Radhanath Swami on Reconditioning Our Habits

When you try to enjoy something, you’re taking shelter of that thing. In one sense, you want pleasure. You need pleasure because of an emptiness in your heart and this thing is providing pleasure so you are actually taking shelter of that thing. But you’re not just taking shelter of that thing, you’re taking shelter of material energy that is attracting you to that thing. Material modes of passion and ignorance are saying, “You’ll find pleasure here, you’ll find relief here” and when you go there looking for shelter, you become conditioned to that. Every time you go to some object for shelter or some manifestation of material energy, whatever it may be, you are creating that habit within. So when things get really bad, you are probably going to turn to those things because you are habitual.

Devotional service is about reconditioning our habits, learning to find pleasure in making God happy. Every time we seek shelter in devotional service, every time we seek our happiness in devotional service, and seek our refuge in devotional service, we’re conditioning ourselves in that way. It’s like the good dog and the bad dog. The more you feed the bad dog that's telling you to take shelter of material energy, the more it becomes a powerful calling within our heart and controls us. But every time we feed the divine nature - the calling towards bhakti - that voice, that tendency becomes stronger and stronger within us. So we should always sincerely try to cultivate love of God at each moment.