How To Develop Good Habits According To Bhagwad Gita

I have wanted to develop a habit of waking up early for a while now. Waking up early would mean that I could be constant with my workouts and meditation practice, without having to skip any of them due to other pressing obligations.

To wake up early you need to sleep early, they say. Makes Sense ! So I decide to go to bed at eleven p.m and set my alarm for five a.m. I am about to keep my phone away but before that I think of taking one last peek at my social media feed. I am determined to sleep on time today but I tell myself that taking a quick peek wont do any harm. Soon enough, I find the clock striking two. “Ah sh*t, here we go again”, I say to myself as I put off the alarm that I had set for five before I finally go to sleep,

We all have our struggles between choosing what feels good at the moment and what’s actually right. I knew what is wrong for me and what’s right for me yet I was unable to put my phone away. People know that having fast food will make them fat, still something pulls them into doing it. A smoker knows that smoking a cigarette is harmful to his health, yet he can’t resist the temptation to smoke.

 

How habits are developed?

Over the centuries, human psyche hasn’t changed. So interestingly, Duryodhan, the evil king behind the deadly war of Mahabharat that killed millions, had the same problems that you and I face. The problem of having to choose between what feels good at the moment and what’s actually right and being drawn towards what feels good, but is not right. Before the war of Mahabharat began, Sri Krishna approached Duryodhan for peace. Duryodhan dismissed the offer by replying to him ,”I know what I should do and what I should not yet I cannot put it into practice. There is a strong tendency in me which I know is wrong but I am helpless.”

In a similar way Arjuna, who was on the opposing side to Duryodhan, too faced the same dilemma. He asked Sri Krishna,” Why does this happen? How do I control myself?”

Sri Krishna gave the answers to Arjuna which are found in Chapter 3 Verse 33 and Chapter 3 Verse 34 of Bhagwad Gita.

 

In Chapter 3 Verse 33 Sri Krishna says,

“सदृशं चेष्टते स्वस्या: प्रकृतेर्ज्ञानवानपि |
प्रकृतिं यान्ति भूतानि निग्रह: किं करिष्यति || 33|”|   

Meaning: Even wise people act according to their natures, for all living beings are propelled by their natural tendencies. What will one gain by repression?

 

In Chapter 3 Verse 34 Sri Krishna says,

इन्द्रियस्येन्द्रियस्यार्थे रागद्वेषौ व्यवस्थितौ |
तयोर्न वशमागच्छेत्तौ ह्यस्य परिपन्थिनौ || 34||

Meaning : The senses naturally experience attachment and aversion to the sense objects, but do not be controlled by them, for they are way-layers and foes.

 

In Patanjali Yoga Sutra, the seminal text for Yoga, Maharishi Patanjali states that human actions are based on one’s vrittis and samskars. We are aware of the vrittis as they are present in our conscious mind while samskars are in the subconscious mind and so beyond our control. The samskars are expressed in the concious mind as vrittis.  Samskars are accumulated as a result of our past actions. The thoughts that we expose ourselves to on a daily basis, our past actions are all accumulated in our subconscious mind in the form of samskars. These samskars dictate our natural tendencies. We are not aware of the samskars as they are accumulated in our subsconcious mind.

Ever wondered why a habit is such a powerful driving force behind human behaviour? When we accumulate a positive habit, it feels like we are breezing through tough tasks, while others are sweating over it. Positive habits once developed, are powerful tools for our growth. However on the flip side, bad habits can lead to degeneration, all thanks to the accumulation of samskars in our subconcious mind. Habits once accumulated can be difficult to break.  When we continuously expose ourselves to a pattern of thought, we develop samskars in our subconcious mind, which govern our tendencies as Sri Krishna says in chapter 3 verse 33.

 

How to develop good habits ?

In Bhagwad Gita chapter 3 verse 34, Sri Krishna states that between the conception of a thought in our subconscious mind as samskars and its expression as karma or actions, a thought passes through a thought pipe line which consists of following three stages in a human mind :

1. Samskars( In subconcious mind) : Not in our control
2. Raga Dvesa or Likes-Dislikes ( In concious mind) : controllable
3. Karma or Action(Conscious) : uncontrollable

 

Sri Krishna says that the thoughts are first accumulated in our subconcious mind as samskars. From the subconcious mind, thought has to pass through a barrier in our mind, before it is expressed in the form of Karma. Since samskars are present in subconscious mind, we are not aware of them and hence can’t be controlled. At the third stage of the thought pipeline, it has already been expressed in the form of action and so its too late to act on it.

Suppose a person is hurling abuses at me. As a result, the thought of rage will accumulate in my subconscious mind. The amount of time it takes for me to develop thoughts of anger will depend on my samskars. Soon the thought of anger may result in me slapping that person, which is my Karma. Since my thought has already been expressed in the form of Karma, its too late for me to control it.

However in the thought pipeline, between the first and third stage, there is a stage where the thought passes through our conscious mind. Since that stage occurs in our conscious mind, we can control the thought in accordance with our Raga Dvesa. The second stage of thought pipeline is like a traffic policeman that’s controlling traffic. Thus, the way to control our thoughts and build good habits is to be aware of the traffic policeman that’s present within our mind.

The way to developing good habits, is to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Just like Novak Djokovic did, en route to his historic 2021 French Open triumph. This can be done by bringing awareness to our thoughts. When we find ourselves being driven towards negative tendencies, we should replace them with positive thoughts. Initially we may find ourselves failing miserably. We may feel that nothing is working. However as stated above, thoughts are accumulated in our subconscious mind through samskars. Thus, even though we may not notice the result of our positive actions, be sure that they are bringing in positive transformation within us and the changes are bound to occur.

The above article was inspired by a lecture given by Swami Sarvapriyananda, a great scholarly saint from the Ramakrishna Order, at IIT Kanpur. You can watch the lecture below :

Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter to get the latest from The Fitonation Blog delivered directly to your inbox.

Also, don’t forget to check out our YouTube Channel by clicking on the following link : Fitonation YouTube Channel.

You can Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn.