live according to.
And this is a very important process. So, we want to follow it. But even if sometimes you are not able to do it, do not be too disturbed by that.
Okay. These things happen sometimes. The important thing is to keep moving towards Krishna.
Now, in bhakti, we never lose till we lose hope. Never? Lose till we lose hope. And we may fall also sometimes.
That’s okay. We can always get up and keep moving on. There is no fall that is so severe because of which Krishna will say that now, I will leave your heart and go away.
I don’t care for you. Krishna always loves us. Krishna always wants the best for us.
Therefore, just stay purposeful. And after it happens, say, for 3-4 days, you are not able to wake up. Then, when that intense phase gets over, think, could I have maybe by better planning avoided this intense phase? Maybe, if I had planned better, I could have done some better work or more work earlier then I would not have to do it.
Or that is just unavoidable. Okay. So, some things happen like this.
I am not able to do it. I am not able to wake up in the morning. But as soon as it gets over, I will start waking up again.
It’s like, say, if I am if I want to go to a particular if I want to go to a temple now, I have a particular direction. Sometimes the traffic is too much, I will go slowly. If the traffic is not much, I will go fast.
So, like that, sometimes the traffic of things in our material life will become too much. You will not be able to move that fast. You will not be able to wake up in the morning.
So, don’t try your best to wake up in the morning. But don’t make that an obsession. It is not that just because I can’t wake up doesn’t mean that I can’t do chanting nicely.
It doesn’t mean that I am not a serious devotee. Do when you can. When you can’t, at that time, do whatever is possible in the situation and then look back and learn and move on.