Radhanath Swami offers a brilliant example to drive home the point; do we eat once a week on Monday and then come back on Sunday to nourish ourselves. To avoid weakness, we’ve to nourish ourselves daily. Similarly to avoid weakness of the mind, we’ve to spiritually nourish ourselves daily. To develop and maintain spiritual strength, it’s important to have a daily connection with the Lord of our heart. Chanting is our connection with the Lord. Radhanath Swami puts it beautifully,
“Chanting God’s names every day, reading through the scriptures every day, offering sincere prayers regularly, associating regularly with people who inspire us- if we make these our priorities-spiritual life becomes very simple and very happy. Otherwise, it’s very difficult, because there is a lot of opposition to leading a pure life in this world.”
A child may be reluctant to eat healthy food daily; he throws tantrums as his mother patiently tries to feed him. Similarly the child like mind may find the chanting unpalatable; with the mother like intelligence, we’ve to feed the mind with the daily doses of Holy Names.
When the Lord sees we are consistent, He’ll certainly empower us to serve Him better and in the process relish the Holy Names. Success is assured for one who is steady and hard working. Management guru Peter Burwash narrates the story of American Decathlon athlete Bill Toomey who missed the 1964 Tokyo Olympics because he came fourth in the final trials. He was disappointed but was seen practising in the stadium all alone the very next morning. A surprised friend who saw him at the ground enquired, “Bill you just missed the Olympics yesterday. Why are you so worked up early today morning?” Bill humbly replied, “I am preparing for the next Olympics” sure enough, four years later, in 1968 at Mexico, Bill not only made it to the Olympic team, he also won the decathlon gold medal and set a new world record.
If we too practise diligently tomorrow morning despite the failure in our japa today, Krishna will reciprocate and help us one day tame our wild mind and offer pure service to the Lord.
Source: http://www.krishnayoga.info/radhanath-swami/radhanath-swami-diligence-success/
