If a shooter misses the target again and again, they may become tired of practicing, lose heart and give up. Or, they can resolve to redirect the tiredness constructively: “I am tired of missing – I am going to focus and practice and hit the bull’s eye.” Such an attitude can infuse them with the energy to persevere till they hit the target.

In sports, as in life, the results may not be in our hands, but our endeavor is. And our endeavor’s quality is determined largely by our attitude.

As spiritual seekers, we strive to live a principle-centered life by fighting against temptation. If we find ourselves repeatedly succumbing to temptation, we may feel tired of fighting and may feel like giving up.

But instead we can meditate on how absorption in Krishna is fulfilling, purifying, empowering. We can envision such absorption as a feast that we could be having at every moment but are being deprived of by worldly temptations. This vision pinpoints the cause of our tiredness: not the strength of our enemy, but our weakness caused by starvation. This insight can energize us to keep fighting against forgetfulness of Krishna.

To further energize ourselves, we can remember that the temptation sentencing us to starvation, which is selfish desire embodied primarily as lust, is our eternal enemy (Bhagavad-gita 03.39). This means that temptation will keep distracting and depriving us lifetime after lifetime, till we defeat it.

Seeing temptations as sentences to spiritual starvation can energize us to fight for absorption in Krishna. Rather than becoming tired of the fight, we can become tired of the starvation. The more we strive for devotional absorption, the more we will, slowly but surely, gain the upper hand in our inner war. Ultimately, by Krishna’s grace, we will emerge triumphant.

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