What should a devotee do when material desires start increasing and chanting doesn’t help?

Question: It is said that the practice of Krishna consciousness will decrease one’s material desires. Yet many practicing devotees find that material desires start increasing for no apparent reason. Why does this happen? It is said that chanting will drive away those desires. What does one do when that doesn’t happen? How can we understand when chanting, which is the yuga-dharma for this yuga, doesn’t work?

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Summary

Many practicing devotees wonder why material desires seem to increase rather than decrease over time, leading some to question if chanting actually works. This insightful perspective explains why these spiritual “spikes” happen and how to navigate them effectively.

• A Change in Values: The very fact that you are concerned about rising material desires shows your values have shifted, proving your spiritual practice is indeed working.

• Understanding Spikes vs. Trends: While your overall material desires follow a downward curve over years of practice, occasional intense peaks or spikes can last from hours to weeks.

• Internal and External Triggers: These sudden surges typically stem from external sensory provocations or internal fluctuations rooted in past karma and dormant samskaras.

• The Problem with the Will to Fight: Chanting is a powerful tool, but intensive material desires can erode our resolve, making us feel like the practice isn’t working when we actually lack the will to fight.

• The N.I.P. Strategy: Use specific safeguards—recognizing what is Not an option through personal vows, boosting Intelligence via scriptural insights, and focusing on Purification through default devotional meditations.

Key Takeaways

• Never Get Discouraged: Remember that heightened material desires are temporary transitional storms, not a lifelong state.

• Align Will and Means: Reclaim your will to fight using personal honor and intellectual conviction before expecting the means—like chanting—to yield results.

