Skip to main content

CHANGE OF HEART

In today's world, we are blessed to be surrounded by so much knowledge. In fact we are almost swimming in an ocean of knowledge. We have the best of spiritual books, best of the speakers who share deep wisdom still we feel there has been 'no' or 'very minimal' tangible transformation in our lives. Why? This could be one reason...We somehow inadvertently believe that just having access to knowledge will guarantee us success in spiritual life.

But one may argue, Is knowledge not sufficient! True, knowledge is the first step to success. But it's not the only step.

People say knowledge is power, but it is only potential power, latent power. Applied knowledge is power. Only when knowledge is applied in our lives can true transformation begin. 

That means we need to put some internal effort to realise the knowledge. It's not an automatic process. There's a difference between theoretical realisation and actual, true realisation. Theoretical realisation is knowledge in the head, but actual realisation is knowledge in the heart. We tend to confuse both.

So, how does knowledge go from head to heart, how does information become transfomation? For that, first we must genuinely want transformation - we must genuinely want knowledge to reach our hearts. That means we have to be greedy for it, we can't be satisfied with mere knowledge in the head. You see, we live in a ' YES Universe'. That means whatever we want The Universe or  God says Yes to it. So the first and most important step is to intensify our desire to want transformation. 



Secondly, for God to understand that we genuinely want transformation, we need to show Him our eagerness by our action. We tend to think of getting knowledge as a passive process, but the fact is that it is one of the most active process involving internal action.  So the action steps that help in speeding the process of converting information to transformation are - 

1) Read or hear
2) understand
3) meditate
4) digest
5) apply

Just like a cow who eats grass and keeps mulching on it to digest it thoroughly or like a student who is desperate to top his exams, goes back to his lessons again and again till he has internalised his learning, similarly we need to put some efforts from our side to keep going back to what we have read or heard, ponder on it's meaning, try to see how it applies to us. 

As someone rightly said - It is not what others tell us that can change us, it is what we tell ourselves from what we heard from others that can change us.

Few tips to internalise our knowledge -
1) Reflective reading
An interesting and the best way to read or hear is after we have read any spiriual book or heard any lecture, we need to take few minutes to stop and ask ourselves questions like what did I understand, how can I apply this wisdom in my life. This is called REFLECTIVE READING or HEARING.

2) Apply Now
One of the common mistakes we do when we get knowledge is we fail to implement it immediately. We wait for the right time to come to apply it our lives. But the fact is that the right time has already come - it's NOW. This one small tip can literally open the door to transformation in our lives.

3) Sharing
One of the best ways for knowledge to seep inside us is to share with others what knowledge we have acquired. 

In essence what we are doing through all this endeavor is to show God that we are sincere in our pursuit of transformation. When our signal reaches Him then and only then can knowledge seep from our head to our heart. Otherwise it will be head-deep not heart-deep.

- Achyut Gopal Das

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A RADHASHTAMI MEDITATION

Jai Sri Radhe!! Is the chant on everyone's minds and hearts now. Atleast in the minds and hearts of devotees. It's time to celebrate the most auspicious of auspicious festivals; it's time to celebrate Sri Radhashtami - the appearance day of Srimati Radharani. For devotees, Radhashtami is a more important festival than Janmashtami. Why? Because for the world Krishna is God but for devotees, Radha is God because they know that Krishna is subservient to the love of Radha. In our ISKCON circle, it is said that - Janmashtami is a public event but Radhashtami is a private event for only devotees who understand the supreme position of Srimati Radharani. On the most auspicious occasion of Radhashtami, I would like to bring to your attention a beautiful meditation that His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami wrote many years back on this occasion called "An offering for the Divine Mother". The best prayer is to repeat the prayer of previous realized, great souls. Keeping thi...

FOREST OF THE GRACEFUL MOTHER

Thank you Oh Srimati Radharani, Oh Divine Mother for giving this fallen and sinful soul entrance into Your personal abode, Sri Vrindavan. I know that I am fully unqualified to step onto this holy land of Yours but Your mercy is unfathomable, unimaginable and incalculable. A day before our departure from Goa, I had developed some throat infection and was feeling slightly feverish. I was not sure if I could make it. All the more, we didn't get a direct flight to Delhi. We were supposed to hop over in Mumbai and then take another flight to Delhi. With the increase in Covid cases across India and especially in Maharashtra, there was news that we might have to go through Covid tests in both Mumbai and Delhi airports. Being a little sick, I was not sure what the test results would turn out to be. But by the mercy of Radharani, there were no tests conducted in either of the airports. Radharani arranged everything so nicely for us because of our tiny, little desire to vi...

SEEKING THE GRACE OF SRI RADHA

Just like we have our mother who gives birth to our material body, to whom we owe our body, we also have our Eternal Mother to whom we owe our very soul. In different religions, She is called and addressed by different names. In Vedic culture, She is addressed as Sita, Lakshmi or Radha - the consort of our Supreme Father. She is our Mother God, our Mother Supreme. The scriptures abundantly and extensively glorify This Supreme Mother - Her love, Her compassion and Her grace for all of us. A mother is always more kind and merciful than the father similarly our Eternal Mother is more merciful than The Supreme Father. That's the reason why devotees desperately seek the grace of the Divine Mother, Srimati Radharani in their spiritual pursuits. Her grace can force Lord Krishna to shower His mercy on us even unwillingly. After all, He is an henpecked husband - completely controlled by Her love. The heart of a mother is very big. What to speak of the heart of The Supreme Mother. Her lo...