Overcoming the Pull of the World: Reflections for Spiritual Practitioners
The Allure of the Wordly
Srila Prabhupada often observed that even the most advanced yogis and jnanis can succumb to the allure of the material world. Despite their dedication, they may abandon their solitary practices and return to society. Ostensibly, this return is to help others, but often, a subtle desire for worldly satisfaction draws them back. The path of Bhakti alone offers a true shield against these distractions, keeping one firmly anchored in spiritual fulfillment. Yet, even for the sincere practitioner, these worldly pulls can remain strong without a conscious, daily commitment to cultivating spiritual focus.
The Challenge of Modern Distractions
However, in today’s digital age, Bhakti practitioners are faced with unique obstacles, often distracting them from their cherished path. Social media, with its endless scroll and constant news feeds, presents a formidable challenge. Notifications incessantly vie for our attention. Hours slip away, consumed by these distractions. This precious time could be dedicated to deepening our Krishna consciousness. Modern devices, while useful for connecting with other devotees, accessing spiritual discourses, and sharing inspiring content, can also become conduits for material allure, subtly distancing us from spiritual focus if not used consciously.
I have observed how easy it is to get distracted. Media exposure can be a powerful trigger. It evokes past conditionings and subtly compels us to stay hooked on worldly affairs. As a result, even sincere Bhakti practitioners can find themselves growing restless. They rely on gadgets for gratification, just like anyone else. Ultimately, this leads to the same sense of dissatisfaction. Such experiences reflect a gap in spiritual practice that calls for reflection and deeper alignment with Krishna consciousness. What might be missing in our efforts?
Why Do We Get Distracted?
Exploring the roots of these distractions reveals several underlying causes:
- Loneliness and Emptiness: A deep-seated sense of loneliness often drives one to seek solace in superficial connections. These interactions, while momentarily gratifying, fail to provide true fulfillment.
- Latent Desires: Subtle desires for fame, recognition, and material gratification can escalate. Social media, for instance, can fuel these latent desires, drawing us away from our spiritual goals as we crave validation and attention.
- Habitual Patterns: The constant bombardment of content creates addictive patterns, making it challenging to break free from the cycle of distraction. Over time, this cycle can subtly erode one’s focus and devotion.
Reflection: “Can you relate to the feeling of loneliness or the subtle pull of material desires? Take a moment to reflect on your own journey. Consider writing down a few common distractions you face, and think about what practical steps might help you stay more focused in Krishna consciousness.”
Why Am I Not Experiencing Satisfaction in Krishna Consciousness?
If we are fortunate enough, we may pause, feeling a sense of repentance rather than merely accepting distraction as a part of life. At such a moment, a critical question emerges: “How did I end up here?”
A key reason may lie in an elusive satisfaction in Krishna consciousness. Why do we still crave material rasa? The essence of rasa, or spiritual taste, lies in seva—service that deeply pleases other Vaishnavas and aligns us with Krishna’s teachings. If one feels unfulfilled, it may stem from a lack of quality time spent in the company of and service to other Vaishnavas. Such emptiness often leads to hankering, as one struggles with a subtle sense of isolation. In this material world, where matter and spirit are incompatible, loneliness can create a void that only sheltered, meaningful relationships in Bhakti can fill.
Is there hope? Can one realign with the path of Bhakti after such distractions?
The wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita offers a clue to understanding this situation. In BG 2.62, Lord Krishna explains that this path away from Bhakti often begins with contemplation (dhyayato visayan pumsa) and association (sangat sanjayate kamah).
- Contemplation: To cultivate spiritual strength, it is crucial to avoid unnecessary contemplation of worldly matters such as politics, media, or social issues. Once engaged, the mind easily becomes absorbed, even during chanting. Externally, one may appear focused, yet internally, the mind could be wandering. Over time, this becomes a subtle way of losing to maya.
- Association: What are the sources of worldly influence? For most, it’s the smartphone—a modern genie promising fulfillment of every desire. Following this are computers and television. Without examining and controlling these associations, distraction often continues.