Full Transcription

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
It is said that the practise of Krishna consciousness will decrease one’s material desires.
Yet, many practising devotees find that material desires start increasing for no apparent reason. Why does this happen? It is said that chanting will drive away those desires. What does one do when that doesn’t happen? How can we understand when chanting, which is the yuga dharma for this yuga, doesn’t work? Answer.
Thank you for the sincere and honest question. I am a high pedestal person, and all of us are struggling against material desires. So it is not that I am on a high pedestal answering this question.
Because everyone, Krishnamurti Bhagavatam says that, except for Narayana Rishi, everybody in this world is, in this universe, subject to material desires. But based on Guru Sadhu Shastra, whatever I have learnt, I try to share. And all of us have to fight a battle.
And to the extent we fight the battle properly, we win. Otherwise, whoever it may be, they can become casualties in the battle. So, coming to the question, why does the practise of Krishna consciousness not seem to be decreasing material desires? Firstly, this question itself indicates that material desires have decreased.
Because, most likely, before we were introduced to Krishna consciousness, we would not have worried if our material desires had increased. In fact, materialistic people like their material desires to increase. And they try to find newer and newer ways to increase their material desires.
Going to movies, surfing on the internet for some nasty sites, looking at provocative images, and various other ways people try to increase their material desires. And people think that that is joyful. And unless we are from exceptionally biassed families or exceptionally spiritually inclined, before we were introduced to Krishna consciousness, it’s quite likely that we would also have got a sort of kick, got a sort of pleasure in the chemical high that comes when we stimulate our material desires.
So, the very fact that now we are concerned by the increase of material desires indicates that not only our material desires in general have decreased, but at a more foundational level, our values have changed. So, earlier, material desires increasing was something which we look forward to. And now, material desires increasing is something which we are concerned, even alarmed about.
So, our values have changed. And this indicates the process of Krishna consciousness is indeed working. And if we look at our life from a long-term pattern, then we will see that the overall graph of material desires, as we practise Krishna consciousness, tends to become a downward curve.
The kind of desires we had, say, one year ago, two years ago, three years ago, depending on when we started practising Krishna consciousness, they have certainly decreased after we started practising. So, the curve in general goes down. But within that downward curve, there may be occasional peaks.
And when we are witnessing those peaks, we will feel that the material desires are increasing. So, as compared to the years of practise of Krishna consciousness, the, during which overall our material desires are decreasing, the peaks, when the material desires seem to be increasing, may last for anywhere between a few hours to a few weeks. And during that time, it appears as if everything is going wrong.
And the process is not working. But we need to understand that these are just peaks, or more precisely, spikes, that will come and that will go. So, we just need to endure them while they are there.
And the important thing while enduring them is to remember that they are not permanent, that they are going to pass. And tam siddhi kshetra subhara, the Lord Krishna says, tolerate them. So, before we discuss about how to tolerate them, let’s first understand why they come.
They can come because of two reasons. One is external provocation, or second is a internal provocation. Basically, material desires increase in two ways.
When externally some agitating objects come in contact with our senses, or second is, we are internally agitated, and because of that, we go near some agitating object externally and stimulate and titillate our desires. So, first thing we need to check is whether externally some objects are provoking us, and whether we have started indulging in or reciprocating with those provocations. If that is happening, then we need to clearly understand that material desires are like a ferocious tiger, and the tiger has been put to sleep by the process of Krishna consciousness.
And sometimes a sleeping tiger may seem to be similar to a dead tiger. But it’s too dangerous to try to actually pinch the tiger and to find out whether it is sleeping or it is dead. Because if it is not dead, then we will be dead.
So, therefore, sometimes we let ourselves get titillated, thinking that I have gone beyond material desires, and this kind of material desires are not going to trouble me. So, this kind of daredevilish titillation is like pinching a tiger. And it’s always safer to assume that material desires are not dead, they are dormant.
If they are dead, it’s wonderful. But excretion is the better part of Vela. It is better to be safe than sorry.
It is safer to assume that they are asleep. And best not to arouse them or do anything that will arouse them. So, if we are externally letting ourselves get provoked by certain objects, we need to do the needful to keep a distance from those objects.
And sometimes the provocation is strong. Some sort of change in our external environment or some sort of shift in our lifestyle, even radical shift, may be necessitated. That we can consult some senior devotees or counsellors or guides, if something that extreme is required.
But in general, if there is no external stimulation, then we can we have to look inwards. So, inwards means that sometimes by our past karma, we may face some phases when our susceptibility to material desires increases. Or when the attack of material desires on us intensifies.
Astrology to some extent can predict these events. And sometimes astrologers may tell some people, this period is not very good for you. Don’t get into a quarrel with anyone in this period.
You may say, if somebody quarrels with me, how can I avoid the quarrel? Yes, it is possible for us to try to get out of the quarrel. Just walk away from there. And whatever conflicts of interest is there, we can resolve it later when we are in a more peaceful and balanced frame of mind.
