Seekers often ask, “Meditation is supposed to be rejuvenating, but I sometimes find it boring, even tiring. Why is that?”

Because our misdirected mind distracts and drags us away from the object of meditation, Krishna.

What makes meditation rejuvenating is the connection it offers with Krishna. He is the reservoir of all happiness – the more we link with him, the more we become reinvigorated.

However, the mind, based on its past attachments, imagines many different worldly objects to be sources of pleasure. Wanting to dwell on them, it stubbornly resists our attempts to focus on Krishna. When the mind thus disrupts our Krishna-connection, we lose access to inner happiness and meditation seems boring. And when the mind keeps going towards worldly objects and needs to be repeatedly dragged back to Krishna, the ensuing struggle makes meditation tiring.

Due to the mind’s misdirecting tendency, meditation tends to be challenging before it becomes comforting. Such is the nature, the Bhagavad-gita (18.37) indicates, of enlightened pleasures – initially they appear like poison, but ultimately become like nectar. As long as the mind is infatuated with worldly pleasures, meditation will remain a challenge. But if we persevere in our attempts to focus on Krishna, the mind will slowly but surely realize that whatever pleasure it is seeking in worldly objects, all that and much more, infinitely more, is present in Krishna. As the mind drops its resistance, meditation connects us uninterrupted with Krishna and rejuvenates us.

During the challenge phase of meditation, we can gain comfort by remembering Krishna’s compassionate nature. He is not an insentient object oblivious to our struggles – he is a loving person who observes and rewards those struggles. He uses his omnipotence to curb the mind and reveals his all-attractiveness to charm it, thereby gradually making meditation easier and sweeter.