Mindlessly mindful?
Mindfulness is often equated with greater awareness of both our outer and inner worlds. Still, not every detail of the outer world needs attention, and [...]
Are we training our mind in distraction or in concentration?
We all have noticed times when we get distracted, sometimes from important things. If only we could concentrate more, we could do so many things [...]
Beyond mindfulness to purposefulness
Suppose we are working in customer support and a disgruntled customer is speaking with us rudely, even obnoxiously. Still, we may have to plaster a [...]
Three ways remembering Krishna empowers us to face problems
Our life is often filled with many problems, and so is our world. When we have so many problems to tackle, we may wonder, “What [...]
When living in the present helps, and when it harms
“Live in the present” is valuable advice to counter our mind’s tendency to wander off into the past or the future. That wandering can rob [...]
When morality feels like a burden …
When we try to follow moral standards to live purely, we sometimes feel harassed by temptations that keep coming upon us. And if we compare [...]
How to avoid unhealthy reactions to unwanted emotions
Suppose we experience a craving that runs contrary to the principles we hold sacred. Faced with this unwanted emotion, we may react by becoming judgmental [...]
How to see negative emotions positively
We all sometimes experience negative emotions such as loneliness, dejection, resentment, anger or fear. When such emotions arise, we may let ourselves get carried away [...]
Gita 02.52 explained
Now, after describing this, Krishna will again come to the point of how this attainment of anamayam (2.51) is beyond even the Vedas. It is [...]
How intelligence and scripture may increase our illusions
The Bhagavad-gita (02.53) cautions that our intelligence can get lost in the forest of illusion created by words. Consider two striking points in this verse. [...]
What does it mean to “follow our heart”?
Suppose we have to decide about complex and consequential issues such as choosing a career, a life-partner or a spiritual teacher. We may be told, [...]
What is the heart?
Many regularly used words have nuances that we rarely ponder. Consider the word “heart.” When we say, “He suffered a heart attack,” we refer to [...]
How to expand our God consciousness in our relationships
When we strive to become God conscious by doing various devotional practices, we often start evaluating the God consciousness of those around us. We strive [...]
Do emotions reside in the mind?
To understand, consider an analogous question: do sensations reside in the body? Suppose a 20 kg dumbbell is placed in our palm, and we feel [...]
How are thoughts and emotions related
Thoughts and emotions are sometimes seen as sequential — when we think steadily about something, we feel emotions in relationship with it. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita [...]
Do bad thoughts comprise bad karma?
At one level, yes. Because thinking is also a form of activity, and every activity comes under the jurisdiction of karma, we are accountable for [...]
Are thoughts things?
The word “thing” has multiple meanings. It can refer to an object, especially an inanimate object, as in: “There wasn't a thing in sight.” If [...]
The law of attraction and Gita wisdom
The law of attraction holds that we attract positive and negative things respectively by cultivating positive or negative thoughts. Is this law true? Why does [...]
Will negative imagination lead to self-fulfilling prophecies?
When a person having unhealthy habits is told to imagine the disasters that may result if they continue with those habits, they worry, “Won’t such [...]
Gita 02.63 explained
BG 2.63 krodhad bhavati sammohah sammohat smriti-vibhramah smriti-bhramsad buddhi-naso buddhi-nasat pranasyati SYNONYMS krodhat -- from anger; bhavati -- takes place; sammohah -- perfect illusion; sammohat [...]
The power of negative imagination
Biologically, we are wired more to fear pain than to savor pleasure. In most enjoyable situations, there’s a self-evident limit to how much pleasure we [...]