Why? Because at that particular time, maybe by past astrology, by past karma, astrology can indicate that we are especially susceptible to anger at that time. So, if we let ourselves get involved in quarrels, that quarrel may turn out to be nasty, it may become violence and we may get wounded, somebody else may get wounded. Sometimes in fits of anger, people who are normally sane, sometimes become insane and can commit horrible crimes.
So, to be forewarned is to be forewarned. So, just as there may be phases when we may be susceptible to anger, similarly, there may be phases when we may be susceptible to other material desires. We may be susceptible to lust, we may be susceptible to greed.
So, normally a person may never be corrupt. But during that phase, if somebody gets a temptation at that time, a person may get provoked and may succumb. So, during such times, we don’t have to, as devotees, we don’t need to consult astrologers to find out whether we are going through such a period.
Because even if the astrologer tells us we are going through such a period, at the end, the astrologer cannot solve the problem for us. It is only Krishna who will solve our problem. So, we don’t need to consult astrologers for this.
But from astrology, we can understand this principle that even without external provocation, sometimes some internal temptations may come up and they may become strong, exceptionally strong, because of purva samskara or purva vastana getting awakened. So, just as our purva karma, past karma may come in the form of some suffering externally, we may get a disease, we may meet with an accident. Similarly, it may come in the form of increased lust, increased greed, increased anger, something like that.
So, during these periods, what do we need to do? Just like if suddenly we meet with an accident, what do we do? We do the needful to deal with the accident and we may have to take some extra precautions, extra trouble. So, if say we slip and we get a fracture, now we may not want to lie in bed at that time, but we have to. So, just as in some situations, when the external karma comes upon us in a very strong way, we may need some significant lifestyle changes to deal with the same way, if the material desire seems to be coming up in a very strong way, during that period, we may need to make some lifestyle change in the sense that we may have to allocate more time for our Krishna conscious practises and we may have to intensify them in their quality apart from increasing the time in terms of quantity.
So, we may sometimes not want to do that because we feel this is going to disturb my regular schedule, but we need to understand that if we don’t do this, if we succumb to those particular material desires, now that may disrupt our schedule much, much more. As it is said, a stitch in time saves nine. Prevention is much better than cure.
So, in principle, it’s not that the process of Krishna consciousness is not working, if we see material desires increasing, it is just that we are having spikes. So, once we have understood how these spikes come, either because of external provocation of the dormant material desires in our heart or because of past karma provoking those desires during some phases, then once we have understood that, okay, it’s not a problem in the process of Krishna consciousness, it’s just the way things are in certain things happen at certain time. So, then we need to move forward and see how we can deal with them.
So, regarding the point that chanting doesn’t work, it is not that chanting is not working, it is more like we are not letting chanting work or we are not making chanting work. It’s not going to blame any particular person, but it’s just to understand that chanting is a process and the process is meant to absorb our Maya in Krishna. So, it’s like a warrior who has a weapon that can lead to victory, but if the warrior doesn’t discharge the weapon, then how can the warrior win? And how can the warrior blame the weapon for disappointing him? In the sixth canto, in the battle between Uttarasura and Indra, Indra had the Vajra which was made on the instruction of Lord Narayana with the bones of the Viji and that Vajra was bound to kill Uttarasura.
But Indra was so intimidated and rejected by the sheer show of force of Uttarasura that he just lost heart and refused to discharge the weapon. So, sometimes the same thing happens to us, material desires make such a brazen display of force that we become shaken and we have the weapon but we don’t discharge the weapon. What does it mean? We may say that I’m still chanting.
Yes, but chanting is meant to make us remember Krishna. But if material desires are so deeply entrenched in our consciousness that we just don’t want to or we just can’t get Krishna in our mind at that time. So, Krishna consciousness can be practised by anybody in any mode.
Even a person in the mode of ignorance can chant Hare Krishna and Kirtan and dance and can experience some ecstasy. So, Krishna consciousness can be practised by anyone in any mode. But Krishna consciousness can be sustained only in the mode of goodness and on a steady level Krishna consciousness can be relished only in the mode of goodness.
Of course, the full relish of Krishna consciousness comes when we are in the transcendental stage beyond three modes. But even in goodness we can experience a substantial taste in Krishna consciousness. But in passion and ignorance our minds are so dominated by material desires and material fantasies that there is no room practically for Krishna to enter.
And because there is no room for Krishna to enter, of course, Krishna has the power to enter, but Krishna will not barge into our consciousness unless we invite him. And because we are so caught up with our hopes and illusions that material things will make us happy, we don’t really make a wholehearted invitation to Krishna to enter our consciousness. And that’s why we don’t experience any taste in Krishna consciousness.
So, when material desires are increasing and when we feel that chanting is not working, actually what is happening is the increased material desires have eroded our will to fight. And when our will to fight is eroded, will to fight means will to drive material desires out of our consciousness and to bring Krishna into our consciousness. So, when we don’t bring Krishna into our consciousness, how can we experience taste in Krishna consciousness? And if we don’t experience taste in Krishna consciousness, then we actually start feeling that the chanting is not working because we need taste somewhere.
