When our anarthas continue despite our bhakti practice, how can we stay enthusiastic?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. When we lose our enthusiasm for chanting and hearing, and then sense the anarthas growing, how can we regain and maintain the enthusiasm? Actually, enthusiasm is, at least in sadhaka stage, primarily a result of education and association.
Education means our intelligence needs to be persuaded again and again. Within us, there is the mind and there is the intelligence. The intelligence can see long-term, but the mind always sees short-term.
And because the mind sees short-term, and quite often, devotional activities don’t seem to be offering immediate short-term gains, so the mind tends to become unenthusiastic about them. So, in such a situation, when the mind is seeing the short-term only, at that time, we will be repeatedly interrupted and even tripped in our practice of chanting. So, how do we deal with that? First is, our intelligence needs to be strong.
That means, it is not just that we can study scriptures, we can hear classes, but through that studying and hearing, we need to extract those points that can fuel our enthusiasm. That means, we ask ourselves, Why am I chanting? Why should I be chanting? And I say, I want to go back to God. But, how much of a driving inspiration or motivation is that for me? That’s a long time, maybe I can practice later.
The mind will have its own rationalization. So, we have to find out, for every reason, why we should be practicing bhakti, the mind will be given a counter-reason by, okay, you can practice later, but you don’t need to practice also. So, what we need to do is, if a war is going on, a soldier cannot go in a war with a stereotype, okay, I’ll be using this weapon and I’ll be using this weapon like this.
If the enemy uses a different strategy, then we also have to find an appropriate strategy to counter the enemy. So, what we need to do is, we find out what are the reasons that inspire us, that motivate us to practice. So, it may be that devotees are loving, it may be that I understand this is the goal of life, or I find that this practice helps me to become calmer, and it helps me to become more productive in my life, it helps me to become a better human being, a better family man, whatever.
So, we have to find out our reasons. Hearing scripture is fine, but what are the reasons that inspire me to practice for fear? So, we draw it from our hearing, we draw it from our own experiences, and put them down, write them down, and at different points, you may find different among these reasons, different reasons may inspire us the most, but if we have only one reason, oh, I want to chant for the pleasure of Krishna, I don’t care about the pleasure of Krishna, mind may say like that. So, we can’t really predict, or squelch, or silence the mind.
Whatever reason has come up, we have to find a way to counter it and move on. So, today this reason may not work, but some other reason may work. Today, tomorrow that reason may not work, third reason may work.
So, we have to have an array of reasons, which inspire us to practice for fear, and keep them ready, and keep adding to them, keep refining them, refining the content, refining the list, and refining the content of that list also. Sometimes we may hear a point, why am I practicing for fear? Okay, because material happiness doesn’t satisfy, material happiness is disappointing, and then you may hear, how material happiness is disappointing, sometimes you may hear a very insightful class, then that may, that we can add over. So, prepare, this is like a warrior preparing one’s own armor, not armor, one’s own arsenal of weapons, one’s own list of weapons, which they can use, these are your weapons in your war, you are a spiritual warrior, that’s the first thing.
