Re: A positive attitude and a positive faith

Dear Guest,

         Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna! My humble pranams!

         What I meant by writing was that in Rupa Gosvami's Nectar of Instruction, enthusiasm and patience are among the very first qualities that a sadhaka must cultivate which are favourable for devotion.

         I am going to be very simple and straightforward here and I hope it is clear : Our thoughts are the starting point of everything from our actions, our moods, our behaviour and right down to our personality. Everything starts with a thought. The thoughts are what influence even our desires. It is a very simple observation.

         Therefore when we allow thoughts of doom and failure to come in our mind, we get disheartened, then we may feel excessively worried, we then give up and lose faith. Cases of depression are one extreme example of negative thoughts dominating.

         In spiritual life therefore, one must keep positive spiritual thoughts. This has nothing to do with material opposites and dualities. This is spiritual positive. Only by tapping into the thought process can we properly use our mind, and consequently all our senses in the Lord's service. Say you're chanting and it's feeling a little painful to force yourself. Just say, "Pain is good! It's pain for the Lord and its good and I love it." That will bring out more sincerity in a person. On the other hand, if we keep thinking, "Why am I doing this? It's pain, it's boring, it's dry...", then we are encouraging insincere desires in the heart. The Holy name is a wish fulfilling tree and the Lord will grant exactly what we're planning on the inside. So if we keep seeing it as boredom, then that is what we'll get!

         This is a fairly benign case, but there are more serious issues where thoughts of cheating in devotion, trying to justify offenses and other things can come in and cause spiritual disaster. If one examines the mind of an offensive chanter, one is sure to find things like, "I'll sin and then I'll chant because God will forgive." So at all times, one has to be careful and watch the thoughts because the thoughts reveal exactly what is there in the heart and by changing the thoughts, the heart can become purified. 

         Therefore one has to take control over the thoughts by voluntarily over-riding them with spiritual thoughts. I am not asking people to fight against the mind. I am just asking them to go to the root and make a small fix there so that a huge deal of trouble can be avoided. How fast we advance depends only on how willing we are. Mukunda for one was forbidden by the Lord to see him for 10 million lifetimes, but he took that to be so positive because he saw only the end, and so the 10 million immediately became 0! That's being positive in an extreme case. Take Shrila Prabhupada. How many obstacles he faced. Only the Lord knows how much difficulty he took for preaching devotion world-wide. Yet whatever happened, nothing could stop him. He was so determined.

           Ultimately it is the Lord's mercy that purifies the heart of all this material dirt. But we should have some room for Him in our heart because devotion, love is totally voluntary and cannot be forced. When it is forced slavery it is not love anymore. So if one wants the mercy of the Lord, then one should make room for Him in the heart. And the only way to do that is to direct our thoughts to the Lord. That only we can do, in spite of all the dirt and material desires. Some effort is needed from our side. Then when we allow the Lord to step in, with His unlimited mercy He immediately gives us His pure love and all the offenses flee forever.

         Devotion is inherently a very very simple process. It is self sufficient. There is no need to make it complicated by adding or modifying things, etc...In this age of mercy it is absurdly simple to reach the Lord. So if we want to advance, first we need to ask ourselves : Do I want devotion or do I want something of my own ideas?  Is there really room for the Lord to enter into my life?

Daaso'smi,
Srinath

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