So, if we don’t get taste in Krishna consciousness, we get that taste in material desires and we feel that these material desires are not going away. That’s why in the transitional stage, intelligence is often very important. We need to nip material desires whenever they come.
So, nip is an acronym which indicates nip. N means not an option. So, for those of us who are initiated or those of us who are planning to be initiated, many times material desires tempt us in directions that are sinful, that are contradictory to our initiation vows.
So, we need to impress and ingrain this fact in our consciousness by repeated hammering that now that I have taken initiation vows or I’m going to take initiation vows, this is not an option for me. Just like on Ekadashi days, we say, okay, grains is not an option for you. No matter how hungry I feel, I will not take grains.
And in general, nobody has to supervise us 24 hours a day to check whether we are secretly taking any grains or not. No, we understand that this vow is something which I have taken by my choice and this vow is going to help me become purified. So, therefore, once we resolve that it’s my life and it’s my choice.
So, it’s I who have chosen to follow this particular vow and because I have chosen to follow this particular vow, it is a matter of personal honour for me to not violate this vow, even if nobody in the world comes to know about it. Of course, Krishna will come to know about it, but we sometimes become very conveniently Krishna unconscious in such situations and we think that the problem comes only when somebody other than Krishna discovers it. But our practise of our initiation vows needs to be a matter of personal honour for us.
These vows are sacred because they are our offerings to Krishna from our side. Just as when we offer food to Krishna, we would not want to offer contaminated food, we would not want to offer rotten fruits, we wouldn’t want to offer spoiled food. So, our vows are our offering to Krishna and it is our personal connection, our personal devotion to Krishna that we make good quality offerings to him.
So, if we are making these vows of offering to Krishna, then by secret indulgence we are actually spoiling the offering to Krishna. So, we need to see that our vows are a matter of personal honour for us and if we hammer this point in our mind that this is not an option for me, then our will to fight gets restored because once we recognise that, okay, if I’m not going to indulge in what option is there for me, then I have to fight. And once we decide that I’m not going to indulge, then our will to fight immediately increases.
As long as we are thinking at the back of our mind, okay, maybe I’ll indulge, what’s wrong, then the will to fight becomes weakened and the whole battle becomes much, much more formidable. But once we have made the will, this is a Lakshmi Veka I’m not going to cross, this is a limit which I’m not going to violate, then our will to fight becomes sustained. So, N is that particular point, no longer an option for me.
Then I is increasing our intelligence, intelligence basically. So, when we hear classes, when we read Sri Prabhupada’s books, when we memorise some striking verses, we, during the course of our Krishna Consciousness, get some striking convictions, yes, sometimes we get an insight, yes, actually material desires are futile, why should I indulge in them, it’s just a waste of time. I have written an article here, infinite longings are longing for the infinite.
So, the point that is made over there is that if I engage in material desires, the material desire is not going to go away, it’s going to come again and again and again and it’s going to go on for infinity. So, I will be enslaved and captivated by these desires for infinity. So, the alternative for me is longing for the infinite.
So, sometimes the mind deludes us into thinking this, indulge in this desire, the desire will go away and you will be peaceful. But no, the desire will come back again, stronger and it will be much more difficult to fight it at that time because we have ourselves fed it and made it stronger by indulgence. So, when we understand this point that by indulging the desire is not going to go away, it is going to become stronger and instead of like this going on longing for all of eternity, infinite longings, better let me long for the infinite, better let me cultivate desire for Krishna and then I can become free from these cravings.
So, I am just giving one example of some point that will just strike us at a particular time. So, whenever some convictions strike us, it is vital for us to write them down for quick reference in future because within our consciousness there is a constant battle between the mind and intelligence going on. So, when some conviction strikes us, that is the time when our intelligence lets it speak and the perception is very clear, sattva sanjaya te jnanam.
In sattva guna, by the mercy of Krishna, we can see the true nature of samsara, we can feel it. This is not what I ever want to do. But then as the battle between the mind and intelligence goes on, gradually the odds change, the tables turn over and the mind starts dominating over the intelligence.
At that time the intelligence goes into a trough, from the crest it goes to a trough and that time we just don’t see any reason, why shouldn’t I? The whole world is enjoying, why should I torture myself like this? The mind starts coming up with reason after reason to enjoy and the intelligence just seems to be paralysed or it seems to have become dumb. It just doesn’t come up with any reason why we shouldn’t do it. So, at that time we need to have preserved the intelligence which we had at our peak.
That is done by writing. We can have a personal diary, we can have our notes. We also have shastra.
But shastra is so big and at the time when we need, we may not find the particular point in shastra which will boost our intelligence at the critical moment. So, when we have found certain illuminating, convincing points in our study of scripture, at that time we need to note them down and keep in a quick reference guide. It could be a pocket diary or a notebook which is quickly accessible for us, may be accessible round the clock.
We keep it in our travel bag or in our pocket or something like that. And beyond that, we need to understand it’s a war. If an enemy attacks a soldier on the battlefield, the soldier cannot say, wait, wait, wait, let me go and get my weapons then we’ll fight.