The education is equipping our intelligence, so that we have the resources to combat the mind, and secondly, even with the best equipment, the mind is still going to trouble. So, at that time, we also need association, association, not just going to classes, going to the temple, association in terms of, at least one or two devotees, with whom we can share our heart, and that way, those who are understanding, then they will tell you, that’s true, but this is also a point, so then, if we have some devotees who are close to us, so our relationship with them, will give us the, give us the necessary buffer, by which to resist the mind’s ups and downs, so for example, if I am close to a devotee, and the ideal motive for practicing bhakti, is that we want to please Krishna, but another motive could be also, it may not be ideal, what I want to speak now, not ideal motive, but at our stage, whatever works, we can use, so these are the ways, how we can get Krishna, somehow or the other, we can get Krishna, so if we have some devotees, whom we like very much, whom we respect and admire, and if we do something wrong, you know, they will be hurt, they will be disappointed, and not wanting to displease them, that also is an important way, in which, we can inspire ourselves, so thinking about that, and associating regularly with those devotees, that will be a positive inspiration also, about how they are telling Krishna, determinately, and if we can close the association, sometimes they may also share, how they also have their struggles, that means, it’s not that we alone are being troubled, they are also troubled, but in spite of their troubles, they are going on, so this association can work in various ways, there are some senior devotees, who inspire us a lot, they guide us a lot, and we can think about Prabhupada’s sacrifice, so often when I, when I feel the mind going down, and coming very lazy, I think that, Prabhupada is giving me the medicine of the holy name, so, it’s like, let’s say a mother, has, sold her own jewelry, so as to give a, bring a medicine for a sick child, and that medicine is better, I can’t tolerate the taste, the child remembers, my mother has actually sold her own jewelry to get this, and the child will think, oh, this bitter taste, it’s not good, it’s nothing, let me tolerate it, so like that, if you think about how much, the great souls have sacrificed, to give us the practice of bhakti, so Prabhupada risked his life, went on a day of 70, travelled tirelessly, didn’t sleep at night practically, with so much, so that he could give us this, so if we meditate on that, that will also inspire us, to, tolerate whatever difficulties we have, when we see how big are the difficulties that they have taken, and whatever difficulties we have, we will see them in perspective, and at our level, so with, with seniors we can get inspiration, by their example, by their sacrifice, equals we can share the heart, and we can understand we are not alone, so just as they are battling, let me also battle them, and if we can share Krishna consciousness with others, somebody, some of your colleagues, some of your family, relatives or whatever, then, that, also, inspires us to practice, because when we share, three things happen, first thing is that, when, when people counter, ask, ask counter questions, we are also forced to think, and that, makes us intellectually assimilate, philosophy, when we get questions, then we go and ask, questions, same thing happens in the workplace, so people ask, if we inquire properly from our seniors, we will get a better appreciation of what we are doing, second thing is, if people start practicing, then at least in the initial phases of bhakti, sometimes people have traumatic transformation, somebody may be, may be addicted to something, and they start chanting, and change happens, and people ask, how is this transformation happening, so in the initial stages, the changes happen quite drastically, even now changes are happening, but now they are happening at a subtler level, and because, because we rely a lot on prateksha pramana, on what is seen immediately, so, in our life when changes happen subtly, we may not realize them, and that’s why we may start feeling that actually bhakti, what does it do, doesn’t do anything, but, if we are trying to share Krishna consciousness with others, and we see how people are getting transformed, even one person gets transformed, we will realize, this is wonderful, that we do this, secondly, we see others transformation, that also gives inspiration to more, and thirdly, when we speak some things, we also know that people want to observe us, do we walk or talk, and that also inspires us, if we say chanting makes me calm, chanting makes me focused, then, if I myself want to become irritable, and explore, I want to explore, then, then people will see, there is a mismatch over there, so then, if we say chanting makes me calm, then we will also think, I have to chant properly, so that I can actually stay calm, when I am provoked, so that way, we will also get further motivation, to practice our own bhakti seriously, so through intelligence, preparing our own arsenal of weapons, our reasons why we should be practicing, and through association, inspiration from senior devotees, from reciprocation of our shared struggles, of our shared struggles with our equals, and the responsibility, of presenting and representing ourselves properly to new people, that all can give us necessary enthusiasm, and if we have all these, you will find that at least one of them works, it’s not that the same thing will work all the time, but something will work, and we will find it, just keep persevering, if you just hold on to Krishna long enough, the mind won’t be able to hold on to us long enough, so if the mind holds on to us and say, suppose somebody is pulling us down, suppose we are in a well fallen, and somebody is pulling us down into the well, and then somebody else is pulling us out of the well, now if we give up of whoever is pulling us out of the well, we will fall back, but if we just hold on, so Krishna is holding us out of the well, pulling us out of the well, and the mind is holding us down, so now, sometimes we feel the mind’s grip is so strong and forceful, I am exhausted, but somehow, we just keep holding on to Krishna, even if we feel that we are not able to rise up, because the mind’s hold is so strong, that I am pulled down also, we will be pulled down, but we don’t have to let go of Krishna, just hold on to Krishna, and over time, the mind’s pulling down will decrease, and then we will be able to rise up, so no matter what happens, don’t let go of Krishna, even if we don’t feel enthusiastic, try to keep practicing bhakti, and try to, somehow or the other, through one of these options, try to stimulate some enthusiasm, and over time, the enthusiasm will become stronger,