- Chapter 02, Text 01
- Gita 02.01 – Explanation - 1
- Gita 02.01 – Explanation - 2
- Gita 02.01 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- The more we are emotional the less emotions we have and the more our emotions have us
- Happiness is a state of being not a status symbol
- Even when our eyes are full of tears we can still choose to be all ears
- Emotion divorced from reason ends in tribulation
- Learn to ground emotions in reason and reality
- To become light-hearted, light your heart
- Don’t run from pain – learn from it
- Chapter 02, Text 02
- Gita 02.02 - Explanation
- Gita 02.02 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- How purification can empower us all
- Let emotion inform, but not form, your decision
- Surgery seems like violence, but is benevolence
- Chapter 02, Text 03
- Gita 02.03 - Explanation
- Resist the temptation to quit
- Gita 02.03 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Krishna’s verbal slaps to Arjuna (Exploring Gita chapter 2)
- Do the epics glamorize violence?
- Beyond thoughtless action and spineless inaction
- To fight for what is right is right
- Peace bought at the cost of justice can be the worst violence
- What we do reflects on what we do
- Chapter 02, Text 04
- Gita 02.04 - Explanation 1
- Gita 02.04 - Explanation 2
- Gita 02.04 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Arjuna’s strong comeback to Krishna’s rebuke
- Humility transforms a protest against God into a prayer to God
- The ego’s default defensiveness doesn’t protect us – it protects the misconceptions that limit us
- Chapter 02, Text 05
- Gita 02.05 - Explanation 1
- Gita 02.05 - Explanation 2
- Gita 02.05 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Chapter 02, Text 06
- With you, my Lord, there are no dead ends (2.06)
- Gita 02.06 - Explanation 1
- Gita 02.06 - Explanation 2
- Gita 02.06 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Arjuna’s heart-wrenching dilemma (Exploring Gita chapter 2 series - 3)
- Sincerity can show the path to ability; it can’t substitute for ability
- Opinions are like onions - know when they need to be sealed and when peeled
- Resist the temptation of confusion
- Accepting responsibility begins with accepting responsibility for irresponsibility
- Our problems introduce us to ourselves
- Stop serving God as an advisor
- Chapter 02, Text 07
- Even when there is no right way, you remain the right way (2.07)
- Gita 02.07 - Explanation - 1
- Gita 02.07 - Explanation - 2
- The balance of intelligence: Avoiding overestimation and underestimation
- The transformative power of deep listening
- Can any question be a bad question?
- Did Arjuna exhibit fight-or-flight response at the start of the Bhagavad-gita?
- How to raise the quality of our questions
- Raising the quality of our questions
- Arjuna’s first question in the Gita: What is the right thing to do?
- Three levels of answers to the Gita’s driving question (Appreciating the Gita’s flow 1)
- Why dealing only with today’s problems today can be short-sighted
- Why study philosophy - 2?
- Why our advice often goes unheeded
- To understand one thing we sometimes need to revise how we understand everything
- Proving that we are right is not as empowering as probing if we are wrong
- Intelligence means to know what to do when we don’t know what to do
- Seek first to understand the question to best understand the answer
- If we think humbly we won’t have to act dumbly
- Humility comes by acknowledging that we don't have access to Krishna's plan
- Prepare for life's bumps by slowing down
- To see the big picture, ask the big questions
- In the spiritual journey, surrender is the starter, sustainer and summit
- Faith means the willingness to relinquish control
- Don’t stay crying in the night – start crying for the light
- Admitting our weaknesses doesn’t make us weak – acquiescing to them does
- Ask the question that underlies all questions
- Don’t just ask for decisions; ask for the education for making decisions
- The ego’s dissolution is not self-destruction, but the doorway to self-actualization
- Better to admit, “I am wrong” and be right than to insist, “I am right” and stay wrong
- Better to look stupid than to act stupid
- Those who mistake meekness to be weakness sentence themselves to spiritual sickness
- Don’t challenge the wisdom of God – let the wisdom of God challenge you
- Those who overestimate their intelligence underutilize their potential
- Are we strong enough to admit that we are not strong enough?
