I'm unable to quit smoking... I just can't get over my drinking habit... I'm always so self centered... I somehow always tend to procrastinate... All these are common challenges encountered by millions of people. So how can we overcome these bad habits?
A bad habit is a negative pattern of behavior that is detrimental to the our own as well as others physical, mental and emotional well being. It is an addiction to a harmful trait. If not kept in check at the right time it transforms into a chronic disease and seeps into our system like a deadly virus. It ruins the quality of our life and throws us into the deep valley of darkness.
Usually we are haunted by our previous conditioned habits, because since time immemorial we have been taking shelter of these alternatives to God. It is very difficult, very, very difficult. But if we have the strong desire to reform our lives. We must be determined. We must have proper discrimination.
Where do we get that strength? It comes from association. The quality of the engagement of the mind which is the pivot for all sensual organs must be changed. If we change the quality of our engagement of the mind that means thinking, feeling and willing, then naturally our behaviour, our actions will change.
The false ego misconceives: “I am this body, I am this mind, I am the controller, I am the proprietor, and I am the selfish enjoyer.” This is foundational to all material complications. It impels us to put ourselves above others and act selfishly. And when we continue to act in that way it becomes a habit. According to how we habituate ourselves, by making those wrong choices, we become more and more engrained in that way of thinking.
That is the way any habit works. For example, if you smoke a lot of cigarettes you become addicted, and the more you smoke the more you become addicted. The habit becomes a craving, and then it is very difficult to do anything without feeding your habit. When you are in the middle of it, you cannot really understand the effect of what you are doing because you are so much a slave of the habit. So that is exactly the way the ego works. Our selfishness, our arrogance, our greed, our selfish passions, our anger, and our envy – as we make choices to feed these habits, they become stronger and stronger and stronger.
In 1967, Srila Prabhupada asked Shyamsundar to carve the deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev and Subhadra from the little model that they had. He was in his room working, very, very hard. One day, Srila Prabhupada came into the room to examine how the deities were, and he saw on Baldev’s head a pack of cigarettes. He was smoking cigarettes as he was carving the deity of Jagannath! He didn’t want to, he knew it was wrong, but he just couldn’t give it up. So, Prabhupada looked at the pack of cigarettes and he smiled. He said, “What is this!” Prabhupada just hit the pack of cigarettes with his cane. And he said, “Do you want one little stick of tobacco to stand between you and Krishna, God?” Prabhupada had such compassion.
You take the name of God, you pray to God, and you follow the process of Bhakti. And as Padma Purana and Rupa Gosvami explain – the power of bhakti is, it actually pulls out the root of the weed of sinful desires, removes the cause of these addictions and fills our heart with loving service to the Lord.
Within a matter of a week, Shyamsundar gave up smoking cigarettes. Something that was so difficult became so easy. Why? Because he replaced it with something higher – ‘param dristva nivartate’. This is the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita. Unless you experience a higher taste, it’s very difficult to continually be able to give up our lower conditional habits.
Therefore, when we associate with saintly people we begin to understand what we really want in life and what our condition is. And then we will take the medicine and the way of life by which we can become liberated from these habits of egotism. Chanting of the Holy Names is the simple medicine that will cure one from all the symptoms of ego, ignorance, selfishness and all kinds of bad habits, thereby leading us to the beautiful path of spiritually uplifting, righteous and ethically virtuous lifestyle
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