In spiritual life, devotees experience ups and downs due to their evolving spiritual practices, influenced by past impressions (samskaras), associations, and personal effort.
Swami Nikhilanand ji encourages maintaining a level head amid these fluctuations, viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than reasons for despair. He stresses the importance of realistic expectations and gradual progress in spiritual endeavors, supported by faith in the divine grace and the path of devotion (bhakti).
Here's a summary of the key points:
Expect Ups and Downs:
Maintain perspective: Both material and spiritual lives have their ups and downs. It's important to maintain a realistic perspective, understanding that progress in devotion is gradual and not always linear.
Knowledge and Spiritual Progress: To cope with life’s fluctuations, one needs both intellectual understanding and spiritual growth. Understanding the transient nature of material things helps in maintaining a balanced perspective.
Nature of Maya: Life is characterized by constant change, variation, and pairs of opposites (e.g., hot and cold, good and bad). This is an inherent aspect of the material world.
Managing Emotional Ups and Downs:
Acceptance of Change: Recognize that everything in the material world is temporary and subject to change. This awareness helps in reducing emotional reactions to ups and downs.
Mental Equanimity: Strive to remain unaffected by external changes. This state of mental steadiness is described as "yog" or "samathvam," where one's inner state remains constant despite external variations.
Managing Spiritual Fluctuations:
Sanskaras (Past impressions): Spiritual ups and downs are influenced by past sanskaras, which are subtle impressions left by previous thoughts and actions. Good sanskaras lead to positive spiritual experiences, while negative sanskaras can cause setbacks.
Effort and Association: The effort put into spiritual practices and the quality of one's association with others (devotional or worldly) significantly impact spiritual progress. Even if one faces setbacks, continuous effort and good association can help in overcoming challenges.
Self-Compassion: Be kind to oneself during difficult times. Recognize progress despite having setbacks and avoidself-criticism.
Long-Term Outlook:
Progress in Devotion: Rather than focusing on immediate highs and lows, view spiritual progress as a marathon, not a sprint. Patience and persistence are key to long-term spiritual growth.
Memorable quotes from the discourse:
“The world is full of all these constantly alternating pairs of opposites and then souls are affected by these changes in the world.”
“Variation is a law of mayik energy...constant cyclical change is a given from life to death to life to death and on and on and on.”
“If you want to be qualified to attain God, then you should try to achieve a state of mental equanimity. Remain the same whether you're getting all the things you want or all the things you don’t want.”
“Devotional progress means the more attached we become to God, the more impervious we become to the effects of the world.”
“You should just think that...look at how much progress I’ve made...despite all the mistakes...I’m still progressing.”
“The path of devotion is not a hundred-yard dash; it’s a marathon. This path has a long way to go, so there’s going to be ups and downs.”
“The nature of this world is to have ups and downs...there are a few things that you can count on in maya: variation, pairs of opposites, and constant change.”
“Every physical form in this material universe is moving towards its destruction...the objects and forms of this world are not permanent.”
“What do we expect from the world? We expect constancy, no change, something we can rely on, even perfection. This is what we look for in the world...both of these things are impossible.”
“If our happiness or unhappiness is connected to what’s happening in the external world, it’s guaranteed that we will be having emotional ups and downs all the time constantly.”
“The world was never meant to make you happy nor was it meant to make you sad. You only feel happy and sad in proportion to the depth of your attachments to this world.”
“When we have a devotional sanskar, it will help to improve it. If you're around very devotional people, that can help you deal with a bad sanskara.”
“The amount of effort we put in affects our ups and downs...when we put less effort, we’re more likely to feel more downs; when we put more effort, we’re more likely to experience more ups in devotion.”
“It's okay to realize our mistakes but we actually compound the problem if we get into a state of dejection. We should just feel that...despite all the mistakes, I am still progressing.”
Please watch the video or read the transcript to fully grasp the essence of the discourse
