Prabhupada said that it is not your business how to get the determination; it is Krsna’s business to give you the determination. He meant was that if we just commit to our vows Krsna will give us the strength and determination to follow our commitment.
January 19, 2017 @ 6:46 pm
“Then my only focus is on my relationship with commitment, not with the vow in and of itself. I am committed to my word, so no matter the difficulty, I continue.”
This gives an unexpected power and insight to continue, that is my experience.
February 10, 2016 @ 10:33 am
What is the difference between committing to our vows and being determined to follow our commitment? Those two things sound the same to me because commitment without being determined to follow that commitment renders the commitment into mere lip service.
February 12, 2016 @ 7:46 am
Let us say I commit to a specific vow and then it becomes difficult to follow that specific vow for any number or reasons. Then we start to analyze the reasons that are making it difficult to follow and the vow and we say I don’t know if I can continue to commit rationalizing that there are these obstacles I face. So now I am focused on the obstacles as potential reasons for not following. I vowed when I was younger to not do this or that and now I am older, situations have changed, I have changed, the world has changed, and the vow seems impossible for me to follow. So my total focus is the difficulty of the vow.
But say I am totally committed to being committed. Then my only focus is on my relationship with commitment, not with the vow in and of itself. I am committed to my word, so no matter the difficulty, I continue. So many of us look at the vow itself as the problem when I think it is commit to keeping one’s word that is a deeper problem.
Does this make sense?