​How to avoid becoming disheartened on seeing our lack of spiritual emotion while chanting?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
thank you so it is said that if we chant and then we don’t forget if our heart doesn’t melt, we don’t cry then it is like we are not having a real devotion so our heart is stone framed but yeah ok so let us see the statement that the chanting is not of much use ok restless so no problem so there are two things over here one is there is scriptural description of exalted states of consciousness and there is scriptural procedures of how we should practice so we can say there are stars and there are the stairs normally the stairs don’t take us to the stars stairs are step by step you can rise to a higher place so like that there are stairs is the practical steps that we can take in our practice of bhakti so we need to always adopt that attitude which is favorable for our practice of bhakti that means if we start becoming proud oh I am such an advanced devotee then we can compare our consciousness with such statements in scripture if you chant your heart should melt, your eyes should be filled with tears I am very far away from this so I shouldn’t become so proud that way we can keep ourselves humble but if you start feeling discouraged oh I have been practicing bhakti, I have not made any advancement I don’t get tears my heart doesn’t melt then at that time instead of looking ahead we should look back and if we look back we will be able to see how far we have come we can see that our life has become transformed by the practice of chanting now whatever it is our life has changed our attitudes have changed we have become purer, we can all see some anarthas that have gone by the practice of bhakti so we should adopt that attitude which encourages us to move on in bhakti so if you start feeling proud then look ahead to see how far we have to go if we start feeling discouraged then look behind to see how far we have come and as far as attaining the exalted states of consciousness the important thing is not the moments of bhakti the important thing is the momentum in bhakti momentum is what keeps us moving onwards see moments in bhakti will come and go sometimes we may also experience that in kirtans we experience great ecstasy we feel very very nice, we feel very devotional effusive, sometimes some devotees dance so jubilantly in kirtans that’s all good but bhakti is not just about those moments bhakti, just like in any relationship that we have sometimes we feel very good to be with someone sometimes the mother may feel child I love so much, I want to be with this child but there are other times the child may trouble, the mother may feel so burdened, why is the child doing like this so the essence of the relationship is not just the emotion that we feel in the relationship the essence of the relationship is the commitment even when the mother feels burdened by the child she takes care of the child so what makes the relationship sustainable is not just those moments, those moments are required but those moments will come and go sustainability of the relationship comes by the commitment of the relationship, similarly we too need to make ourselves committed and if we are committed we develop a momentum in our bhakti and if we develop a momentum we will move onwards steadily no matter what happens so even if we are not at those stages Krishna is not a judgmental God who says you don’t have this qualification stay on in this world not in this material world, Krishna is he sees our capacity if according to our capacity we are striving to chant sincerely Krishna accepts that and Krishna gives us his mercy by which we move onwards so don’t worry too much that we are not at the exalted states but we can see for ourselves how we can improve our chanting that means this is what I am doing, this is what I can do to improve my chanting small small things we can do to improve our chanting and if we do those things we will keep moving forwards and even if we have not come to the stage of our heart melting or tears coming, if we have practiced bhakti sincerely we will attain Krishna Krishna guarantees that so those emotional states are good but they alone are not the markers of bhakti the real marker of bhakti is the commitment with which we study and practice bhakti and that is possible if you keep taking small small steps on a daily basis to move towards Krishna does this answer your question?