Week Six on the Bhakti Path: Skittles, Flaws and All

This week was certainly not a Bhakti week. I found myself completely forgetting about the path and was not patient. Instead of seeing myself and others through the eyes of love, I was lost in my daily activities. (Although, I am happy to report that I did remember to chant Hari Krishna several times on two days this week which helped still me and made me swell with joy).

Since my path for six months is devoted to myself, I tried not to be upset or inpatient with myself for having a forgetful week (since that would defeat the entire purpose of this activity).

Instead, I found comfort in a story posted on Facebook. A fellow teacher mentioned how he committed to not eat Skittles recently. However, he found himself in a position where he forgot and did so. Upon remembering, he started again and was later able to pull himself away successfully from a candy dispenser full of them. I loved this story.

It reminds us that we are all human. We forget. We break our promises to ourselves. We fall. But then, we get back up again. In Little Women, Jo says, "I think I am hopelessly flawed." Friedrich responds, with my favorite line from the film, "I think we are all hopelessly flawed."

At the end of the day, we are human beings with human emotions and tendencies. I believe we should strive always to better ourselves, to cultivate our minds, become aware of our negative tendencies and curb them as we can, but also to learn to love ourselves despite our many flaws. After all, it is sometimes our flaws that remind us we are not perfect. That there is something more to learn.