Where there is no will, there can never be any way. Willpower is the greatest human power and its absence is the greatest human weakness. What are the factors that enhance and erode willpower? The Upanishads offer valuable insights into willpower through a thought-provoking chariot-body analogy: the body is compared to a chariot, the five knowledge-acquiring senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin) to the horses driving the chariot, the mind to the reins controlling the horses, the intelligence to the charioteer and the self to the passenger. The passenger can reach his desired destination in the chariot only when the charioteer is strong enough to control and direct the horses. Similarly we can exercise our will power and achieve success only when our intelligence is strong enough to control and direct our senses.
Strong intelligence has two essential components – discrimination and determination. Discrimination is the capacity to differentiate between the harmful and the beneficial, the short-term and the long- term, the temporary and the eternal, the material and the spiritual. Determination is the strength to act as per our discrimination; to accept the beneficial, even if it is temporarily painful and to eschew the harmful, even if it is temporarily pleasurable. Going back to the chariot-body analogy, discrimination refers to the fixity and clarity of vision of the charioteer and determination refers to his physical strength and skill in manoeuvring the horses.
Therefore to increase our willpower, we need to increase our discrimination and determination.
Just as the horses may be distracted from the path by ruit-bearing trees, our senses may get distracted by the allurements for instant gratification. This in turn weakens our scriminatory ower. Therefore we need to study spiritual literature (svadhyaya) and associate with mature spiritualists (satsang) to sharpen our discrimination. Just as Arjuna accepted Krishna as His charioteer and emerged victorious in the battle of Kurukshetra, we can also invoke the supreme powerful to empower our intelligence and thus emerge victorious in the battle of life. We can access divine power by sadhana, regular spiritual disciplinary practices. Just as body building can strengthen the charioteer, our daily sadhana is like a spiritual body building program to strengthens our determination.
Thus svadhyaya, satsang and sadhana bring out our best –materially and spiritually.
by Chaitanya Charan Das