When our consciousness is low, how do we continue spiritually?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
You mentioned that in Nirodhya kalpa sometimes our enthusiasm goes down and we lament too much and we keep from following the rules of bhakti. So, can you tell some practical ways in which how we can come out of that stage when our enthusiasm has gone terribly down? Yes, we are at the bottom of the century when we have no enthusiasm to come back. Yeah.
This can happen and when this happens it is they say in the army the more you sweat in peace the less you will bleed in war. The more you sweat in peace that means you practice vigorously how to fight, how to train yourself how to keep yourself fit then the less you will bleed in war. Because when the enemy attacks your reflexes will be stronger So, when our consciousness is overall okay not like the dancing happening in bhakti but it’s overall okay that time you should try to practice bhakti as seriously as possible.
That is like we are practicing when we sweat at that time. So, when life is not all that difficult that time we become very relaxed in bhakti then when life becomes difficult it will be difficult to hold on to Krishna. So, when life is overall okay at that time we practice and then we can hold on even if there are difficulties.
So, that’s the first thing because we cannot predict or control what emotions our mind will come up with in future. But what we can control is how we are acting right now. So, if we try to be as serious in bhakti as possible right now then that is the best preparation then by that we show Krishna that I want to be serious in bhakti and something that deepens for ourselves as I discussed earlier something that stimulates those emotions in us and keep them with us as it is possible.
Then as some pictures are taking some nice music, some songs some memories which we have preserved then we can draw on them to move on with this and to pull ourselves out of that trough of consciousness which we have sunk into if this is a sign wave of going up and down it is a strong problem that we have one of the best ways to overcome that is to take up responsibility now because one thing is doing some service and another is taking up responsibility doing service means you are told to do this, do that and it’s good but when we take up responsibility at that time we take up the mind that is the nature of responsibility how is that? just like say when a mother has a child at that time because of natural affection the mother takes up the responsibility in the middle of the night when the child starts crying the mother may not feel like picking up but she wakes up and she cares for the child because that is the nature of responsibility when we take up responsibility for something at that time we take up responsibilities if we take up responsibility in Krishna’s service then that forces us to do certain things so that responsibility may be in various things just like we have a commitment we chant every day we take a vow that is one level of responsibility so whatever service we are doing if we take up responsibility one of my main services is writing this is called writer’s block writer’s block means sit down, write and get no ideas to write that is the deal so one writer says that you sit in front of a computer you glare at the computer till blood forms on your forehead you just get so much tension you are not able to write anything so one of the ways in which writers work around the writer’s block is that they make a commitment that no matter what happens if I write a certain number of words even Nobel laureate authors they also they may be great in their idea but that does not mean that their mind is mind of a pure devotee their mind is in condition they also go through their goals Nobel laureate authors also many of them they had a commitment every day they would write something like 2000 words, 3000 words depending on one’s situation sometimes the writing comes out good sometimes the writing doesn’t come out good that is not important just do the right thing and by that so one author he says that the rules actually free you to be you normally these rules restrict us but author naturally wants to write but sometimes he just don’t feel like writing but if there is a rule I have to write then gradually as you keep writing that boredom, that apathy gets pushed aside and then normally we want there are two ways we want we can we can feel our way to our actions or we can act our way to our feelings can we feel our way to our actions means that means we feel like doing something and then we do it I feel inspired to go to the temple I feel inspired to do something we feel like doing something and we do it but that is not the only way we do any serious activity if we are in a job I don’t feel like working today we will never say that because it is a very serious responsibility for us so in serious activity we don’t just feel our way to actions we also act our way to feelings act our way to feelings means I don’t feel like doing something still I do it and by doing it I feel like doing something so when Giriraj Maharaj was in Juhu project at that time he had a lot of difficulties and they were trying to get the land and the legal clearances and just not able to get anything done these were young Americans they had not even much experience with American bureaucracy and now they have to deal with Indian bureaucracy because they had thought they are going with Prabhupada they want to meet India and it is so under food so they sit for one hour sit for two hours so discouraged and he would never come back and Prabhupada came back and he was so demoralized about feeling so Prabhupada told him why don’t you dance in Juhu but nothing is working out there is nothing to feel happy about you are so blue how can you dance if you dance you will feel happy so when we feel happy we dance we dance by that itself so if we are deep down in the dumps just come out and do something and another time that happened we were very much down in the dumps and nothing was working out we will have a big fatal moment how can we have a fatal moment we don’t have resources Prabhupada said no if you are too caught in management and legalities you will get life and they actually started going and organizing the program and thousands of people came they all became environment so sometimes when we are too much down in the dumps just start doing something just get into the action because Tamoguna perpetuates Tamoguna if I am Tamoguna if I am feeling like a Tamoguna I act also in Tamoguna when the feelings and actions when I am Tamoguna I act like a Rajoguna I don’t feel like it what happens from the Tamoguna we come out towards Rajoguna and if there is something we do Rajoguna will come towards us so basically preparing in advance and committing ourselves to some service by which it drags us out of our dumps that can help us to overcome these low phases in our spiritual life