Let’s be devotees but let’s not punish ourselves, “I am a failure, I am not humble!
I am a failure, I am not honest! I can’t chant properly, I am a failure...”
We punish ourselves and all our Krsna consciousness becomes black and gloomy because we have a standard and day-by-day we are failing that standard. Therefore I am a failure and so sinful...loser! My whole spiritual life is just stress.
We need not bring this type of mentality into Krsna consciousness. It is not required. We just pick up from we left off and go back to the standard. That’s the system of spiritual life.
I often stress the point of rising early because it gives us so much time for spiritual activity because the day is full of so much activity and passion, therefore it is nice to read and chant in the morning. I am recommending that one is strict in trying to rise early. But what does it mean to be strict with oneself??
Strictness means that when sometimes health is really bad or exhaustion goes into the red, at that stage it may be wise to say that I am resting. Strictness means that I should take shelter of the standard of rising early and no matter what happens, I will always go back to it. And at one stage it becomes a culture, a habit. Like for me, these days rising at 4 am I consider sleeping in. But there are different cultures. My point is that in spiritual life there is STRICTNESS but not FANATISM. Strictness in the mode of goodness. Spiritual life is joyful (BG 4.2).
Kadamba Kanana Swami
20 December 2010
Cape Town, South Africa