- Chapter 02, Text 08
- The under-explored relationship between morality and meaning
- Please become the supreme driver of my life (2.08)
- Gita 02.08 - Explanation
- Gita 02.08 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- How Krishna respects Arjuna's independence before giving guidance (Balancing independence and guidance series 4)
- When achievement translates into fulfillment
- When achievement doesn’t provide fulfillment — and when it does
- If what we live with becomes what we live for we end up having nothing to live for
- The human spirit is too big to stay satisfied within any material cage however grand
- Pleasure is too fragile a purpose to sustain us through life's troubles
- Our losses empty our heart for God to fill
- Be ready to wait in the confusing in-between till it becomes illuminating
- The more things spin out of control, the more we need to get our thoughts in control
- The richness of life is more important than the riches of life
- Success in one field can’t compensate for failure in another
- Accepting our powerlessness can be most empowering
- Don’t let being well-off come in the way of being well
- Do we need to lose our way to find our way?
- Losing our way to find our way
- Our values are our real valuables
- When we find ourselves in trouble, do we also find ourselves?
- Chapter 02, Text 09
- Gita 02.09 - Explanation
- Gita 02.09 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Does Arjuna’s reluctance to fight show that he is irresponsible?
- Was Arjuna a pacifist?
- Why we may misunderstand Krishna’s Gita message — and how the Mahabharata can help
- The first place we lose the battle is in our thinking
- Don’t overthink yourself into paralysis
- Chapter 02, Text 10
- Let your smiling amid my suffering strengthen my faith (2.10)
- Gita 02.10 - Explanation
- Gita 02.10 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- How could Krishna and Arjuna have had their entire discussion on a battlefield?
- How Krishna’s teachings in the Gita go far beyond the peace-war polarity
- Was Krishna a warmonger?
- Krishna’s puzzling smile (Exploring Gita chapter 2)
- Far more important than the book cover is what the book covers
- Chapter 02, Text 11
- Let the present not divert me from the permanent (2.11)
- Gita 02.11 - Explanation
- Gita 02.11 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- What Krishna’s first and last instructive words reveal
- Why Krishna reproaches Arjuna in his first instructive verse
- Krishna’s first words reveal the Gita’s purpose (Exploring Gita chapter 2 series - 4)
- Respecting others while refuting their misconceptions (Balancing independence and guidance 5)
- The courage to take a hard look at ourselves
- God’s purpose is not just to comfort us – it is also to challenge us and change us
- Whatever doesn’t challenge us doesn’t change us
- Scripture is not a repeater of the world’s feel-good message
- Feel-good without think-good and act-good is no good
- Learning begins with unlearning
- Are we using religion as a cloak instead of as an armor?
- Spirituality expands our conception of life dramatically and majestically
- Beyond lamentation to love
- Chapter 02, Text 12
- Let my quest for eternity be grounded in your promise (2.12)
- Gita 02.12 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Gita 02.12 -Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Are we indispensable or dispensable?
- Personhood is innate to consciousness; it’s not a stage of manifestation of consciousness
- Krishna is our source not chronologically, but ontologically
- Chapter 02, Text 13
- How to compartmentalize our life and how not to
- Let me put the unchanging soul first, not the changing body (2.13)
- Gita 02.13 – Explanation
- Gita 02.13 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- What is self-realization?
- When labels help and when they harm
- Even if we can’t elevate our consciousness we can still expand our consciousness
- By overemphasizing identity identity politics ends up obscuring identity
- We aren't merely physical being seeking sustenance, safety and sex - we are essentially spiritual beings seeking purpose and progress
- Spiritual knowledge makes us far-sighted and deep-sighted
- We may have scars, but we don’t have to be scarred
- Information doesn’t have to be new to be helpful – it just has to be timely
- To tap your potential, expand your awareness
- Strive for self-understanding, not self-esteem
- Spirituality is not about suppressing grief – it is about transcending grief
- Don’t just change perception – change perspective
- Can we recognize that we haven’t recognized ourselves?
