Suppose we are driving through an intersection. If at a previous intersection, someone had suddenly cut across us. Their actions might have annoyed us, but we can’t afford to let that distract us; we need to deal with the present traffic.

Our life is like a journey, and every new day is a new phase of that journey. Each day provides us an opportunity to take fresh steps forward. Unfortunately, we often mess today with yesterday – we let thoughts of what happened to us in the past or of what we did in the past weigh us down, thereby making us distracted and disheartened, and overall preventing us from tapping the potential of today. The Bhagavad-gita (18.35) states that such a mentality of negativity – of fearfulness, moroseness and lamentation – characterizes the mode of ignorance. Although such attitudes hurt us, we still keep holding on to them.

Why are we so self-destructive? Because of our conditionings that are stored as impressions within our psyche – these result from our past thought-patterns and they shape our present and future thought-patterns.

To rise above these conditionings, we can and should try to resist them ourselves. Additionally, a far more effective way to deal with them is to raise our consciousness above them. How? By connecting with the unconditioned Lord: Krishna. When we connect with the all-pure Lord by practicing bhakti-yoga, we become purified of our impure self-destructive mental tendencies, thereby empowering our intelligence and our faith to channel our mental energy constructively. With our intelligence, we will be able to resist unwanted thoughts. And with our faith, we will be able to let go of the past, knowing that Krishna can bring good even out of the bad.

When we thus tap devotionally the opportunity of every new day, we help create the best future for ourselves.

Think it over:

  1. How do we mess today with yesterday?
  2. Why are we mentally self-destructive?
  3. How does bhakti empower our intelligence and faith?

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