Awareness of lack of self-awareness is also self-awareness
When we practice meditation and strive for spiritual awareness, we often find that our mind wanders here, there and everywhere. We may become discouraged, thinking, [...]
Even if our attachments hold on to us, we can still hold on to Krishna
Suppose a person has fallen in a well and is held there by someone malevolent. When some benevolent person throws a rope down to help [...]
Discipline is the fusion of intention with action
We may sometimes lament: “I could do so much more in my life if I were more disciplined.” To cultivate discipline, we can break it [...]
Purification means changing the mind’s default programming
While practicing spiritual life and striving for purity, we may become disheartened: “Today’s culture fills me with so many impure desires. And my mind too [...]
To gain spiritual momentum, focus on the soul’s nourishment, not the mind’s amusement
Suppose a person driving a car keeps alternately accelerating and braking it. Such intermittent moving and stopping will prevent the car from gaining any substantial [...]
Problems that can’t be solved need to be dissolved
Suppose water flowing in a particular direction is blocked by a stone. The water keeps flowing at the stone, trying to go below, above or [...]
Social activism is the byproduct of spiritual activism, not its purpose
Many people nowadays evaluate spirituality in utilitarian terms – they value it only for its tangible social benefits. Undoubtedly, spirituality does promote social well-being. When [...]
The word will change the world by changing the will
When we study the Bhagavad-gita, some people ask, “How is a book written thousands of years ago going to make any practical difference amidst the [...]
For getting Krishna, forgetting Krishna is fatal
When we seek anything valuable, we usually desire it and strive for it. Such desiring and striving naturally center on remembering. A person who wants [...]
God is the cause of all causes, but not the cause of all effects
On knowing the definition of God as the cause of all causes, we may get the question, “Is he the cause of the wrongs that [...]
The starting point of happiness is selflessness
We all seek happiness – and we all do various things to become happy. Today’s materialist culture, especially with its stress on advertisements, makes us [...]
God acts through us and beyond us – and always for us
When we need to do something difficult, we may pray for help. Skeptics mock such praying: “What is its use? If you have an exam, [...]
Distraction is draining; concentration is energizing
When we practice meditation and strive to focus our mind on higher spiritual reality, the struggle to concentrate can be disheartening. But we don’t have [...]
Don’t try to be too good for your own good
We may sometimes become impractically idealistic, “I will never do anything wrong in my life.” Such an aspiration is good, but it needs to be [...]
The more we are responsible for others, the more we need to be responsible for ourselves
Suppose a surgeon is agitated, distracted or exhausted while doing surgery – a small wrong cut can be disastrous. Their responsibility for the lives of [...]
Our material needs are like painkillers – necessary but not sufficient
Some people argue that our spiritual side is optional and superfluous – our material needs are what matter. Yes, material things are necessary, but they [...]
The value of our work is not determined by our work’s market value
Our market-driven culture places a price tag on everything, even things such as artistic talents whose value is often not reducible to monetary terms. Such [...]
Love is not just feeling – it is giving
Love is commonly used to refer to the strong emotion that one person may feel for another. Yet love is not just a feeling; it [...]
Material progress centers on having what we want; spiritual progress, on wanting what we have
Some people feel that taking to spiritual life means abandoning all efforts to progress in life. But their feeling stems from an unexamined assumption: progress [...]
When your mental expressway gets overcrowded, direct your thought traffic with your intelligence
Suppose we are caught in a traffic jam on an expressway. We honk and maneuver, but make little progress. But instead of staying vexed, we [...]
Gita 5.27 explained
Now try to understand Chapter overview by trying to understand what is happening: In Arjun’s mind there were two options action or renunciation, So Sri [...]