Moment by Moment....Momentum
A lesson to myself, today and everyday, build momentum moment by moment. Momentum means:
the strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow stronger or faster as time passes; strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events
Source
Each moment of life is essential and contains the most precious gift of breath. It is told that we have a fixed number of breaths while on this planet. So I want to make each moment and thus each breath count. Have you ever seen an ant pickup a morsel of food and take it back to its ant home and to the other ants? It’s a lot of hard work. But morsel by morsel they do it. So moment by moment we can increase our service to Radha and Krishna. If we think it’s a herculean task to serve Radha Krishna for x number of hours a day, we can slowly build up moment by moment.
I have always been the kind to plan and prepare before starting a fast. The special Purushottam month, celebrated for worship of Krishna, or the sacred Kartik month, celebrated for worship of Srimati Radharani, are no different. Common goals include trying to increase the quantity and quality of chanting, reading scriptures regularly, waking and sleeping on time, and generally seizing each moment of each day for a spiritual goal.
However I never realized that just by thinking about it ahead of time, I am building momentum to achieve it. I am creating an environment in my mind of what and how I want to serve Radha and Krishna. Worshiping mentally and even having a desire to worship is in itself a very good thing. Krishna is so merciful in this age of Kali that He gives us benefits from just thinking and desiring to serve Him.
Each day has 1440 minutes. If you are retired like me you may wonder, can I at least give one third of my time to Krishna? That is 480 minutes, which is 8 hours in a day. Actually great sadhus and saints spend 22 hours in bhajan. That may not be practical for most of us, but if we are householders we can decide to give the Lord some dedicated time. It can seem really overwhelming but the 5 minute rule can help.
Many habit development coaches will tell you that if want to develop new habits then attach the new habit to an existing habit. For example brushing our teeth twice a day is an existing habit most of us have. At that moment one can add something else that one consistently wants to do, like a 5 minute meditation, breathing exercises, a few push-ups or whatever else it may be. Here are some examples for adding more spiritual activities into our existing routines
If we are doing puja (deity worship) every day, we can sing kirtan or chant during the puja, or even for 5 minutes afterwards. We can also sing kirtan while cooking, cleaning or during many other daily services.
If we are offering food 2-3 times a day to the Lord, we can read scriptures for 5-10 minutes while we wait. Keeping these close by and visible will help.
If we walk for health or do any other passive exercise then we can listen to katha (spiritual lectures) or chant along
If we do pranayama, we can try the Radhe Shyam pranayama. While breathing in, in your mind say Raaaadhe and while breathing out say Shhhhyam (longer tone).
If we are at work during the day, having the Hare Krishna Mahamantra on a piece of paper or on a mantra card visible will make us see it, and possibly say it.
Adding 5-10 minutes here and there to our existing habits and routines can be a very helpful way of adding remembrance of the Lord into our busy lives. One has to see in their life how to add moment by moment smarana, remembrance of the Lord.
Every breath counts, as moment by moment we can build momentum to do more and more. In doing so we are building our smarana muscle, our remembrance shakti (power). We must assume that no one is going to hold a picture of Krishna in front of us when we leave this body. No one will be singing kirtan in our ears when we pass away. We must practice in such a way that in an instant the holy names reverberate on our tongues. In a moment we have Radha Krishna in our thoughts. Make each breath, each moment count!
Last thing to note, I will be taking time away from this blog, social media, and technology in general for this auspicious month of Purushottam. I will only be posting some of my older musings on social media and have the brief interaction to serve you all. If you are on my mailing list, but not on my social media platforms and you enjoy hearing the kirtan and reading these posts, please like and follow me on my Facebook and Instagram pages.
Chant incessantly!!
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare