We
are creatures of habit. Most life is habitual and we keep doing the same thing
we did last week, yesterday and now. We form habits from the time we are born
and continue having habits and follow them till we die. Habits help us have a
smooth day at home, work and play. We are able to cook, run, ride a cycle,
drive a car, and operate the computer effortlessly. All simple and complex
routines in our life are effortlessly completed due to habits.
Good
habits like regular exercise or right eating habits help us in having good
health. Bad habits like oversleeping in morning, overeating, drinking alcohol,
and smoking create problems in health and in life. These bad habits have a
vicious grip on us and unthinkingly we keep doing the same thing again and
again. Any action performed again and again becomes a habit or karma. Karma is
only habits, and habits are so hard to change.
Let us see this little story:
Once
there was a fisherwoman who had gone to the village market to sell fish. After
selling all the fish, on her way back home, she was caught in a storm. The
thunder rolled and lightning flashed in the skies and there was a torrential
downpour of rain. It was dangerous to walk back to her hut which was far away.
She looked around for a shelter. She saw a large house with a big garden. There
was a shed in the garden. She knocked on the door of the house and sought
shelter in the garden shed for the night. The kind house-owner permitted her to
do so. Gratefully she made herself comfortable in the shed and lay down to rest
till the storm blew away. After sometime she felt suffocated and could not
sleep. A very strong fragrance of jasmine was blowing in with the wind into the
hut. The shed had jasmine creepers all around it. The perfume of the flower was
very disturbing to her. She was not comfortable. So she went out and held out
her hands and collected the rain water falling from the roof. She wetted the
fish basket and at once a strong odour of fish permeated the hut. Putting the
basket over her head, she fell asleep. It felt just like home!
We
are just like the fisherwoman. We are not comfortable sleeping in the fragrance
of the jasmine as we are used to the smells of fish. We are extremely
comfortable in our old habits which are bad and which cause harm to body, mind
and emotions. We do not notice better alternatives or if we do know about them,
we are not comfortable with them. We wish to wallow in the old scents and old
memories and habits. Some of these habits have a death grip on us and they
continue with us through many lifetimes. Two college boys go out and have a
drink in the bar. One boy never goes back into the bar again but the other is hooked
for life and becomes an alcoholic. Why is it so? This is due to previous karmas
or habits. We all know it is so difficult to change habits. Can a leopard
change his spots?
Yes!
A leopard can change his spots. A time comes in our lives when we are ourselves
irritated with our own behaviour and habits. An awareness dawns on us that we
are going wrong somewhere. When we make a conscious decision to change
ourselves and move forward in life, we can change our habits and karma. Keeping
company of good people, reading about great men, taking help from those who
have the traits we wish to emulate, helps us to change ourselves. When there is
a ParamGuru in our lives and we have the energy of his teachings and the Siddha
Mantra from him and do regular japa and dhyan, these are giant boosters which
help us to change our spots. Love brings about transformation in a man. When we
become parents, the depths of our love for our child, the levels of our
patience, understanding and balance increase tremendously all of a sudden. We
are different people. A lover undergoes many trials for his beloved to win
her. When human love can bring such changes in us for better, how much more we can achieve with Divine Love? When we develop deep bhakti or love for God
and Guru, we tap into willpower and energy resources which are beyond normal
human capabilities. The vibrations of darshan of a ParamGuru and his blessings
burn off many of our karmas at root and we change. So let us bring about
positive changes in our habits and move forward.
