Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Food is nourishment for this physical body. Emotionally, for people to be strong, they need to feel appreciated and encouraged. Spiritually, we also have to be strong. The food that give us strength spiritually to maintain that sincere and devoted disposition while we are trying to do the needful in this world is our sadhana (daily spiritual practice). Hearing talks, reading from spiritual books, chanting God’s holy names, performing puja and honoring prasada. These spiritual activities, if they are done with the right intent, will give us a spiritual strength that is beyond our own.
Our sadhana is to access a grace – a mercy that is beyond ourselves. We don’t eat one day and then miss eating until a month later. If you want to do your work you have to eat everyday. Also, for our spiritual nourishment we can not eat just once a weekon Sunday. We will not be spiritually strong that way. Every day, a certain time of day, preferably the morning, should be put aside to focus on our spiritual needs. That will help keep our sincerity and our purpose very centered. Then, even if the mind or the environment may distract us from time to time, we will have the strength to bring it back. When lust, greed, envy, pride, illusion and anger attack, if we are spiritually strong we will be able to deal with it by taking shelter of something higher.
It is very difficult to remain on the path of devotion and of good character as the mind and the senses are so strong that they can carry away the consciousness of even a spiritually strong person if they are not well nourished. Therefore, we should keep ourselves nourished on a regular basis.
When you are hungry for something and eat it, you can digest it. If you have just eaten a huge meal and someone offers you something more, you will not want it, and even if you do eat it you will not be able to digest it properly. Therefore, hunger is required for good digestion. Similarly, in order to digest the grace of God, you have to be hungry for that grace. That hunger is your sincerity.
So despite all the distractions the mind is throwing at us, we have to nourish ourselves spiritually, through daily practice, to maintain our spiritual strength of sincerity and devotion. With such nourishment we will always remember our dependent position and know the need for grace in our life. And by maintaining such sincerity will be receptive to digest that mercy, be nourished by it and become empowered by it. H H Radhanath Swami Maharaj
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