Respond to moral failure not by mental punishment but by spiritual reinstatement Gita 09.30
Transcript
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nor do we have to necessarily accept it.
Respond to failure not by mental punishment, but by spiritual reinstatement. Life can be a constant moral struggle. We are allured hundreds and thousands of temptations that incite us immoral indulgence.
We may resolve to live purely, but may struggle and falter. When we fall, common reaction is mental punishment. We beat ourselves up by thoughts such as, why did I do that? Why am I so weak-willed? Why am I so dumb that I keep doing the same thing again and again? What will people think of me if they knew how I was actually? Will I ever be able to give this up? We may feel that such thoughts indicate remorse and repentance and are desirable after a moral failure.
However, if such thoughts keep us self-centered, thinking too much about how incompetent or incontinent we are, then they are a part of the problem. They are mental punishment because actually it is the mind beating us up. The same mind that earlier allured us to wrongdoing is now admonishing us for wrongdoing.
And in both cases, it is keeping us away from the spiritual connection that is the source of our strength reformation. The Bhagavad Gita 15.7 explains that we all are parts of God and as soon as we become apart from God, we are dragged down by our mind and self. The healthy response to moral failure is spiritual reinstatement.
We immediately pick ourselves up and strive to connect ourselves with Krishna by wholeheartedly practicing bhakti. The Bhagavad Gita 9.30 declares that those who don’t let their determination for devotion get diminished by their lapses are well situated and will soon become purified by the grace of Krishna. When we focus on Krishna and His grace, that divine focus strengthens and purifies us and gradually elevates us to a level where we are less prone to temptation and degradation.
That’s why rather than the self-centered response to moral failure which involves mental punishment,