How can we maintain our momentum in devotion?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
In simple terms, the best way is to associate with devotees who have that moment.
If you are alone walking, sometimes you walk, sometimes you may stop, but there is a crowd that is moving, the crowd will keep on moving. Similarly, if we have the association of devotees, the devotees keep on moving. So of course, we also have to move, but it becomes much easier to move in the association Earlier, when my leg was a little better, I did not use crutches, I used to use a walking stick.
So, in the Chaitanya Charita I have read, Krishnadaswara Goswami says, the association of devotees is like my walking stick. And when I read that for the first time, I thought, walking stick is not a great thing. What am I compared to a walking stick? Once I was going from Pune to Mumbai, and somebody stole my walking stick.
So then when I got down at the station, I can walk without also, but not that comfortably. So then, as I was walking along, then it struck me how important a walking stick is. Now without a walking stick I can walk, but the walking becomes slower, and there is a danger that you slip and fall anytime.
The same happens with our bhakti practice also. When we practice alone, everything becomes slower. And then we fall down anytime.
If we are chanting, we sometimes chant our mind winders, and think about that, think about that. And then again we fall over to chant. But with devotees, we chant together, chanting happens much better.
Same with any activity in bhakti. So with association, we move more steadily, and we move more swift. So the best way to maintain momentum in devotion is by associating with devotees who have momentum.
It’s important, not just any devotees. If that devotee’s momentum is lesser than ours, then they will slow us down. We need associational devotees who are having at least as much momentum as we have, or more than what we have.
Then we will move forward. And the second thing could be that we need intellectual conviction, buddhi. Because what will slow down our momentum, it is our feelings.
Sometimes I feel like doing it, sometimes I don’t feel like doing it. But if we are intellectually convinced about something, then we will do it with determination. And that is, we do something either because it feels good, or we do it because it is important.
Most of us, when we are in school or in college, we are studying. Now how often does studying feel good? Maybe a few times. Some subjects we like and they feel good.
But to the extent we register it, it’s important. In fact, one sign of growing up is that we take things seriously, not just based on our emotions about them, but based on their intrinsic value. A child, a mother tells him to study.
I feel like studying, otherwise I will start late. But as a child grows up, goes to the adult, becomes a college student, now there is no mother over there, please study, study, study. One child.
Now, as a child they may not feel like studying, as an adult they may not feel like studying. But what is the difference is that a child is driven primarily by their feelings. But as we grow up, when we become adults, we still have our feelings, but we also understand that the importance of things is not always reflected by my feelings.
And even if I don’t feel in a particular way, still I will do it. So that sense of importance comes to us by our intentions. Now, many times working in a job, you know, you may not feel like doing the job, but you understand it’s important.
This is how I am going to earn my livelihood. This is how I am taking care of my family. This is what puts bread on the table.
So there, because the result is very immediate, we need to earn a living. So even if we don’t feel like doing it, that importance is very much registered within us. But in the sense of spirituality, we don’t practice, what is the big difference? It is a big difference, but the difference is not felt immediately.
One day I don’t read, one day I don’t chant. What difference is going to make? It’s going to make a difference, but it’s not felt immediately. That’s why we need our intelligence to be even stronger for our spiritual growth.
So with our intelligence we understand why this is important. So most of us have become, physically we have become adult. And with respect to our material responsibilities, we have become adult.
But with respect to our spiritual life, we are still like infants. We are still driven too much by our emotions. You see the child may stop studying because they don’t feel like it.
Similarly we sometimes stop practicing bhakti because we don’t feel like it. But the more we study and the more we nourish our intelligence, then we become spiritually also adept. And then our spiritual practices don’t depend, we won’t let our spiritual practices depend only on our feelings.
We will continue them with our determination, even if the feelings are not right. Determination means that we keep our intention above our emotions. I feel like it, I don’t feel like it, but this is what I am going to do.
So to the extent we nourish our intelligence, it becomes easier to continue on. And the last thing would be that we try to find out, see these are things which I like to do. At least this is the circle of bhakti.
We try to find the intersection between the two. And in that intersection, if we situate ourselves, it becomes easier to start off. Say if I like to sing, and there is a nice kirtan, then I hear the kirtan and I sing the kirtan.
My feeling goes along with me. There is something which you like to do, then in that situation the emotion goes along with us. The emotion helps us to move towards Krishna.
In some situations the emotion may oppose us. But if there is something which we like to do, and something which is a purview of devotion, then doing that is an easy way to again regain momentum when it has gone down. So by association, by intellectual conviction, and by finding out the intersection between what we like and what is the realm of devotion, by finding the devotional activities we also like to do, we can maintain or regain our momentum.