Why fear of God is healthy — and when it becomes unhealthy
To stay civilized, every society needs to instill in its members a healthy fear of the law, which essentially means fear of the consequences of [...]
Beyond thoughtless action and spineless inaction
At the start of the Bhagavad-gita, when Arjuna is confronted with the prospect of fighting a brutal war against his venerable elders, he pauses. Throughout [...]
Why we remain strangers to ourselves …
We are often fascinated by characters depicted in novels and movies. Fans fill blogs analyzing every single dialogue spoken by fictional characters in, say, Star [...]
How to live amid danger
We often worry when visiting dangerous areas infested with terrorists or infected by pandemics. If fear overwhelms us, we can remember that we can never [...]
Gita 06.30 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Krishna is talking about perfection of [...]
Who is defining our identity: our mind or our Lord?
Our mind often acts as our enemy (Bhagavad-gita 06.06). One way it acts inimically is by discouraging us whenever we attempt anything worthwhile: “You are [...]
How can we know reality?
Suppose someone is walking on a road with their eyes blindfolded and ears plugged. If they struggled only to remove the ear plugs that blocked [...]
How can we become immune to temptation?
Suppose someone is living in a pandemic area. If they have developed immunity to that disease, they may think they are safe. However, if they [...]
How to assess the value of our work
We often value our work based on the paycheck it provides — the bigger the paycheck, the better the work. Such assessment is understandable because [...]
How humility protects us from the ego’s trident?
Our ego often acts like a trident that pierces us with three prongs: grandiosity, blame and shame. Grandiosity: When we set out to achieve something, [...]
Can devotion and ambition go together?
Some people feel, “Devotion involves pursuing God beyond this world, whereas ambition involves pursuing worldly gain. The two are therefore incompatible.” Not necessarily. It’s true [...]
How we can learn from history to shape our history
Modern history is often a compilation of facts and figures, wars and conquests, births and deaths. Traditionally however, especially in spiritual cultures, history was [...]
Gita 02.16 explained
2.11-2.30: counters first argument – compassion So now Krishna will describe actually there are two natures, what is this 'mritatvaya? What is this eternity we [...]