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How Your Beliefs Affect Your Commitments
How Your Beliefs Affect Your Commitments
Commitments
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As you know, I am developing an online course on vows. It is turning out to be much more
purifying than I had ever anticipated. It has not only helped me increase my commitment to
Krsna consciousness, but has helped me increase my commitment in other areas of my life.
Because I am finding this work so valuable, I decided to discuss aspects of the course in the
upcoming newsletters.
In this issue we focus on how our degree of commitment to our vows and promises is
affected by what we believe is possible for us. And we also look at how beliefs affect us in
other areas of our lives. Some of our beliefs give us strength and some make it difficult or
impossible to achieve our goals. You may wonder: “Why would I have beliefs that make
things difficult for me?” That’s because you don’t always know you have them. Therefore
it’s important to uncover your beliefs so you can see if those beliefs are empowering you or
not. If they are not, you can change them into beliefs that support your goals.
Mahatma das
Every time I tried to make this newsletter shorter, I ended up making it longer. Since it’s not
always apparent what beliefs you have and how they are acting in your life, I felt it necessary
to approach this subject from many angles. It will definitely be worth taking the time to go
through this newsletter (I suggest reading it more than once). Discovering negative beliefs
and changing them can have an incredibly positive effect on both your spiritual and material
life.
And why would you try for second class unless you believe that’s all you can get or that’s all
you deserve?
Isn’t it true that your belief in what you can do, including how much you believe Krsna can
work through you, is so powerful that it sets a governor on your activities (if you have a sense
of what is possible and what is not possible for you, there is a belief governing that). For
example, if an athlete thinks, “I could never make it to the Olympics,” it’s unlikely he or she
will ever try for it unless someone with faith in their ability pushes them. Similarly, unless
someone really pushes us, we normally only attempt to achieve a level of success that fits the
image of how successful we believe we can be (which includes how much you think Krsna
can do through you). Altering your beliefs about what is possible for you will have a
major effect on both what you attempt and what you achieve.
What’s Your Script?
Beliefs are like internal scripts that talk to us. If you are wondering why you are having
difficulty following a vow you made, you might have a script that says “I can’t follow this
principle, it’s too difficult to follow that principle, I am not strong enough to follow, it won’t
make me happy to follow it, it’s not possible for a young person (old person, fat person,
skinny person, white person) to follow.”
If you see something continually playing out in your life, it’s likely you have a belief that’s
affecting that. If you have continual difficulties in marriage (or if you can’t seem to get
married), it might be because of beliefs you have about the opposite sex or marriage. If you
find you don’t have enough money or can’t seem to keep money when you get it, it’s likely
your beliefs about money are causing this.
Have you ever entertained beliefs like, “it’s not possible for me to be really Krsna conscious
in this life,” “I could never be like such and such Prabhu,” etc? If so, these beliefs are
affecting how high you set your goals in devotional service.
How do you think she is going to feel? She’s probably going to start feeling tired and weak.
And she’ll probably be really worried about her health and think that something is seriously
wrong with her. And she might even get really sick, all from believing that she is sick.
So it’s obvious what negative beliefs can do to us. You might have all kinds of negative
beliefs that are affecting your devotional service, beliefs that are saying you are not good
enough, strong enough, smart, enough, qualified enough, etc. to be a good devotee, to
practice good sadhana, to follow vows.
So it’s of utmost importance that you explore what negative beliefs you might have about
becoming advanced in Krsna consciousness. I want you to make a list of your negative
beliefs. Before you start I’ll give you a few more ideas to help you with this exercise.
1) I committed so many sinful activities in my past that it’s sooooooooooooo difficult to be
very Krsna conscious now.
2) My bad upbringing is preventing me from being very Krsna conscious now.
3) Although I keep trying, I don’t make any advancement.
4) I don’t have a strong spiritual inclination.
5) My material desires and attachments are especially bad. Other devotees are not as bad off
as me (you’d be surprised how many devotees think like this).
6) I could never be a spiritually advanced person.
7) I don’t deserve it.
8) It’s not possible to balance my material and spiritual life
9) I have some heavy karma
10) I can’t be Krsna conscious if I am married.
All these and other similar beliefs hold you back from making a greater effort to be Krsna
conscious?
So make your list. It is important to uncover these beliefs because you need to acknowledge
anything that may be making it difficult for you to go forward.
Once you’ve made your list, please repeat the following mantra over and over as loud as you
can:
Let me show you why it’s killing you. How would you feel if everyone you met told you
what’s on that list? Not too good, right? Well, your beliefs speak to you 24/7. So to be Krsna
conscious we need beliefs that foster our spiritual lives rather than undermine them. Having
this list resonating inside of you is like attempting to climb to the top of a mountain while
chanting the mantra, “I’ll never reach the top of this mountain.”
But what if we turned this list around? How would you feel if everyone you met told you that
you are a spiritual person, an insightful person, someone with potential to make spiritual
advancement, a person who is different from the masses? Wouldn’t that have a positive effect
on you? And to be a devotee, you obviously have those qualities – and probably a lot more.
