by Bhakta Vignesh

This is a very important subject, especially for the youth of the world.  Srila Prabhupada said that one must be clean in heart and habit, in order to understand the spiritual truth.  Man is a creature of habit and we can change our habits with practice.  According to the Sanskrit language, the word ‘swabhava’ means one’s second nature. We create a particular consciousness of how we view the world and how we respond to the situations of this world. Those are habits.

Today people use their free will to condition themselves to many dangerous habits.  They are not only illegal, but they are disorderly, socially unacceptable and even so dangerous to the body, mind and soul!!  

CIGARETTES:  Let us take smoking cigarettes for instance.  First of all, just a couple of years ago there was an investigation on one of the biggest Cigarette companies of America.  And they found that the advertisements and promotions were specially targeting the teenagers between 12 and 19 – not adults.  According to their own reports, produced by psychologists, if a teenager becomes hooked on to cigarettes, then he/she will be giving their money to the tobacco company until they the day they die.  One out of five deaths in India is smoking related, and yet people are smoking. These statistics are not secret, and I am not revealing or uncovering any mystery.  These are published information.

Why? Why are people killing themselves? They know if once they become addicted, it is so very, very hard to give it up. It’s unnatural.  It is always another person who lights the first cigarette of a first-timer.  It is due to peer pressure, the need to make a statement and emulation of celebrities that youngsters try it…even though it makes them cough and tastes miserable.  The body goes through violent reactions to it. But they just keep doing it again and again.   

GAMBLING:  Another addiction. People become consumed by the intoxicating effect of gambling. When it gets into your bloodstream, you can’t stop. I know a young boy from Bangalore who visited Las Vegas for the first time.  Just for a holiday.  He had seen so much about that place in movies and was curious to explore.  He just decided, ” I am going to try gambling.”  It became such an addiction that within one hour’s time, he lost almost eleven thousand dollars…everything he had in hand! He didn’t even have a paisa to take a taxi back to his hotel.  It’s intoxicating!  250 billion dollars are spent in gambling in the United States alone. And 93 million people a year in America go to gamble in legalized Casinos. That sensation of winning or the anger of losing is so overwhelming that one becomes addicted to it. But the odds are so much against you, that’s the way it is designed. The Casino owners – they hope you win. They are not sad when you win, they are ecstatic when you win because they know that if you win, you are hooked, and once you are hooked you can’t stop and then you lose so much more.  Look at what happened to the game of dice which the Pandavas played with Duryodhana and his team of scheming deceivers

MEAT EATING:  It is not natural for a human being to eat meat. The carnivores have an intestinal tract three times the size of their torso and the vegetarian animals – all of them – they have an intestinal tract twelve times bigger than their torso. Now a human being happens to have an intestinal track twelve times bigger than his torso, why?  Because when we eat meat, it decomposes quickly. It becomes tixic.  So the meat eating animals, they have small intestines so that they can quickly excrete the wastes. Humans have teeth like the vegetarian animals – the movement of our jaws is like the vegetarian animals; the carnivores, they lick the water; the vegetarian animals suck the water just like us. The carnivores, they perspire through their tongue when they are breathing; vegetarian animals they breathe through their perspiration as a human being does. Heart disease, the single most factor according to medicine – the single most cause of heart disease is high animal fat ingestion. Why? Out of Habit. People ignore them, because they are habituated, they are conditioned. They have been eating meat all their lives, so it must be right. Everyone else is doing it around!

SEX:  Every civilized culture that has some spiritual/moral fiber teaches that one of the great virtues of life is chastity; it is the ability to tolerate/control the sex drive. In India, hardly one or two decades back, the number of divorces was very, very low because our culture taught the people to understand value of relationships and meaning of marriage – which is not based on sex. The whole system of ‘varnasrama’ – bramachari, grihasta, vanaprasta and sannyasa, are different ways according to different persons propensities by which humans deal with this sexual drive.  The more we engage in it, the more we become addicted to it.  The more we tolerate it the more we can engage in higher conscious activities.  People are not trained from young to handle, control and transcend their sex drives.  According to statistics every year, three million teenagers in America are infected with sexually transmitted diseases, some of which are incurable.  HIV – sexually transmitted disease, is the seventh largest cause of death for people between 15 and 24.  This is a very sad statistics. According the report published by the NEKC Foundation, 30% of teenage girls in America become pregnant before the age of 20!  Phew!

