Focus on your steps, not your sidesteps

While walking on a road, suppose we keep worrying about all the slippery spots that we will have to sidestep. The resulting fear that we may slip and injure ourselves can paralyze us. But our paranoia is unwarranted if the road is largely good and the occasional risky patches are negotiable with due caution.

The same principle applies to our spiritual journey. To move towards Krishna, we need to focus on him and avoid indulging in anti-devotional temptations. However, if we keep worrying about all the future tempting circumstances we will have to side-step, we will become disheartened, thinking that the temptations are too many or too strong to resist.

Caution about our vulnerability to temptation is desirable, but paranoia isn’t. Why not? Because the process of bhakti-yoga is essentially positive, not proscriptive. Its thrust is on connecting us with Krishna and granting us access to higher happiness, not on rejecting worldly temptations.

And Krishna makes himself easily accessible through many manifestations such as holy names, scriptures and deities. We can also serve him in multifarious ways according to our interests. Every moment of connection with Krishna, be it through inner remembrance or outer service, comprises a small but significant step towards him. The Bhagavad-gita (02.61) urges us to dwell on our steps, not our sidesteps, when it assures us that focusing on Krishna solidifies our intelligence and propels us towards self-mastery.

Focusing on our steps towards Krishna, even if they are baby steps, enables us to move slowly but surely from our present vulnerable position to a more devotionally secure position. Connecting with him gives us a higher taste that makes worldly temptations more resistible. Whereas worrying about what we shouldn’t do makes us feel threatened and throttled, focusing on what we can do makes us feel progressively energized, absorbed and fulfilled.