How to counter spiritual reductionism (Ethics & devotion series 6)
Spiritual reductionism refers to the tendency to reduce spirituality to some specific parameters that are deemed vital and to gauge everyone's value based on those [...]
Spiritual reductionism refers to the tendency to reduce spirituality to some specific parameters that are deemed vital and to gauge everyone's value based on those [...]
If we are told to assess ourselves ethically, we may fear, “I already feel guilty because I can’t live up to the expected moral standard. [...]
Does the Bhagavad-gita’s concluding verse (18.66) — the surrendered are protected from karmic consequences — license ethical exemption? To understand, let’s consider the verse’s implications [...]
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Now Sri Krishna is saying OK [...]
Devotion automatically leads to ethical growth — we may support this claim by quoting Srimad-Bhagavatam verse (05.18.12): devotees manifest all godly qualities But our claim [...]
Devotion is a matter of the heart. Does that make it irrelevant to ethics? No, because the heart can’t be reached as easily as we [...]
Devotees sometimes believe that their devotion raises them above the jurisdiction of ethical accountability. Technically, the belief that one’s religion provides one moral exemption is [...]
When someone wrongs us, we often tend to paint ourselves as good and that person as bad. That makes us feel good, but it doesn’t [...]
Suppose we greet someone at a get-together and they don’t respond. We may be taken aback. Suppose several people neglect our greeting. We may worry, [...]
Suppose someone is driving a heart attack victim to a hospital. Naturally, they will try to drive as fast as possible. Even if they drive [...]
When we see someone doing something horribly wrong, we may feel driven to protest or correct. Nowadays when activism is often seen as cool, we [...]
We may encounter some people who seem to have made it their life’s mission to make our life miserable. If what they have done haunts [...]
Suppose someone has hurt us badly, several times. We may start seeing them as a villain, a person whose existence is a curse to the [...]
When a small child learns to recognize black and white colors, that’s a step forward in their color literacy. But suppose that child, even after [...]
Our mind is restless like a child (Bhagavad-gita 06.34). To help it outgrow its fickleness, we need to mentor it. Here are three ways to [...]
Suppose we are piloting a plane, taking it on an important mission. Suppose further we have been alerted that the plane’s navigation software is vulnerable [...]
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Bg 16.8 asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te [...]
Suppose we are named guardians of the son of some old friends who have suddenly passed away. Suppose further that we don’t know their son [...]
We don’t usually realize how much our mind controls us. Nonetheless, we do get some glimpses of its grip on us whenever we try to [...]
Suppose we live in a house whose accessway is controlled by a neighbor. Though they act friendly, they often covert trouble us, by obstructing, distracting, [...]
So after describing this Krishna describes if one doesn’t try to regulate his senses then one can fall down disastrously. So how one may fall [...]