When we feel empty and impure, how can we persevere in devotion?

Transcript

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There is one question When during our bad times in bhakti our vision is clouding So we don’t experience any of Krishna’s love at that time So what should we do at that time So first is we should know that Krishna is not judgmental Krishna doesn’t just see our feelings He sees our feelings about our feelings What do you mean by our feelings about our feelings? That means I just don’t feel like chanting I just feel so troublesome I just don’t want to chant That’s how I feel But then at that time How am I approaching these things? Krishna, I don’t want to feel like this I know you are not used to this I want to value this whole thing Somehow I am not able to value this So when we feel certain bhakti as a burden or as a boredom, whichever way it is At that time At least we have a dependent attitude We have a separate attitude I don’t want to feel like this Krishna sees that and appreciates that That’s the first thing to understand All is not lost is because we are not experiencing the right feelings So even when sometimes just the feelings come with such force that we can’t control But then we still can respond to those feelings We don’t want to feel like that Doesn’t mean the feeling will go away But that still means that we are responding in a way Krishna sees and appreciates that Beyond that There are just storms in us Just like we are in a boat In the boat in the ocean, there will be storms So when the storms come, all that we can do is We can’t do it. The storms will not just go We have to weather the storm That means tolerate it Calm the pictures of her Calm the pictures of her It is not enough One of the things of the mind is that nothing lasts forever No move of the mind is also not going to last forever So we should not when we face problems we should not eternalize the present Eternalize the present means think that whatever our present mentality is that is what is going to be there all the time No, it is there now But it is also temporary It will go away. So what I should do is Tolerate And now how do I tolerate? So first thing I said is know that we can still check our we can still try to have the right feelings about our feelings Second is we know this is temporary It will go away.
It is not the way I am going to feel permanently This is a spike, a negative spike that is coming in my anasthas But it will go away. Just let me wait it out And then if the situation becomes very extreme then we should have some strategy ready. That means as I said this is the circle of devotional activities the circle of what I like to do So we should have some activities which we like to do in that situation And we focus more on doing those things See we as devotees we have to know that there are standards there are processes there are certifications which are very important but ultimately my spiritual advancement is my responsibility It is not my household responsibility It is not my temple presence responsibility It is not my spiritual master’s responsibility It is not Krishna’s responsibility It is my responsibility So if I am troubling then I can take guidance from my senior devotees but ultimately that battle has to be fought I need their prayers, I need their blessings So I have to fight that So we have to be prepared for that And if we are prepared for the battle then we can just tolerate and outdo it And even if it somehow happens that at that time because we feel so dry we do something wrong, we do something stupid doesn’t matter after that just get up and start again And when we start again then we can learn from that experience Learn means look back and see what are the sequence of events because of which I did this and where could I have taken this where could I have done this and we learn from it So at no stage is a deviation from bhakti non-correctable Just like to give a simple example If I am going back to the chariot boy metaphor where the horses are like the senses charioteer is the intelligence Like one of the horses sees something off the road some fruit off the road in a ditch and the horse starts going in that direction Now at that time the horse just gets so much momentum that it becomes very difficult to catch the horse Now the quicker I catch the horse and restrain it it will be easier to control it because the more momentum it gets the more it will be difficult to control it But even in the worst case even if the horse drags the chariot off the road into the ditch and even the horse goes and leads the chariot and the chariot is all upturned now but still we can always return the chariot back come back from the road and come to the horse So when those dry feelings are there and even if something wrong happens from our side what we should know is I should not do that I should not do that and still come back and eventually those feelings will decrease more and more and more important much much more important than these dry feelings and what we do in those dry feelings is what we do in our normal periods of life Now what defines us as devotees is not how we fall but how we rise and how we live how we fall how I rise and more importantly what do I do in between the balls if in between the balls also I am practicing the least possible sandal just getting away with as much as I can in my with as less sandal as possible then what will happen is I am basically showing Krishna I am not very interested in this and then when the strong temptations come at that time we will be prepared so in war there is a saying the more you sweat in peace the less you will bleed in war the more you sweat in peace you sweat, practice you do the drills, prepare nicely but what will happen when the war comes, the danger comes you will be prepared and the less you bleed in war so like that it is very important that when we are in normal consciousness and the mind is not talking too much at that time we wholeheartedly practice and that will give us the muscles to fight when the dangers come and we will gradually keep practicing like this irrespective of what happens between those spikes, whether we are able to resist them or not, what happens in the entering period is most important I think you practice in that period and eventually those dry periods will decrease and then eventually they will get completely removed and we will come to the levels high above, constant emotional emotion any other questions