- Chapter 02, Text 14
- Let tolerance increase my intelligence, not my impotence (2.14)
- Gita 02.14 – Explanation
- Detachment: Gaining flexibility and perspective
- Hope Amid Hardship
- Gita 02.14 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- The first application of spiritual knowledge
- Imposing social equality or inspiring individual spirituality?
- Amidst unmanageably distressing times reduce your working frame to manageable units of time
- Life may knock us down but it can't keep us down
- Tolerance comes by meditating on not just matter’s ephemerality but also spirit’s eternality
- Acknowledging the variables we can’t control doesn’t mean abandoning the variables we can
- Tolerance is meant to be the preventer of imbalance, not its perpetuator
- Problems are like leeches – don’t overreact
- Spirituality provides a capacity to cope that transcends our capacity to comprehend
- Focus not just on what lies around, but also on what lies ahead
- Tolerance is not passivity – it is maturity
- Possibilities expand when we begin where we are instead of where we should be
- Resentment of reality can hurt more than reality
- Tolerance means to call off our war with reality
- Don’t sensationalize sensations
- Tolerance fosters not impotence but perseverance
- Imprisoned by circumstances, liberated by consciousness
- The journey to realizing “I am not the body” begins with living “I am more than the body”
- Chapter 02, Text 15
- Help me, O Lord, to rise beyond the waves of dualities (2.15)
- Gita 02.15 – Explanation 1
- Gita 02.15 – Explanation 2
- Gita 02.15 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- How to let go of the unchangeable
- Tolerance empowers us when we focus on our purposefulness, not on our powerlessness
- Tolerance empowers us when we focus on our purposefulness, not on our powerlessness
- To keep small things small, keep big things big
- Tolerance is not an end in itself – transcendence is
- We learn and grow not just by exploring but also by adapting
- Spirituality empowers us to reclaim our destiny
- Get serious about not taking yourself too seriously
- What is not eternal is eternally inconsequential
- Frustration is unavoidable, but hopelessness isn’t
- Spiritual perfection requires detachment from our own body, what to speak of others’ bodies
- If we let all that happens matter, then we don’t let all that matters happen
- Are we rejecting the eternal because the temporary has rejected us?
- See beyond life’s apparent nonsense to Krishna’s benevolent sense
- Chapter 02, Text 16
- How spirituality, meditation and bhakti are related
- Let me seek the spiritual, not just speak of it (2.16)
- Gita 02.16 - Explanation
- Gita 02.16 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Losing the core of who we are
- Why study philosophy?
- Appreciating our spiritual identity can anchor us amid the turbulence of contemporary society
- The search for security is ultimately the search for spirituality
- Some things never change – and some things change us forever
- Don’t let persistence of vision cause persistence of illusion
- Circumstances are like carpets – keep them below, not above
- The stars continue to shine even if we can’t see them
- The usage “spirit of matter” is an oxymoron that points to an ox and a moron
- When we make the sea our ground, how can we avoid being moved around?
- Don’t eternalize the present; contextualize it
- Checked, but never checkmated
- Be Intense, not Tense
- Be rooted in the unchanging, not the changing
- Krishna is realer than reality
- Value change, but don’t change values
- Be concerned but not disturbed by change
- Chapter 02, Text 17
- Gita 02.17 - Explanation
- Gita 02.17 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Elevating our self-image
- Why science’s quest for reality misses consciousness
- Are you aware or are you just existing?
- Unconsciousness is a state of consciousness – not an absence of consciousness
- Pure consciousness is not content-less – it is contamination-less
- Is that me?
