Answer
This is a very interesting question, and it is true that many times people know that what they are doing is wrong, yet somehow they still end up doing such things. Later on, they regret it deeply and wonder, “Why did I do that?”
One of the reasons we engage in activities that we know are not ultimately good for us is the force of habit. It is not easy to change habits simply by knowing that they are detrimental. Mere intellectual understanding is often not enough. We must also proactively take practical steps to replace old habits with better engagement.
This has to do with the workings of the mind. The mind can overpower the senses and often pushes a person to act against good intelligence. This is explained in the Bhagavad Gita, where a hierarchy within the mind-body system is described.
The senses are superior to dull matter, the mind is superior to the senses, intelligence is superior to the mind, and the soul is superior to the intelligence. At the highest level is the soul — the real self, the actual person within the coverings of body, mind, and intelligence.
So the hierarchy is as follows:
Soul
Intelligence
Mind
Senses
Material objects
This is the natural order in which the system is meant to function.
However, as A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, bodily action refers to the activities of the senses, and stopping the senses means restraining external actions. But even if the body is silent and inactive, the mind may still remain active. A clear example is dreaming at night. During sleep the senses are inactive, yet the mind continues to function.
Above the mind is intelligence, and above intelligence is the soul. Therefore, when the soul is directly engaged with the Supreme, naturally the intelligence, mind, and senses also become properly engaged.
But if the mind is not engaged in devotional service or connected with the Supreme, then there is every possibility that the mind will dictate actions against intelligence, against the soul’s higher interest, and against divine instruction.
Therefore, proper engagement in the right activities becomes truly possible only when the person directly engages in devotional service, without surrendering to the temporary dictations of the mind.
For example, when chanting the Hare Krishna mantra, sometimes one may feel like chanting, and sometimes not. The mind may cooperate one day and resist the next. But if one maintains a fixed routine — “At this particular time every day I will chant, regardless of the condition of my mind” — then gradually the mind becomes subdued.
In this way, habits are transformed through steady engagement in devotional service.
Such steady engagement becomes much easier through the association of devotees who are themselves seriously practicing devotional service. Good association, a fixed daily schedule, and gradually increasing one’s devotional activities help fill more and more of life with spiritual engagement. This is the practical process for subduing the stubborn mind.
Otherwise, because the mind is deeply conditioned by past habits and tendencies toward sense enjoyment, changing those habits is extremely difficult without proper spiritual engagement and devotional service.
