How can we strengthen our faith, especially while going through mood swings?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Faith, internally, is intelligence. And externally, it is association. So, if we associate with people who have faith, then that association itself will increase our faith.
Because when you see other people also practicing and you see that, okay, this person has changed for the better. I also want to change for the better. So, in general, faith develops through association.
So, try to associate as much as possible with spiritual knowledge to create devotees. Nowadays, association is not just physical. You can also, you can hear lectures or you can have darshan online.
You can do a lot of things online also, through the internet. So, externally, try to maximize the association. That’s one thing.
Internally, our faith can be developed by sharpening our intelligence. So, when we hear classes or we read philosophical books, then that is like sharpening the sword of our intelligence. And this sword of intelligence can help us to counter the doubts.
So, when we have mood swings, the mood swings don’t necessarily mean that there’s something wrong. It simply means that, actually, Krishna Himself says, Krishna says the mind is like a child. And it’s like a child.
If a mother tells the child, okay, sit here peacefully. The mother knows in advance only. The child is not going to stay peaceful.
So, while she’s doing other work, she’ll keep an eye. What is the child doing? And we go somewhere and say, hey, come back. Don’t go there.
So, like that, the moods of the mind will swing. But as soon as we become aware of them, we can bring the mind back. And it says, child will be naughty.
Child will be restless. But the mother is patient. And the mother, as she’s patient and she keeps doing it repeatedly, gradually the child also grows up.
Child also learns. Child becomes disciplined. So, that way, when we go through mood swings, our intelligence needs to become like the mother.
And gradually, if we stay fixed in purposeful activities, gradually the mind will also get it. That, you know, I’m getting so excited about this. I’m getting so frustrated about this.
But these are not worth getting so worked up about. And in the mind, we become more focused, more purposeful. So, as of now, if we let our faith be a function of our feeling alone, then the faith will be really shaky.
But if we base our faith on our intelligence, just like the mother, she’s intelligent. Child goes here and there, the mother gets the child back. Like that, our moods may swing.
But if we are especially having our intelligence sharp, then that mature intelligence acting like a mother will sharply, quickly get the mind back on track. And by that, the mind will become satisfied. And when we ourselves find satisfaction in spiritual absorption, then by that, we will move, we will ourselves get convinced.
And the faith will organically shoot up. It’s like a patient who has been cured by a particular medicine. When that patient says, no, nobody said this doctor is not good.
No, but I’ve experienced, I’m cured by the doctor. So, once we experience for ourselves the beneficial effects of spiritual practice, then naturally, our faith will heighten to a much stronger level. Okay? Thank you.
Vedekrishna.