The Change Of Heart – When we look around our present society, we find there is a constant rise in violence, rape, murder, suicide, unemployment, drug addiction, divorce, corruption, mental stress, and so on. The reason is very simple. The heart of the people is contaminated with lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, and envy. In order to have a pure atmosphere around us, we need a revolution to change our hearts. The whole process of spiritual culture is aimed at changing the heart of the living being in the matter of his eternal relation with the Supreme Lord as subordinate servant, which is his constitutional position. The change of heart takes place when we associate with saintly persons, hear from them and live by the teachings of Bhagavad Gita imparted by them.
Table of Contents
Root Cause of Contamination – Introduction
Arjuna asks a question in Bhagavad Gita 3.35, “By what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force? And Krishna answers in BG 3.36,
“It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.”
Srila Prabhupada explains in BG 3.36 & 37 purport that the living entity is part and parcel of the Supreme Lord and by nature he is originally spiritual, pure, and free from all material contaminations. By nature, he is not subjected to the contaminations of the material world. But when he develops a desire to enjoy himself apart from Krishna and comes in contact with the material creation, his eternal love for Krishna is transformed into lust like milk in contact with tamarind is transformed into yogurt. He misunderstands himself to be a material product and his way of thinking, feeling, willing and acting becomes perverted. Then he is degraded from the path of dharma and brings all types of havoc in his life as well as others.
The living entity has partial independence and when he misuses his partial independence into the propensity of sense enjoyment, he comes under the sway of lust. And in BG 2.62 & 63 Krishna says that
“While contemplating the objects of the senses, a person develops attachment for them, and from such attachment lust develops, and from lust, anger arises.
From anger, complete delusion arises, and from delusion bewilderment of memory. When memory is bewildered, intelligence is lost, and when intelligence is lost one falls down again into the material pool”.
The laws of nature are very stringent and nobody can escape from the clutches of material energy. So an intelligent person should consider the consequences of his thoughts, speech, and actions.
Consequences
In our scripture, we have the witness of so many personalities who were influenced by lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness and envy and made their life miserable. For example, although brought up in a brahmanical culture, Ajamila could not control his senses and was trapped by lust when he saw a sudra embracing a sudrani. Many times in the scriptures we study that even a great yogi like Durvasa Muni is induced by anger in spite of his exalted position as a sage. Being intoxicated by pride and envy, Duryodhana did not want to give a pinprick of land to Pandavas, out of attachment for his son Dhrtarastra went through so much anxiety throughout his whole life. Being intoxicated with pride Ravana and Hiranya Kasipu lost their lives, Manthara induced envy in the heart of Kaikeyi to make Bharat the king. The examples are endless.
Let us look at our lives. Are we free from lust, anger, greed, illusion, madness, and envy? Are we not going through the sufferings and reactions of our actions? Are we fully satisfied at our heart? Why are we feeling incompleteness, dissatisfaction, disgust, and frustration in our life? Why do we compete with others and exploit others? There will be hundreds and thousands of questions arouse if we introspect our contaminated heart honestly. If we are not careful and do not change our consciousness, then we are awaiting the greatest danger in our life i.e degrading ourselves into the most abominable lower species. What is the solution?
Solution
We are just like pieces of coal, part, and parcel of Krishna. Every piece of the coals has the potency to ignite a fire, but limited. When all the pieces of coals come together, ignited in the presence of The Deities through hearing and chanting, and then there will be blazing fire and complete illumination. We must associate with like-minded devotees who are completely in love with Krishna. Hearing the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, Chanting of the Holy name, and worshipping the Deity form of Krishna must be performed with utmost enthusiasm in the association of devotees. As one chants and hears, the heart becomes purified of all dust and we begin to see Krishna as our eternal loving master and ourselves as His eternal loving servants. Such pure love is the only means to defeat all kinds of unwanted enemies within the heart. Then there will be a change of heart.
The most powerful process for change of heart is through hearing from pure devotees. In Srimad Bhagavatam 1.2.17 it is mentioned that
śṛṇvatāṁ sva-kathāḥ kṛṣṇaḥ
puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanaḥ
hṛdy antaḥ stho hy abhadrāṇi
vidhunoti suhṛt satām
Translation: Sri Krishna, the Personality of Godhead, who is the Paramatma [Supersoul] in everyone’s heart and the benefactor of the truthful devotee, cleanses the desire for material enjoyment from the heart of the devotee who has developed the urge to hear His messages, which are in themselves virtuous when correctly heard and chanted.
Change of heart takes place not by our scholarly presentation, but by our transcendental qualities such as humility, truthfulness, honesty, cleanliness, etc. When there is genuine love and compassion for others, they become attracted. Because of magnetic properties, the magnet attracts iron and by constant association with the magnet, the iron develops magnetic properties.
Conclusion
When a change takes place in a person’s heart, he goes beyond the material sky and hankers to take the loving association of the beautiful personality of the Godhead. Krishna becomes so happy and decorated him with wonderful qualities. By His causeless mercy, the devotee engages all his senses in the service of Krsna like Ambarish Maharaja. He becomes humble like Sanatana Gosvami, completely detached from the material world like Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, takes shelter of the Holy Name like Haridasa Thakura, becomes fearless like Pariksit Maharaja, indifferent like Jada Bharat and so on. His heart fills with compassion like Prahlad Maharaja.