Lord Krishna further teaches in BG Chapter 3 that diagnosing the problem is the first step to finding a solution. With a clear understanding of these challenges, the next step is to consider practical solutions:
Reclaiming Our Spiritual Path
To overcome these challenges and strengthen our Bhakti practice, practical solutions offer guidance:
- Take Responsibility: In BG 8.7, Lord Krishna says, “Fight your battle while always acting according to my instructions. You will certainly become victorious.” If controlling the mind’s restlessness is the challenge, then following Krishna’s advice in BG 6.35—practice—is essential. Krishna further clarifies in BG 8.8: “Do not allow your mind to become distracted from my contemplation. Always remain Krishna conscious, following in the footsteps of successful souls.”
- Limit Attachments: Practically, reducing distractions may involve setting time limits on devices, uninstalling non-essential apps, or creating a dedicated space for meditation. By consciously distancing ourselves from worldly media, we create more space for spiritual focus.
- Increase Devotional Content: Spiritual practice flourishes when the mind is immersed in devotion. Engage in spiritual practices, especially a disciplined morning program, studying Srila Prabhupada’s books, and memorizing shlokas to nourish the mind with spiritual content.
- Serve Vaishnavas: Make it a priority to serve and assist Vaishnavas in ways that please them and contribute to their spiritual journey. True spiritual satisfaction comes from such acts of selfless service.
- Cultivate Sheltered Association: Nurture sheltered relationships and regularly associate with other Vaishnavas. This supportive association helps overcome feelings of loneliness and fills the heart with spiritual strength.
These practices anchor us to the path of Bhakti, reducing the sway of maya and fostering a deeper connection with Krishna.
Encouraging Community Sharing: As practitioners, we each face the challenge of overcoming distractions. If this article resonates with you, please consider sharing your experiences or insights in the comments. Let’s build a supportive community to inspire and strengthen one another on our path of Bhakti.
Conclusion:
This journey reveals how tendencies toward worldly engagement often indicate an immature stage in Krishna consciousness. Externally, one may appear advanced, yet these distractions reveal the need for deeper, more consistent practice. Recognizing this is a rare gift, for it allows sincere practitioners to address their shortcomings. Yet, such realizations should neither lead to pride nor to despair; both reactions are dualities arising from material influences.
Instead, let us focus on solutions and pray earnestly to the Lordships for guidance and strength to deepen our practice.
Challenge: “Consider this a gentle challenge for the week: reflect on one aspect of your daily life where you feel the pull of distraction, and think about a small step you could take to reclaim that time for spiritual practice. If you feel comfortable, share your reflections in the comments so we can encourage one another on this journey.”
Prayer: “O Supreme Lord, O Viṣṇu, You are the most compassionate. So now please show me Your favor and bestow Your mercy upon this helpless soul. O unlimited Lord, kindly uplift this wretch who is drowning in the ocean of material existence. O Lord Hari, You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” – Mukund Mala (Text 49)
This is a very informative article and resonates closely with me..Thank you for helping me to recognize and get rid of my problems.
@Priyanka Sinha Hare Krishna
Hare krishna prji dandwat pranam
Thank you so much for this post 🙏🙏
Whatever you have written it seems that you are writing for me where majority of symptoms are matching with me and for me you are a spiritual MD put my illness broadly in public domain 🙌
I would like to share one of my hankering to watch some new chennal in the evening for the sake of knowledge what is going on and end up westing my valuable time approximately 1 to 2 hr.
After that I started regretting what I did for sometime but back to same position next day.
After reading your post I can make out what is happing with me and will try to stop this desiger at the beginning from today onwards.
Hare Krsna, this is such a wonderful blog and really helpful to introspect. This actually resonates with me fully.
I would like to share one distraction which sometime ago I was getting addicted to and was spending quite sometime unknowingly on it. This is for google feeds. The feed provides you content based on your past searches and clicks one has done and some promotional content that it would like to push to the mass. Example, few months ago, I started checking many feeds related to Anant Ambani pre wedding and wedding and google started giving me more and more feeds!!
Also, scrolling through the feeds instigates you to click on some topic or the other to see more about it and eventually you end of spending significant time in contemplating on and associating with stuff which would take your consciousness away from practicing Bhakti and subtely start making your devotional practice more and more mechanical and without real substance or depth.