So let’s look at your qualifications.
Contemplate what advantages you have that aid you in becoming Krsna conscious. Maybe
it’s your natural attraction to God and spiritual activities, you natural attraction to devotees,
your natural faith in the importance of spiritual life. It could be that you are a seeker of truth,
one who lives for truth and understanding. Perhaps you have a strong desire to see others
become Krsna conscious. Maybe you have always felt close to God and trusted Him. Could it
be that you have natural qualities that make it easier to be Krsna conscious, qualities like
determination, enthusiasm, patience, humility, gentleness, etc? Or perhaps you have a natural
service attitude, which is, of course, a great asset for spiritual advancement.
Maybe you’ve seen the ugliness of material life and fully believe that real happiness doesn’t
exist in this material world. Have you ever tasted the nectar of Krsna consciousness in such a
way that you believe that it’s the only thing that can make you really happy? Do you have
faith that the holy name can bring you to Krsna’s lotus feet if chanted properly? Whatever it
is, make a note of it and write it down.
The point is that you have a choice of what to believe about yourself and how the process of
bhakti works in your life. If you believe you can become Krsna conscious in this life
(Prabhupada believed you could), it will give you more energy, enthusiasm and determination
to advance. If you believe it’s going to be a problem for you to commit, a problem to make
much advancement, a problem to overcome your anarthas, a problem to increase your service
in bigger and novel ways, a problem to have a good marriage, a problem to ……………, isn’t
it obvious it will have a negative effect on you?
Maybe you feel that’s too simple an explanation for where you are at in Krsna consciousness.
Maybe you are thinking it’s not right to say that I am not as advanced as I could be simply
because I don’t believe I can be that advanced. I have my past lives of conditioning –
whatever bhakti I may have performed, my samskaras, my past pious and sinful acts – and
they are all affecting me.
1. But you don’t even know exactly what those past activities were. If you believe you
can’t be that Krsna conscious because you were very sinful in your past life, the story of
the deliverance of Jagai and Madhai proves you wrong. They got the gold medal for sin.
They were way more sinful than you ever were or ever could be. In any case, if you
believe you are especially (or uniquely) fallen and sinful, wouldn’t it be wiser to adopt
an empowering belief like, “I need to try harder than the other devotees?”
The point is to look at your beliefs and ask, “Is this belief helping me or hurting me?” If it
isn’t helping, why not change it or get rid of it? Negative beliefs limit what you believe is
possible for you in Krsna consciousness (and also in everything you do). And the reality is
that sooner or later you will get what you expect.
USUALLY THE PEOPLE WHO KEEP FAILING ARE THE ONES WHO EXPECT TO.
A mind saturated with fear of failure or images of unwanted results, can no more accomplish
anything great than a stone can violate the law of gravity by flying upwards. Krsna does not
alter the law of gravity to accommodate a person who walks off the roof of a house.
Similarly, you will achieve what you work towards, focus on, desire, and believe you can
achieve. Great devotees have great hope. They know Krsna will fulfill their hopes and dreams
for pure devotional service.
Changing Your Beliefs
Let’s look at the beliefs that are hurting you and see how you can change them into beliefs
that will help you. In this way you can start getting 24/7 encouragement from yourself for
your commitment to Krsna consciousness (if you ever feel a strong need for or dependence
on encouragement from your guru or others, it’s could be because your own beliefs are
discouraging you).
As referred to above, maybe you think you can’t be very Krsna conscious because you did
many horrible sinful things before you were a devotee. That belief could easily be changed
into a belief that the holy name is so powerful that it can purify persons who are more sinful
than you (the sastra is full of such references). Plus, Lord Caitanya is especially merciful to
the fallen. Isn’t it interesting how we can somehow end up having a belief that we aren’t
capable of making a lot of spiritual advancement even though we are inherently Krsna
conscious and Krsna is ready, willing and able to help us in all ways? Just the fact that we are
(always have and always will be) spirit souls, and that we contacted Lord Caitanya, makes us
pre-qualified to become Krsna conscious (congratulations, you are pre-approved to become
fully Krsna conscious!). If you have even one negative belief about something as positive as
Lord Caitanya’s mercy, that belief needs to be changed.
Here’s another common belief: “It’s difficult to control the mind?” Yes, it’s difficult, but not
for those who are Krsna conscious. We have the maha-mantra which is the ultimate process
for controlling the mind. Therefore shouldn’t we really have the belief that it’s not difficult to
control the mind for one who daily chants the maha-mantra sincerely?
Oh, there you go again with those beliefs. Let me ask you, “Is it absolutely true that you
really couldn’t be a lot more Krsna conscious this week?
Of course, no one in their right mind wants disempowering thoughts to be repeated? The
good news is that if we change disempowering beliefs into empowering beliefs, they’ll
always be there helping us, feeding us encouraging and positive thoughts.
“The greatest danger for most of us is not that we aim too high and we miss it, but we aim
too low and we reach it.” – Michelangelo
Look at what you are aiming for. If it’s all in your comfort zone you are aiming too low.