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Compared to ancient times, today’s times are full of social media distractions and overspending time on other useless activities. Despite these, there’s an ignored part of life, the happiness of the soul, which is always ignored by the person. The reason behind it is that people misunderstand temporary relationships, goal achievement, and other sensory pleasures as the source of inner peace.
This is where Krishna Consciousness comes, in this spiritual practice, you aren't required to leave the place of living and working. It teaches us to balance the spiritual practices with the usual way of living, like attending the Hare Krishna Temple every weekend, having prasadam, and starting to read the Bhagavad Gita, starting with your page or even half a page at a time.
Unlike your busy schedule tasks, Krishna consciousness isn’t about doing less or more service to Lord Krishna; it is about doing it regularly.
What Is Spirituality?
Spirituality isn’t a ritual or a prison where you’ll be locked in and never get to enjoy the materialistic pleasures. It is the journey of the soul to know its existence and the relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna.
This isn’t some minute process, it takes a good time to accept that the ultimate happiness of every soul is the service of Lord Krishna. For example, there are a lot of strange facts in biology that you wouldn’t know until you complete a phd.
The Real Struggles of Modern Life
If spirituality is the ultimate peace, why does everyone struggle to practice it? It’s because the temporary pleasures of this material world are strong enough to control one’s will. The mind that is wrapped inside illusion wouldn’t ever allow a person to have the will to practice Krishna consciousness. Here are the real-life struggles that we commonly see:
1) Time Pressure:
The most common problem that everyone faces is the unavailability of time for practising spirituality. People are too involved in their relationships, job responsibilities, and other quality times that they treat spirituality as a luxury.
Instead, it is a basic requirement to make every responsibility easier and every quality time more peaceful.
2) Mental Fatigue:
Mental Fatigue is the result of all-day working. And, instead of reading scriptures, which takes a period of time, people choose quick entertainment. These entertainments are responsible for dopamine release that makes a person happy, like scrolling unnecessarily on the screen, sleeping, overeating, etc.
It must be replaced by a healthy habit of reading scriptural books, not necessarily a lot but a little by little, every day, chanting the holy names, singing the beautiful Vaishnava songs, have a healthy spiritual conversations with your friends, try to have a devotee association, visit Hare Krishna Temples, etc.
3) Social Perception:
In modern society, spirituality sounds like an old-fashioned thing to most of the rich people. They see it as an impossible task to do, because of all the rules that are required to purify the senses and the body.
Before you think too much about society to do something extraordinary, remember that society will be either careless or critical, no matter what you do. Read the Bhagavad Gita, and get the right answers to all your queries.
4) Work-Life Imbalance:
As we grew up, we only heard the importance of positive results/ output, success, doing something for the country, for the society, for the family, but we never heard the importance of spirituality.
Spirituality isn’t just a practice that is missing from your life; it’s a requirement. This is the requirement of the soul, to know its original purpose in this life, which is Lord Krishna.
Without knowing the purpose that existed in the world, how can a soul find a way to feel happy? Do you have any answers? Read the Bhagavad Gita to find all the answers to your questions/ queries about life.
Start Practicing These Spiritual Habits
In general, people believe that practising spiritual habits is about changing the entire routine system. But it is about adding a few spiritual habits that can slowly shift your inner consciousness towards devotion. Here are the standard practices that you must start to practise you by one.
1) Wake up early in the morning, between 4-6 am, and start reading a single page of the Bhagavad Gita daily. Also, chant at least a single round(contains 108 beads) of Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
2) Start avoiding the unnecessary gossip, sleeping, overeating, and screen time to pass the time or breaks. Instead, start listening to Hare Krishna Kirtan, or visit a nearby temple to take a glance of Lord Krishna.
3) Make a habit of offering any food or drink before you have it for yourself.
4) Before bed, you can revise the page that you read in the morning, or just read another one. It helps the mind focus on good and spiritual vibes, and not on depression, any kind of anxiety, etc.
To Keep Going, Have Devotees' Association
Everything in this world that requires hard work is easy to start, but difficult to continue. To continue the spiritual habits, you need to find an association of a devotee. It is said in Srimad Bhagavatam, as:
सतां प्रसङ्गान्मम वीर्यसंविदो
भवन्ति हृत्कर्णरसायना: कथा: ।
तज्जोषणादाश्वपवर्गवर्त्मनि
श्रद्धा रतिर्भक्तिरनुक्रमिष्यति ॥ २५ ॥
Translation: In the association of pure devotees, discussion of the pastimes and activities of the Supreme Personality of Godhead is very pleasing and satisfying to the ear and the heart. By cultivating such knowledge, you gradually become advanced on the path of liberation, and thereafter, you are freed, and his attraction becomes fixed. Then real devotion and devotional service begin.
‘From childhood, we have been taught that good company always forms a good personality. But, in the case of spirituality, a good company isn’t enough; you need an association of devotees who have been walking on the path of Krishna Consciousness for some time. Their good company will encourage you to keep going, even when it seems impossible to do.
Center Your Life Around Krishna
After reading the entire blog, what do you think is the main goal that we are trying to achieve?
The goal that we are all trying to achieve is to surround ourselves with the presence of Lord Krishna. Everything that we do, we eat, we use, must have the mercy of Lord Krishna.
