Faith means the willingness to relinquish control
Faith is a complex concept that pervades our entire life. Faith is difficult for us to have because we wish to stay in control and [...]
Make God the center and the circumference of your life
To practice bhakti means to center our life on God. The Bhagavad-gita (12.19) substantiates this by indicating that Krishna is the home for the consciousness [...]
Give the world your attention, but don’t give it monopoly over your attention
“Don’t miss the forest for the trees” is a saying that cautions us against letting small things blind us to far bigger things. This saying [...]
Don’t care so much for desire that it doesn’t care for the desirer
Suppose a person climbs on a horse, but the horse goes wild, endangering the rider. Something similar happens to us when we climb on the [...]
Bhakti is not just a choice of the head – it is also the calling of the heart
Suppose we are driving to some destination and come to a fork. If we are unsure about which way to go, we will move slowly [...]
To be awake is to be aware of our wake
Suppose a person is sleepwalking. They flail their arms and hit a loved one – something they would never do when they were awake. Being [...]
Count your blessings – and your toes too
When multiple problems threaten us, we may feel overwhelmed by negative emotions such as self-pity, pessimism and paranoia. Our mind frets about everything that’s gone [...]
To learn to speak well, learn when not to speak
Some of us may lament that we are not fluent in speaking. By training and practice, we all can improve our speaking ability. Even if [...]
Build roads, not roadblocks
Suppose someone had to go to a place that wasn’t accessible by road. We would expect them to clear a path to get there. If [...]
Fire-sacrifice is literal, metaphorical and transformational
The Gita talks repeatedly about yajna, sacrifices wherein oblations are offered to the sacred fire. We may wonder, “Does it recommend this activity literally or [...]
Even when a big enemy is out there, the bigger enemy is in here
The Bhagavad-gita is a discussion on a battlefield between a warrior and his charioteer-turned-counselor. Since this conversation occurs just moments before the start of the [...]
Even if the term is impersonal, the concept is personal
A cricket match report may refer to a top batsman as “a force to be reckoned with.” Here, the batsman, a person, is addressed with [...]
Seek not success in karma – seek success beyond karma
Success in karma refers to the attainment of worldly fruits such as prosperity, position, power, prestige and pleasure. Seeking such success, we often try to [...]
Bhakti has to be a choice before it can become a calling
Some people say, “I will become devoted to God when I feel his call from within.” The problem with such thinking is that we are [...]
To fight for what is right is right
The world today is haunted by the specter of terrorism, which rationalizes itself based on a religious book. Coming from this context, we may feel [...]
We don’t breathe twice in the same body
We frequently misidentify with our body. However, Gita wisdom explains that not only are we not our body, but the thing we call our body [...]
Get out of the drought of doubt
Doubt is a dangerous obstacle on the devotional path. In a heart scorched by doubt, the nectar of devotion gets evaporated and eliminated. Indeed, doubt [...]
Free love is far too costly
Many people find the notion of free love appealing because it brings together two things dear to us: freedom and love. Few things energize us [...]
When we remember Krishna, we dismember illusion
Suppose a warrior is being attacked by an enemy who is charging in with an upraised sword. But before the enemy comes close enough to [...]
Don’t take shelter of the intelligence – take shelter of Krishna with the intelligence
Our intelligence is vital for our spiritual growth – it helps us to reject illusion and choose reality. Aptly, the Bhagavad-gita (02.49) begins by asking [...]
Let temptation activate the warrior within, not the philanderer within
Suppose enemy forces sneak in to attack a country. If the border is guarded by their own spy instead of a faithful warrior, the spy [...]