Answer
This is very important — how to systematically bring about transformation through a regulated process. The secret to changing old conditioning is repeated hearing and absorption.
There are four processes:
Shravanam (hearing),
Mananam (intellectual contemplation),
Dhyanam (deep emotional contemplation),
Anushilanam (practical application).
This is called the SMDA process.
Suppose you want to change your perception about something. First, through Shravanam, you hear the truth from guru, sadhu, and shastra. You hear what the correct Krishna conscious perception is.
Then comes Mananam — intellectual contemplation. The mind churns over what was heard. You think deeply: “Why is this true? How does it apply?” Sometimes a realization comes, but if you do not revisit it, it fades away. However, when you consciously repeat and reflect on it regularly, that understanding gradually enters your system as truth. Your old perception slowly changes into a new perception.
Then comes Dhyanam. Dhyanam means emotionally internalizing that truth. Here you bring in “I” and “mine.” You connect the realization to your own life and experience. You begin to emotionally relate to that perception — whether it concerns a person, an object, a situation, or this material world itself.
For example, by hearing from guru, sadhu, and shastra, a devotee’s perception of the material world changes. One begins to understand what this world actually is, what conditioned souls are doing, and what Krishna’s arrangement is. One changes perception step by step.
Then comes Anushilanam — practical application. You begin acting according to that new perception. You no longer behave according to your old way of seeing things. Real transformation happens when your actions align with your new understanding and feeling.
For example, consider the statement:
“I am not the body.”
From childhood, our default perception has been, “I am this body.” Why is this perception so deep? Because unknowingly we have practiced this same SMDA process our entire life in the wrong direction.
Now spiritual life reverses that conditioning.
When one meets the spiritual master, one receives a second birth. The perception begins changing:
“I am not the body. I am spirit soul.”
Similarly, before Krishna consciousness, people naturally work mainly for sense gratification. But in devotional service, we begin using the body to serve Krishna instead of serving the body itself. Through regulated devotional service, the bodily concept gradually weakens.
This transformation becomes faster when we consciously practice the SMDA process:
hear repeatedly,
contemplate intellectually,
internalize emotionally,
and act practically.
Transformation means the entire way we see something changes.
We are already experiencing this in many areas of devotional life. For example, if someone was previously attached to non-vegetarian food, over time their perception changes. The way they see it changes, the way they feel about it changes, and naturally their behavior changes.
Action changes only when feeling changes.
Feeling changes only when perception changes.
Therefore:
Shravanam changes understanding,
Mananam deepens conviction,
Dhyanam changes emotional connection,
and Anushilanam transforms practical life.
Earlier, this process was described simply as repetition and reflection, but later it became clear that this is the same principle described in the Upanishadic process of Shravanam, Mananam, and Nididhyasanam. In practical devotional life, this becomes a complete transformational process for changing consciousness.