- Chapter 02, Text 18
- Gita 02.18 explained
- We can’t always move on from grief; we need to sometimes move on with grief
- Our destiny is bigger than our biology
- There’s more to life than this life
- Our heart beats for immortality and beats towards mortality
- Life is meant to be not a race from birth to death but a raise from mortality to immortality
- To fathom the depth of Krishna’s love, we need to fathom the breadth and the length of our existence
- Chapter 02, Text 19
- Chapter 02, Text 20
- Gita 02.20 - Explanation
- Gita 02.20 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Unborn implies not existence before birth, but existence beyond birth
- To make our mind grow up, we need to realize that we are grown-up
- That all of us are in the same boat is a treacherous comfort when the boat is sinking
- Chapter 02, Text 21
- Gita 02.21 - Explanation
- Gita 02.21 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Our fear of our mortality is a pointer to our immortality
- Chapter 02, Text 22
- Let me have a healthy relationship with my body (2.22)
- Gita 02.22 - Explanation
- Gita 02.22 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Gita perspective on organ donation
- Every ending is also a beginning
- Death is a comma, not a full stop
- The soul wears out the body and the body wears out the soul
- Have we become the slaves of our clothes?
- We are dressed by and for our desires
- Chapter 02, Text 23
- Let remembering my spirituality free me from anxiety (2.23)
- Gita 02.23 - Explanation
- Gita 02.23 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- When fear locks our consciousness …
- What the indestructibility of the soul implies — and what it doesn’t imply
- Is death just a snag in our biological hardware?
- Let the storms of life sweep away the debris around the soul
- Suffering defines the human condition, but the human condition doesn’t define us
- Can’t set things right? See things right
- Chapter 02, Text 24
- Gita 02.24 - Explanation
- Gita 02.24 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- The soul is bulletproof, fireproof, waterproof, windproof – and time-proof
- The soul is metaphysical, but not metaphorical
- Enlightenment raises us from the fear of death to the death of fear
- Chapter 02, Text 25
- Gita 02.25 – Explanation
- Gita 02.25 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- The soul can’t be dried up, but our soul can be
- The real me is beyond jeans and genes
- Chapter 02, Text 26
- Chapter 02, Text 27
- Gita 02.27 – Explanation
- Gita 02.27 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Is a long life a good life?
- The event of death isn’t avoidable, but the trauma of death is
- Gradual destruction is as destructive as sudden destruction
- Watching TV while a cobra comes to bite?
- Did nothing in life prepare you for life?
- Chapter 02, Text 28
- Gita 02.28 – Explanation
- Gita 02.28 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- We know neither what we are, nor what we can become
- Matter is not just foreign – it is alien
- Chapter 02, Text 29
- Infuse my spiritual journey, O Lord, with a sense of wonder (2.29)
- Gita 02.29 explained
- More important than understanding what we observe is understanding what it is that observes
- We can never have a bird’s eye-view - we can only have a human eye-view from a bird's perspective
- In the mystery that is spirituality, the investigator is the investigated
- The soul seems far out because it is far in
- Focus not on being known – focus on knowing
- The soul is life’s amazing and empowering secret
- Chapter 02, Text 30
- Gita 02.30 – Explanation
- Gita 02.30 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Spiritual knowledge transforms hopeless end into endless hope
- Break the wall that blocks the path from the past to the future
- Chapter 02, Text 31
- Chapter 02, Text 32
- Operation Sindoor: Heroism, Hell & Hope
- Gita 02.32 explained
- Does everyone who dies on a battlefield attain heaven?
- Spiritual culture raises humans from survival of the fittest to sacrifice by the fittest
- Chapter 02, Text 33
- Chapter 02, Text 34
- Let my sense of honor inspire me to do what is honorable (2.34)
- Gita 02.34 – Explanation
- Gita 02.34 explained
- How Krishna uses the same truth to prompt Arjuna to do opposite things
- From honor-culture to honorable action (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 6)
- The difference between honor and pride (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 5)
- Does how others perceive us matter? (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 4)
- How fear of dishonor can motivate us (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 3)
- Is dishonor really worse than death? (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 2)
- Why be bothered by dishonor? (Understanding Gita 02.34 - 1)
- Fame is the pathway to not satisfaction but dissatisfaction
- Cultivating humility doesn’t mean courting dishonor
- Chapter 02, Text 35
- Gita 02.35 – Explanation
- Gita 02.35 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Walking away from problems is not the same as running away from them
- Chapter 02, Text 37
- Chapter 02, Text 38
- Gita 02.38 – Explanation
- Gita 02.38 explained
- Krishna’s stark self-contradiction (Exploring the Gita chapter 2 series - 7)
- The sanctity of spirituality doesn’t erode but enhances the dignity of humanity
- A package in which the best and the worst aren’t bound together
- The world is a station, not a destination
- Chapter 02, Text 39
- Chapter 02, Text 40
- Let my guide be your infallible declarations (2.40)
- Gita 02.40 – Explanation
- Gita 02.40 – Explanation
- Gita 02.40 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Treasure the treasure of time
- Doing things efficiently is good, but doing unnecessary things efficiently isn’t
- The greatest fear is the fear of losing the key to freedom
- Things may belong, but for how long?