Hence time and again, our seniors and acharyas keep reminding us of assessing and identifying these challenges and sacred months like Kartik gives us the opportunity and inspiration to do such self assesement and take some vratas which help us reduce and avoid these distractions. Like HG Madan Sundar Prabhuji said, firstly identifying that something is going wrong and then limiting the attachment by consciously distancing ourselves from that distraction can really help. This is what exactly I did. I disabled the google feeds at the begining of Kartik month. Even though I know I should not do it, I still many time unconciously click on the google feed but since there is no feed coming in, I come out of that :). And believe me, I am much more peaceful and am able to utlize that time in either finishing my office work faster or engaging in more hearing during that time.
We feel these are small things but has a deeper impact than that we can fathom. Hope this helps others also to identify such distractions and consciously distant themselve from it until that habit is fully cleansed from our system. Seeking prayers from vaishanavas that I too am able to do that same.
@Kaushal Mehta thank you for sharing your story pr
Harekrishna Prabhu ji! Dandawath Pranam 🙏 All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Gurudev. Thank you so much for such a wonderful article which you posted. I always feel like not only your lecture but now you article as well make us to think to improve spiritual consciousness. It is absolutely 100% true that I am getting distracted by my mobile sometimes . Though I m not in Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc but still I will also get distracted when a new message popped up in my what’s app. You gave a right advice, Prabhu ji and very practical life lesson to focus on our Bhakti. You have given session on Mind Management which is mind blowing and I feel like this article helps how to overcome from our distraction. Very very helpful Prabhu ji. Thank you so much. We are humbly requesting you to post many more articles in future which will nurture a sadhaka devotee like us.
Harekrishna Prabhu ji 🙏 Dandawath Pranam 🙏
Thank you for your kind words! I have been asked by my seniors to do this seva. Thus I will try to write 1 article/blog per week
Thankyou Prji for this article.
Reading it makes me feel hearing the voice inside.
Very aptly written . To all the underlying reasons I liked the way they are coded in systematic way starting from loneliness and emptiness which I think emerges out of practicing spiritual life without guidance , thus unaware of its purpose and goal . Like it’s mentioned how yogis and Jnanis, gets allured of doing something good because they are unaware of the wisdom endowed with the devotee of what is truly fulfilling and thus good for society and how it can be delivered properly.
And owing to my personal experience I feel it’s isn’t easy to come to the point of being capable of even receiving the association of a pure devotee , so we have Srila Prabhupada books . There is no doubt how distracting social media is but at the same time using it responsibly for the responsible process and purpose does help with the drawback of it’s own shortcomings which over time makes it unworthy than the original way of practicing and progressing .
Agreed Mother
Awaiting next part
A very important topic. Social media has hijacked us and it is using us rather than we using them. We may be amidst people but alone many times and the test is how we spend our time then. This is very useful prabhuji. Shall try to practice the points brought out by you.
Hare Krishna!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dandvat Pranam!
Firstly, I offer my humble obeisances to HG MSP for posting such an introspecting and soul churning article which fully resonates with my and to a large extent everyone’s consciousness. As someone who is trying to practice Bhakti seriously, I must say we should count our enemies, and make sure we have a strategy to deal with them. Prabhuji has very aptly given the example of allurement of social media which is highly distracting.
To give my own example, I know I need to keep myself engaged in seva otherwise I tend to get distracted. I am most vulnerable when I have nothing to do, I feel a sense of loneliness during that time and that is where our true test lies and I admit, I fail this test many times often. Browsing some news related to current affairs, cricket and other general topics, lead countless minutes and hours that get lost where I could have picked up a Srila Prabhupada book, memorized slokas or work on strengthening relationships with devotees.
Our Sadhana is not just about the morning hours. It is all about what we do during the rest of the day, every minute wasted in something that does not nourish our soul acts as as venom whose affect can manifest at anytime. Example of the elephant taking a bath and then covering itself with dust comes to my mind. Our subconscious is very fragile and subtle and everything we see, speak and act upon leave impressions that are hard to erase.
At my end, although I haven’t expressed much but I feel a great sense of indebtedness and gratitude towards HG MSP, towards all the Vaisnavas who has given me a chance to
turn around my life and be able to atleast try and do some devotional service. I feel if I keep reminding myself about my good fortune and how better I am from my previous self, it gives me a lot of hope and make me more determined to avoid such distractions that suck the very essence of goodness out of us.
Yes, I can very well relate to the feeling of loneliness.Saipriya Murali.
Hare Krishna.