Obsession isn’t just a distractor from absorption; it is also a demonstrator of absorption
Some bhakti seekers ask, “My mind gets so easily distracted by worldly things. Is it possible to become absorbed in Krishna?” Yes, it is. If [...]
Mercy transforms no man’s land into God’s land
The Bhagavad-gita was spoken in no man’s land. On the Kurukshetra battlefield, when the two armies had assembled just before the climactic Mahabharata war, the [...]
Suffering doesn’t have to be isolating – it can be integrating
When some adversity afflicts us, grief is natural and understandable. Still, after we have given our emotions the necessary vent, we need to counter the [...]
We can’t drive out darkness, but we can turn on the light
Suppose we find ourselves groping and stumbling in a dark room. We may feel irritated at the darkness, but cursing or punching it achieves nothing. [...]
Don’t just restrain the mind – retrain it
Suppose a horse-rider finds their horse going off in dangerous directions. They will have to restrain it, and restrain it forcefully if it is recalcitrant. [...]
Purification centers on channeling our nature, not suppressing it
Some people ask, “Don’t the many rules of spiritual life suppress our nature?” No, this apprehension comes from conflating two distinct senses of the word [...]
Between the extremes of pantheism and deism lies the holism of panentheism
Pantheism equates God with nature. It implies that whatever exists in nature is all that there is to God, that he has no self-existence beyond [...]
In worrying about what all may go wrong, we go wrong
Worrying hurts us even before things go wrong, while things are going wrong and after things have gone wrong. Consider a student with a decent [...]
Get serious about not taking yourself too seriously
People who are too stuck-up, standoffish, finicky are told, “Lighten up. Don’t take things so seriously.” Such people who take themselves too seriously make small [...]