No, the enemy will slaughter the soldier. Similarly, we may have a lot of powerful philosophical points in our notebooks which are in our bags or in our cupboards or in our computers, but they are not of much use. We have to have them ready with us and we need to have the weapon ready to fight whenever it attacks us.
So, intelligence is extremely important for us to regain the will to fight because only when our intelligence is strong, at that time we understand the futility of sense gratification and the glory of Krishna Consciousness. And that’s when we feel it. Let me fight off the sense gratification and try to absorb myself in Krishna.
So, if the intelligence is weak, then our fight is half-hearted because we feel, maybe I should enjoy ourselves. So, the sadhakar stage is that we understand that Krishna Consciousness is good, but when scriptures tell us that sense gratification is bad, we start thinking that this is too fanatical. Krishna Consciousness is good, but sense gratification is also not bad.
It’s also good. So, this is how our mind leads us and that’s why we don’t feel the will to fight. And when there is no will to fight, then chanting doesn’t seem to work.
So, our intelligence will give us the will to fight. Our intelligence alone will rarely help us to win the battle. Winning the battle will come only by remembrance of Krishna.
And often the easiest way to remember Krishna is by chanting. But the will to fight will come by intelligence. So, once we get the will to fight, then we chant with conviction.
We remember Krishna with conviction. And then, so, I is intelligence. So, in one sense, N is also a part of I, but when we say, no longer an option for me, that is something which is a deep-rooted resolution that does not require any intellectual conviction for us.
Like for many of us, there are many immoral activities that we will not even consider because we have some moral fabric in us and there are certain things which are just beyond the radar of consideration for us. So, if we can make our initiation vows like that, that what is beyond this initiation, what involves breaking the initiation vows is just outside the radar of consideration, then the battle becomes easier. So, that’s why I mentioned this point separately because it is not necessarily dependent on intelligence.
It’s just a matter of personal honour. But intelligence is also needed to further go ahead in the battle. And then P is purification.
So, purification is not an abstract concept. It’s a very real and practical redirection of our desires. So, just as our mind goes into default contemplation on sense gratification whenever it gets some opportunity, and especially it seems to be entrenched in sense gratification when we have these phases of increased material desires, so at these particular times we have to find out what are the aspects of Krishna consciousness that can become our default devotional meditations.
So, for some of us it may be kirtan, some of us it may be hearing Krishna’s pastimes, for some of us it may be reading a particular book, for some of us it may be just hearing a particular devotee’s classes, for some of us it may be just reciting verses and prayers, and for some of us it may be just fully calling out the holy names. So, the holy name is important but we have mindful process of devotional service and any one of us may work for us in that way. And it is good if we can discover this default devotional meditation for us before the emergency comes and we cultivate that, we nourish that, we strengthen that so that we can take shelter of that whenever we are in trouble and then what we need to do during these times really take shelter of that default devotional meditation.
By default devotional meditation what I mean is something which gives us a sense of higher taste and a sense of safety quite quickly. So, although there are many activities in devotional service not every one of them will give us instant absorption or even immediate absorption. For some of them it may take a good amount of time that’s why we need to vary according to time, place, circumstance and more than varying according to time, place, circumstance we need to know our individual strengths, where do we get strength and then absorb ourselves in that particular activity.
So, if we do this then gradually we will be able to tolerate and transcend this phase of troubled material desires, of being troubled by material desires and through this whole process of tolerating these desires our faith in Krishna will increase and our endurance against material desires will increase and we will have experienced the power to protection of Krishna. So, there’s no need for us to lose faith in the process of Krishna consciousness when such things happen because the process of Krishna consciousness accounts for why this happens and it also explains to us what we need to do when this happens. The most important thing is to never get discouraged, to never fall into the illusion of the mind which says that this is how I’ll have to struggle lifelong.
No, we won’t have to. There will be a struggle lifelong but this particular heightened material desires, this particular spike is not going to be lifelong, it is going to be transitional and we need to weather that storm. So, we need two things, first is the will to fight and the second is the means to fight.
So, often the will to fight comes by our intelligence or by our vows, that’s NNI and the means to fight comes by our absorption and devotional service. So, when we say that the chanting is not working, essentially what is happening is that we are trying to adopt the means to fight without having cultivated the will to fight and that’s why the fight doesn’t work. If the soldier is not convinced that he has to fight, just like it happened to Arjuna at the start of the battlefield, he had the same Gandiva which could easily fight and defeat everybody.
He had the means but he lost the will to fight and then because of that he even put down the means. So, like that at the end of the first chapter we see that Arjuna put aside the Gandiva and he said I’ll not fight. So, that’s what is happening with us that if our will to fight is not strong then we feel the means to fight is also not working, let me put it aside and then we start feeling that chanting is not working.
So, chanting is working but we should want it to work and that’s why Krishna Consciousness involves a lot of philosophy also to convince our intelligence that we want to fight the battle and win the battle. So, when we cultivate the will to fight using our sense of honour and our intelligence and then use chanting and other forms of remembrance of Krishna as the means to fight,