Hello and welcome to episode 117 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about repetition and how its power can help you achieve your goals in life.
Today’s question comes from Ashley and she says “I’ve been mediating and praying and listening to tapes for over 2 months. I feel they are good but I’m still so slow. I listen but I can’t execute what I learn.”
Thanks for the question. I feel that a lot pf people do this. They buy books and listen to tapes but they cannot execute what they learn. If the books and tapes are really good then you should keep going but the thing to remember is that there are principals and methods. If the method that the person is using is really good then you should keep listening.
Execution is key
All the great ones say the execution is the key. It’s the name of the game. The transition from knowledge to execution is going to make thing beautiful. The reason execution does not happen is because of the gunas. Unless the gunas come to the surface it will not happen but the thing is that you want it to happen so that’s why you should keep listening.
One of Ram Krishna’s students told him that he kept saying the same thing over and over again. Now this was the greatest man on earth so he had a reason for it! You should read his books. The stories in them are really amazing. He spoke about these things: discriminating between the real (consciousness and being detached from the script) and the un-real. I do much the same thing in my videos through these questions.
Repetition
Ramakrishna then told his student that if he was bored then he could go and just get lost. These things that were boring him are what it is all about. You must know these things. Once you know the right things you must listen to them again and again. Once you know how powerful it is you must keep listening again and again or reading it again and again. There is power in repetition.
Think about water. When you boil it, it changes its state from water to steam. For us to move to the next stage we must move rajasic to tamasic and then we must move from rajasic to sattvic. You need to reach that breaking point. Just keep listening or reading. Jeep at it.
There is a man called Gary Vaynerchuk. He is a social media expert who runs a huge media empire in the USA. You should really check him out on YouTube. He creates videos called Ask Gary Vaynerchuk and I always wanted to make videos like him. I watched his videos every day for around 6 months I kept telling myself that I wanted to make videos like that but I never actually executed it. I kept watching because I knew this guy was the real deal when it comes to expressing what he needed to express.
Take action
Then in one video he spoke about taking action. Something hit me. I felt so bad. I had all this equipment sitting idle and I was doing nothing about it. Right there and then I decided to shoot my first video no matter how good or bad it was. I started at one and now we are on episode 117
I am getting a huge response all across social media but especially on Facebook, you should check it out there. There is a lot of traffic on the page and we have some great discussions that you can take part in. It’s become a great place to meet other people who are interested in spirituality.
The important thing is I kept listening to Gary’s videos and eventually the message got through! It is important that the eyes see the right things again and again, the ears hear the right thing again and again and that the hands do the right thing again and again. Once you’ve reached that breaking point a change will occur and execution will happen. Just keep at it! Keep listening, watching and doing the right things.
Practice
Arjuna tells Krishna that the mind is difficult to control and he didn’t know how to do it. Krishna tells him that yes this is true, the mind is hard to control so you have to use practice and detachment so you can bring it under control.
What is practice? It is persistently repeating the right things over and over until it becomes the norm. As long as you believe it’s right then you have to keep doing it. It’s the only way to start executing.
Ram Krishna says there is a great difference between knowledge that you gain as a result of reasoning (about God) and the knowledge you gain as a result of meditating and reading books. The highest state is when God himself teaches you through a great teacher or the consciousness. All knowledge should lead to the consciousness but it will open directly when a great teacher is involved or it is manifested itself. This is what happens when the states change from rajasic to tamasic to sattvic. The consciousness opens its doors and no effort is required. It should be effortless and this is the point that we need to try and reach.
Keep going
Keep listening because remember that you are forming a new channel in your mind. No matter how long it takes, if the method is right for you then keep doing it. So keep listening to your tapes and if you want you could try one of our consulting courses, they may also help you. Just remember you are forming a new channel so don’t stop until it is completed.
Remember that a river will cut through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence. Passion gets you started, hope gets you going but its persistence that gets the thing done.
I hope I answered your question. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
