18.37: Lack of devotional appetite is natural yet unnatural

As spiritual seekers, we may at times feel apathetic or averse to the spiritual practices like meditation or prayer that connect us with Krishna and nourish us spiritually. This absence of devotional appetite symptomizes that we are afflicted with spiritual anorexia.

Anorexia is a peculiar bodily disorder in which the patients need food, but don’t feel any appetite. This lack of bodily appetite is natural yet unnatural; it seems natural as long as the patients are in the grip of anorexia, but is seen to be unnatural as soon as they become healthy. Similarly, our lack of devotional appetite is natural yet unnatural; it seems natural as long as we are in the grip of spiritual anorexia, but is seen to be unnatural as soon as we become spiritually healthy.
Just as an anorexic person can get cured by taking a regular and regulated diet, similarly we can get spiritually cured by a regular and regulated diet of devotional practices. Though such a regimen may seem unpleasant initially, the Bhagavad-gita (18.37) reassures us that we will eventually experience it to be pleasant: sublimely, supremely pleasant.