Radhanath Swami on Spiritual Practice

We all have so many sinful desires within our hearts — lust, anger, envy, greed, pride, illusion, so many desires to want to enjoy the resources of material existence which are all meant for the pleasure of God, so much false ego, so much self-centered mental thinking. Saintly persons, on the other hand, always think of the welfare of others. They are only concerned with giving God's Holy Names to others regardless of how they are treated themselves. They don’t mind bodily discomforts, poverty or persecution; they only think about how to give love of God to others. But we, the conditioned souls, in every condition, think, “What’s good for me? I want to see something that gives pleasure to my eyes. I want to hear something that gives pleasure to my ears, my nose, my mouth, my flesh. And what about my false ego? I have to situate myself where I am properly respected.” Even when we are engaged in devotional service, these desires are often prominent. So somehow or other we have to churn our hearts to remove all of these sinful propensities. That is the process of regulative principles of devotional practice.