Choose to be holy now – don’t wait for a holy cloud to form around your head
“Surely, but not now.” This is often our default response when saintly people urge us to make our relationship with Krishna a priority. We rationalize: [...]
Might we be devaluing sex by glamorizing it?
Our contemporary culture constantly glamorizes sex through gaudy images permeated with sexual undertones and overtones. Due to this incessant glamorization of sex, most people live [...]
Block out the Blackout
Many of us often make resolutions for living according to principles of moral and spiritual integrity, but during times of temptation, our impulses ambush us. [...]
Materialism shrinks our options for happiness
Cutting-edge technology prides itself for opening new avenues for enjoyment: so many TV channels, websites and video games, for example. However, might the freedom offered [...]
Feeling is a springboard for chanting, but chanting is also a gateway to feeling
Some people doubt the benefit of daily mantra meditation: “What is the use of repeating the names of God mechanically and unfeelingly? Better to wait [...]
The mind is predictably dangerous and dangerously unpredictable
“I know that work is important, but I just can’t make myself do it; I am not in the right mood.” “Stop; don’t irritate me [...]
Life is a disaster movie in slow motion
Disaster movies generally show people caught in a natural disaster trying heroically to save themselves and others from impending doom. However, not many of the [...]
Don’t slip on the philosophical banana peels of scriptural paradoxes
Some of us may be put off by the apparently contradictory statements in the Bhagavad-gita. Several such statements are found in the thirteenth chapter of [...]
Don’t let inconsequential possibilities paralyze you
Our culture offers us so many possibilities for life’s trivialities that choosing among them often swallows much of our energy and emotion. For example, TV [...]
Devotional spirituality offers breaks that are much more than brakes
The racehorse-pace of life nowadays impels many people to apply brakes, lest they break down. These break-seekers often explore spirituality for utilitarian purposes. Just as [...]
Be not scared of the sacred
We may be held back in our spiritual quest by the subconscious apprehension that the advanced, sacred states of spiritual realization may be too difficult [...]
Your desire is your power – don’t waste it
Green consciousness has made us increasingly aware that natural resources are limited and so need to be used carefully. Yet there is one natural resource [...]
Material letdown and spiritual breakdown: The Twin Troubles of Transgression
“What’s wrong with a bit of indulgence as long as one is not harming anyone?” This utilitarian-seeming rationale sometimes tempts us to transgress the moral [...]
The Gita shows the Route to the Root
“Let’s go back to our roots.” This passion consumes many people. Some of them take the route of genealogical investigation for discovering unsung ancestors. Others [...]
Go down the consequence lane of memory to go up the devotion lane of life
Our mind loves to go down the pleasure lane of memory, especially when those pleasures are materialistic. It not only glues itself to those memories [...]
To save you from you, couple the real self with the Supreme Self
“Why did I do that?” This question often troubles us whenever we look back at an unworthy action that we did on the spur of [...]
Spirituality expands our conception of life dramatically and majestically
Is life a doomed journey from a station called birth to a station called death with a bit of pleasure and a lot of pain [...]
Rumble, Grumble, Tumble? Or Humble?
Our media periodically presents us with celebrities who are self-obsessed egotists.Three words sum their life-trajectory: rumble, grumble, tumble. Rumble: These people are so self-obsessed that [...]
Be Intense, not Tense
The pace and pressure of our contemporary lifestyle often makes us stressed. This tension is a nag that lurks constantly in the background of our [...]
Confirmation comes by conformation
We may sometimes wonder: “Are the statements in the Bhagavad-gita about God’s existence and benevolence to be accepted on faith alone? Isn’t there any way [...]
Chemical highs cheat us of spiritual highs
All material pleasures are essentially chemical highs. Whenever we perceive any attractive objects with our senses, the corresponding sensory mechanisms secrete certain chemicals. This chemical [...]