An average 18 year old boy has watched more television than has learnt anything in his regular education institution.  He is also exposed to an average of 200,000 violence acts through various media and new age games.  A child aged ten, watches an average of 9000 murders and 1000 acts of sex in a year.  Can one imagine how all this affects their consciousness?

His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada narrated a story about a thief. This thief was stealing for so many years. It was his second nature to steal. So once, he went on a pilgrimage to a very holy place.  And all the pilgrims were in one room. They went to sleep at night. He had such an uncontrolled urge to steal from everybody. He found a perfect opportunity – the belongings were open, the pilgrims were all sound to be asleep, and it was dark.  But then he thought, ” I am in a holy place and these pilgrims, this is a religious experience. I can’t steal from them.” That was his higher intelligence.  At the same time his mind was saying, ” You must steal.”  There was an irresistible urge. So somehow he dovetailed his propensity and he took everyone’s bags and moved to another place in the room. Just to cause anxiety, he moved one bag here and one bag there, one bag here. But he didn’t take anything from anyone. And in the morning, everyone woke up and they were all in tremendous anxiety –where is my bag? Where is my bag? There was commotion; and the thief stood up and loudly proclaimed, “Please hear from me, I am a thief, I am habituated to take people’s property. I can’t stop, but it’s a holy place. So I moved all your bags. That is a least I can do. Please know that everything is in your bags.”

That is how strong the characteristic of habits is – it forces us to do what we are habituated to do – even if it is partial.

The only real way to give up bad habits is to replace them with good habits. In order to have the determination and the strength to do that it is necessary that we have right association that will enliven us and protect us. What we associate with, we become like that – that is the law of nature.

Srila Prabhupada gave a simple example. If you put an iron rod in fire, after some time, in association with fire, it becomes red and hot – just like fire. If you put the same iron rod in ice, it becomes ice cold after some time.  For every parent, the greatest concern and expression of love comes when they inquire who and what their children associate with.  If the child associates with sex maniacs, drug addicts and the likes, they are bound to get addicted to illicit sex and drugs. It’s inevitable. If the child associates with advanced and saintly people, then there is every chance, there is every facility for the child to become happy and saintly.  One can change ones habits. One can change a bad habit into a good, with good association, and vice versa.

Bhakti yoga is the detailed science of how to transform our consciousness through association. What we are talking about is transformation; you cannot negate your desires;  you cannot simply negate your addictions.  They must be transformed, into something positive.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, we read about the story of Narada Muni. He was a simple boy born of a maidservant but due to his association with great transcendentalists and sages, his ordinary life was transformed and he had God realization. Then, there is the story of Dhruva Maharaj. Dhruva – just a 5 year old boy – was overwhelmed with anger and anxiety due to the rude behavior of his stepmother and father.  In the course of seeking justice for being spurned by his father, he met Narada Muni.  And with Narada Muni’s association, he transformed, gave up all his anger and illusions and became purified when he saw Lord Narayana face to face.

Srila Prabhupada explains that if we really want to deal with the true problems of life within us, we must cleanse our hearts; then we naturally cleanse our habits. It works the other way too.  Culture really means invoking certain higher life styles in people’s lives. We have to make conscious decision for right association.

Lord Caitanya says in Siksastaka,

“ceto darpna marjanam bhava maha davagni nirvapanam…”

In association of spiritually minded people, we will get the determination to overcome the propensity for vices and uproot the weeds of selfishness, lust, anger, greed, pride and illusion. These six enemies of all conscious beings push one into committing sinful activities. The chanting of the Holy Names – the Hare Krishna mahamantra – is the most powerful medicine for purifying the heart. This is so powerful an activity that when we make it a habit, it literally transforms lust into love, greed into service to others, pride into humility and mental imbalances into steadfast determination for the highest virtues.

Srila Prabhupada explained that this chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna …

“Is not an artificial impression of mind. This chanting of Hare Krishna awakens our original, natural consciousness. Krishna Consciousness is our nature”

So let’s chant our way into the New Year and make it a spiritual and successful year ahead.