Casual ties make us casualties

We all have a lower side that induces shortsighted desires which end in misery. To resist this lower side, our higher ties – our connections with things that inspire and ennoble – are indispensable.

For example, when students are exposed to the depravity of college campuses and the daredevilishness typical of adolescence, their ties with their parents and other venerable elders protects them – their aspirations to honor, or at least not hurt, their loved ones gives them the strength to fight off the lower urges.

A similar principle applies to our spiritual life. When the mind internally and the culture externally goad us towards anti-devotional indulgences, our higher ties with Krishna protect us. When we treasure our relationship with him and practice devotional service seriously, we get a higher happiness that makes temptations resistible.

If we let our ties with Krishna become casual, that is, if we let our devotional activities become sporadic and erratic, dependent on the whims of the mind, then we won’t have the willpower to resist temptation. Casual ties with Krishna will make us casualties of our lower side. The Bhagavad-gita (18.58) warns that neglect of Krishna will make us lost, caught in the whirlpool of materialism.

How can we strengthen our ties with Krishna?

By meditating on how he has loved and cherished us lifetime after lifetime even while we were neglecting him for pursuing petty material pleasures; by meditating on how he has made himself easily accessible through his various manifestations like the holy names, the scriptures, the Deities and especially his devotees;and by meditating on how choosing to love him will bring out the best within us, we can get the necessary inspiration and motivation. When we cultivate steady consciousness of Krishna, then, as the verse assures, his grace empowers us to overcome obstacles, emerging virtuous and victorious.

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