Free me from the expectation that you will make my path obstacle-free
Bhagavad Gita 9.14 satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍha-vratāḥ namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nitya-yuktā upāsate Forever, they sing my glories unending, Endeavor for me [...]
Delhi Blast & the Gita’s Three Levels of Causes
The blast in Delhi has sent shockwaves throughout India and beyond. How do we make sense of such an atrocity? The Bhagavad Gita teaches that [...]
May my vision, conception, and aspiration turn toward you
Bhagavad Gita 9.13 mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ bhajanty ananya-manaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam The great souls take shelter in nature divine, With [...]
Your seeming humanity doesn’t diminish your divinity—it deepens your lovability
Bhagavad Gita 9.11 avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram Fools mock me, seeing but a human-like manifestation, Not knowing [...]
You are the God of miracles—and the God of practicals
Bhagavad Gita 9.10 mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sa-carācaram hetunānena kaunteya jagad viparivartate "Under my supervision, nature unfolds, Through everything moving and nonmoving, my control still [...]
In the world’s distress, let me see not your disregard for my well-being, but your respect for my will
Bhagavad Gita 9.9 na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanañ-jaya udāsīna-vad āsīnam asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu By none of the world’s mess or distress, Am [...]
Two ways to deal with our past
Even if we can't escape our past, we can still outgrow it We all carry scars from our past—deep wounds that cause fears or impressions [...]
2.56 When life is unsteady, how to stay steady
Life often subjects us to dualities: success-failure, honor-dishonor, pleasure-pain. Due to such dualities, we may keep swinging between emotional highs and lows. Our moodiness makes [...]
5.20 How equanimity empowers amid both failure and success
Do you know people who are prone to emotional extremes: elation in gain and dejection in loss? Success gets to their heads; failure buries them [...]
3.30 Be independent of externals, not indifferent to them
Some people mistake the Gita’s teaching on equanimity— thinking it means not caring about externals. But look at Arjuna, the Gita’s original student: he [...]
2.10 Don’t repress or suppress emotions—process them
When we try to control emotions, we often adopt two unhealthy approaches: suppression or repression. They sound similar, but they’re very different. Suppression is conscious— [...]
14.11 Emotion as path to education
To process emotions, we need to begin by understanding why we feel what we feel. Whenwe don’t understand the cause of an emotion, our attention [...]
5.13 How to let go of emotions
Once we understand why an emotion arose,we may realize the situation didn’t warrant it—or at least not with such intensity.Maybe the person who seemed to [...]
12.18 How to express emotion effectively
When we process an emotion, we may discover it has a genuine cause. If we felt enraged by someone’s behavior, perhaps they were actually disrespectful— [...]
13.2 Everything That Happens Is God-Filtered
When something terrible happens, do you ever wonder— Did God really want this to happen? Nothing happens outside his loving plan. Every event is [...]
12.15 Why someone you love hurts you — 3 reasons
When a loved one hurts us, the pain cuts deep. To make sense of their actions, consider three possibilities: they may be heartless, thoughtless, [...]
2.24 How to deal with despair
Have you ever felt so low that you thought, “Nothing I do will change anything”? Fight that thought. Are you really powerless? Can you not [...]
3.20 The one key to satisfaction
When a company collapses—or when a person implodes— is there a common denominator behind it all? The triggers may differ, but one pattern runs [...]
2.23 How to face failure
Suppose you fail—and fail when everyone sees it. You may feel like disappearing, running not just from that place, but from yourself. Unfortunately, you [...]
How self-destructive desire corrupts our intelligence
The Bhagavad Gita (3.43) exhorts us to use our intelligence to fight against self-destructive desires but simultaneously warns (3.40) that even intelligence can be corrupted [...]
Three meanings of ‘fire’ and how they apply to our inner world
The word fire has multiple meanings: a natural force that burns, the dismissal of someone from their job, and an energizing enthusiasm or motivation (as [...]