Almost every soul is a prisoner of the senses, which are entrenched on the surface of the body. The soul’s attention is lured away from its inner kingdom in the medulla, the spiritual eye, and the chakras to the outer regions of the body, where greed, temptation, and attachment have their strongholds. The devotee who wants to lead King Soul away from the misery-making slums of the senses finds that he cannot do so without a severe clash between the soldiers of the senses and the divine soldiers of the soul. When the devotee passes through the initial state of meditation and arrives at the middle state of Self-realization, he realizes that his good and bad habits have gathered together on the battlefield of consciousness, pitted against one another. Meditation is the inner war-drum that rouses good and bad habits from the slumber of indifference and makes them want to increase their forces in order to attain victory over the consciousness of the devotee. When one is totally under the influence of bad habits, he does not find any resistance from the good habits. It is only when the devotee tries to cultivate good habits of concentration, calmness, and peace that the bad habits of fickleness, restlessness, and disquietude create psychological resistance. The enthusiastic spiritual beginner, in his zeal as he first tries to meditate, does not realize the resistance of bad habits. The bad habits do not notice the silent invasion of good habits in the spiritual beginner. Only when the spiritual seeker means business and struggles repeatedly to establish good habits in the kingdom of consciousness do the bad habits become afraid and make furious attempts to oust the good intruders. When the seeker begins to use soul perception and good habits to fight the bad habits, he realizes that his heart is filled with compassion for the bad habits, for they seem to be his own, and dear to him. In other words, the devotee, in spite of knowing what he should do, discovers it is hard to dislodge the dear old habits of restlessness, constant action, wrong eating, and sense pleasures by the pitiless fiery soldiers of calmness, ecstasy, and self-control. The grand method of killing bad habits lies in the actual performance of God-awakening, good habits of meditation. When the habit of delusion precedes the habit of wisdom and settles in the soul, the only way out is to use will power to meditate deeply and daily until the all-alluring, bliss-contact of God is definitely achieved and can be reproduced in the consciousness at will.
It is just as easy to be peaceful and joyful as to be worried and disturbed. Never forget to smile—not a mask-like smile without sincerity behind it, but the honest, radiant smile that comes from a light, joyful heart. Develop the habit of smiling, no matter what happens, and get complete control of your thoughts. They absolutely make or mar your life. People pay entirely too much attention to their physical being and think too much about what they should eat and how much they should rest. It is all a matter of will. I have never been tired in my life, and I get along on as little as five hours’ sleep a month. I never eat in the morning, and for lunch I have a light meal—preferably uncooked fruits and chopped nuts, with an occasional egg. For supper I take only a salad. But my whole life has been given over to the study of Yogoda. What I have done, others can do also.
Good habits are your best helpers; preserve their force by stimulating them with good actions. Bad habits are your worst enemies; against your will, they make you do things that hurt you. Starve bad habits by refusing to give them any further food of bad actions. True freedom consists in doing things in accordance with right judgment, and not from the compulsion of habits. Eat what you should eat and not necessarily what you are used to eating. Do what you ought, not what your habits dictate. Good and bad habits take some time to acquire force. Powerful bad habits can be displaced by opposite good habits if the latter are patiently cultured. First crowd out all bad habits by good habits in everything, then cultivate the consciousness of being free from all habits.
Attributes: Paramhansa Yogananda
Learn how to practice spiritual detachment to overcome the persistent pull of worldly distractions in your daily life.
Many of us struggle with what we might call good intruders—habits or routines that seem beneficial but actually create compulsion rather than genuine growth. This reflection examines how to approach your daily discipline with sincerity, ensuring that your diet, learning, and actions remain choices rooted in freedom rather than forced obligation.
True progress comes when we stop acting out of pressure and start acting from a place of inner clarity. By identifying how these bad habits influence our decision-making, we can reclaim our energy and focus on what truly nourishes the soul. When you refine your approach to spiritual practices, you move away from the weight of compulsion and toward a more authentic experience of peace.
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