How to persevere despite our failures in following standards?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, thank you very much.
So, while practicing, we’ve made some failures. So, how to keep our determination and move onwards despite those failures? We are defined not by how we fall, but how we rise. Falls are going to happen, but they don’t define us.
They are defined by how we rise and move. See, if you consider our consciousness, if our material desires might be there, lust or greed or anger, whatever it is, if our consciousness is at this level, then within that, sometimes there are spikes. Spikes means, like if you have electricity in a waveform, electricity only goes up, spike is there.
So, you need a spike guard in your computer to protect the delicate devices from those spikes. So, like that, there are spikes in our consciousness. And when the spikes come, it appears as if resisting the temptation is impossible.
Now, when the spikes come, there are two things we need to know. First of all, the spike is not going to last forever. Although at that time it appears, how long can I keep fighting this? It’s going to go on and on and on.
How long can I keep fighting this? Better let me succumb. So, we may think that, eventually I cannot keep fighting also, let me succumb. But it’s not like that.
Sometimes we use the idea of a war against temptation. A spiritual war or a war against temptation. So, you may think, the enemy is so powerful and I am so weak, anyway I am not going to win.
So, why keep fighting? Better let me be defeated now only. But actually we should understand that a war against temptation is not like a conventional war or a fun enemy against another enemy. It’s more like weight lifting.
See, when I lift a weight, a heavy weight, I know that I am not going to be able to lift that weight for the rest of my life. But that doesn’t mean I can immediately put it down. Isn’t it? As long as I can hold on, that much my muscles are being exercised.
So, like that, when the spike comes, the illusion is to think that this is the kind of agitation I am going to face lifelong. And then we just give up immediately. But actually the spikes in the desires don’t last for very long.
If you can just endure it during that phase, the desire will go away. That’s the first thing. So, this, if we can remember, that the spikes are not going to last forever, we will tolerate when they come.
And that’s how we will, our fall itself will become lesser. But secondly, even if we fall, even if we slip and fall, what we should know is that what do we do after that? After that, what happens is, the mind plays a very dangerous double role. What is the double role? First it tells us, do it, do it, do it, do it.
And then afterward, you are a fool. Why did you do it? Why did you do it? Why did you do it? Why did you do it? It just beats us up, beats us up, beats us up. Now, we may think, yeah, you know, actually I am repenting, I am feeling guilty.
It’s good. Yes, repentance is good. But repentance should raise our consciousness towards Krishna.
If we are simply beating ourselves up, why did I do that, why did I do that, why did I do that? Then what is happening? In both cases, we are simply mind conscious. First the mind said, do it, and afterward it says, why did you do it? In both cases, we are simply listening to the mind. And if we are mind conscious, then next time the spike comes, the mind will again catch us.
So, we have to move from being mind conscious to being Krishna conscious. So, okay, I did something wrong, fine. And even later, fine is not that it’s good, but okay, it’s over now.
Now, I have the opportunity to be Krishna conscious. So, now, that spike has come, maybe again after a few days or after sometime the spike is going to come. But what do I do in the intermediate period? But that time also I am still mind conscious, beating myself up.
Then I will be totally vulnerable when the spike comes again. But if in the intermediate period I think, okay, this happened. But still I have the opportunity to practice bhakti.
It is not that Krishna has left my heart and gone away. Krishna never does that. So, you know, there is nothing that we can ever do which can make Krishna stop loving us.
There is nothing that we can ever do which can make Krishna stop loving us. Krishna always loves us no matter what we do. So, knowing that we still have the opportunity to chant Hare Krishna, we still have the opportunity to practice bhakti, we start diligently practicing bhakti.
And if we diligently practice bhakti, then that is making us spiritually stronger. And next time when the spike comes, we will be better equipped to deal with it. Even if next time also we fall.
But still if we keep practicing bhakti, gradually the odds will shift. See, as long as we are listening to the mind, we are making the mind stronger and ourselves weaker. And sometimes the mind speaks so forcefully that it appears as if it is impossible to resist.
But most of the time, it is not that the mind is terribly agitating us. So, when the mind’s agitation is not very bad, at that time you focus on Krishna. Then what is happening, the mind is so powerful right now, or say lust or anger or whatever it is so powerful right now and we are weak right now.
And if we keep hearing the mind, then we will never become stronger. The mind will keep becoming stronger. The selfish desires, whatever it is, the mind will keep becoming stronger.
But if we, ok, whatever happens between the spikes, in the remaining time, I will keep hearing Krishna. I will diligently practice bhakti. I will engage in constructive activities.
And what is happening, by this we are becoming stronger, stronger, stronger, stronger. And the less we hear the mind, the mind also starts becoming weaker. And then eventually the odds will shift and we will be able to deal with it.
So, when falls happen, we never lose till we lose hope. We never lose till we lose hope in the battle against the mind. And that’s why the mind, what it does is, first it makes us lose and then it makes us lose hope.
You are good for nothing. You are a fallen person and you are going to stay fallen, so better fall down more now. So, rather than succumbing to the mind like that, ok, whatever happens between those spikes, what do I do during the remaining time? That is more important.
And if we keep practicing bhakti diligently, we will ourselves become strong enough to resist the spikes. Does it answer your question?