(Kadamba Kanana Maharaja, 13 April 2012, Ladysmith, SA)
In all spiritual traditions, including our own, guilt is something we have to look at. Devotees are failing actually, to be up to their desired standard that they wish to be, ‘I know I should be doing this, I know I…I wish I was…I want to…but I just can’t.’ The spiritual goals are sometimes very high and we struggle to get to this level. So there the element of practice is what helps. By daily and regularly practicing, one builds up a good, regular practice. Then once that is there then one can build further on that. So in this way, spiritual life must be regular. That is one first principle. Just like Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu taught, sankhy-purvaka nama-gana-natibhih, that one should chant the holy name of the Lord regularly on beads. Not just on inspiration, but it should be regular because by this regularity we are building up the good habits. Once a good habit is in place and we are nicely practicing it then we can take on another aspect and another. Then in this way one’s spiritual life can progress. Otherwise spiritual life becomes something like New Years Eve, where we take all the big vows, ‘and this year I will…’ and you know, January 1st comes and if we make it through January 1st we are lucky. So for many also, spiritual is like that, like New Years wishes that somehow or other in everyday reality disappear that, ‘it was too high for me.’ But spiritually, it’s not that certain things are too high for us, it’s just that we cannot take the step to the level all at once. There are smaller steps in between that we are taking. And then, when regular practice comes in there then we build something up. So regulation is very important in spiritual life and that takes a certain discipline.