Many of us wait for external inspiration to intensify our devotional practices like chanting. When we don’t get such inspiration, we let our moods determine the quality of our devotional practices. However, the caliber of our devotional practices will determine our eternal destiny and our destiny is too important to be left to something as fickle as our moods.

If we wait for external inspiration, we may be kept waiting for a long time; we will be waiters for who knows how long. Our destiny deserves something much better than such passivity.  We need to become proactive worshipers who worship Krishna without becoming distracted by moods. The Bhagavad-gita (14.26) assures us that, if we don’t let our devotional service be interrupted by the modes and their resultant moods, then we will gradually go beyond the reach of the modes.

To ensure that our devotional practices don’t become interrupted when inspiration is unavailable externally, we need to mine it internally through two sources:

1. Convictions: Patients who are convinced that a medicine is potent take it even when it doesn’t taste good because they know it will do good. By scriptural study and personal contemplation, we can strengthen our conviction that our devotional practices will heal us spiritually, and can thereby stick to them even if they don’t feel good.

2. Commitments: Devotional life is centered on relationships. Just as our family and office relationships depend on our keeping our commitments, so does our relationship with Krishna and his devotees. By contemplating on the importance of our devotional relationships, we can inspire ourselves to honor their associated commitments.

When we base our devotional practices on our inner convictions and commitments, we will discover that we have struck a rich vein of unfading inspiration.

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 Text 26

“One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.”