- Chapter 02, Text 41
- How purposefulness helps us move through complexity to clarity
- Let my deepest desires be your desires (2.41)
- Gita 02.41 – Explanation
- Gita 02.41 – Explanation
- How our deadlines can work in harmony with God's timelines
- Gita 02.41 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Why we fall to temptation — a deeper analysis
- How to ensure that our phones are connecting us not disconnecting us
- How to get the best of both positive thinking and negative thinking
- The more we are aimless, the more we become shameless
- Determination is distilled desire directed decisively
- Keep the mind on one track don’t keep a one track mind
- The mind will dissolve our resolve unless we evolve
- Those who commit to nothing are distracted by everything
- Even if we can’t be spiritually joyful, we can be spiritually purposeful
- Be mentally fit, not mentally fat
- Determination means to subordinate pleasure to purpose
- Intention instills intensity
- To shift our emotional center of gravity, we need gravity much more than emotionality
- A business that is more serious than business
- Determination is the first thing, the main thing, the only thing
- Today’s medals will be tomorrow’s baubles
- When the good seems better than the best
- Chapter 02, Text 42
- Chapter 02, Text 42-43
- Chapter 02, Text 43
- Chapter 02, Text 44
- I cannot serve two masters; let my heart belong to you alone (2.44)
- Gita 02.44 – Explanation
- Gita 02.44 explained
- How our desires shape us far more than we realize — Desire management series 2
- The consequence of indulgence is not the only problem – the indulgence itself is
- The mind on auto-pilot leads us to destruction, not destination
- Our intelligence needs to be wakened, not weakened
- Physical sensations cheat us of spiritual emotions
- Don’t hold on to the things that hold you back
- Hyper-stimulation leads to desensitization
- Don’t let net surfing degenerate to suffering in the net
- Materialism makes us spoiled children
- When spiritual life seems dry and tasteless….
- Don’t blunt the intelligence with indulgence; sharpen it with abstinence
- Illusion is the ultimate thief of not just our property but also our very identity
- To put first things first, stop putting things first
- Are riches cutting us off from the richness of life?
- Are my attachments holding me or am I holding my attachments?
- Endless nibbling at the tastes of this world dulls our taste for Krishna
- Temptations in the consciousness are like dust in the carburetor
- Chemical highs cheat us of spiritual highs
- How our freedom of thought is lost – and regained
- Chapter 02, Text 45
- Gita 02.45 – Explanation
- Gita 02.45 explained
- Emptiness in the pursuit of worthy goals is a pointer to the worthiest goal
- Strive for not the good life but God’s life
- Let the desire to be somebody not make us somebody else
- Possessor, possess thyself!
- Be flexible, but not fickle
- Chapter 02, Text 46
- Bless me, O Lord, to be a spiritual fruit, not a religious nut (2.46)
- Gita 02.46 explained
- Those who insist that the contextual is universal become fanatical
- Faithfulness to tradition includes faithfulness to the tradition’s flexibility
- Chapter 02, Text 47
- Gita 02.47 – Explanation
- Let me value your remembrance above all results (2.47)
- Why we devalue our life and how we can stop doing so
- Purity clarity & energy - 3 resources for playing our part in facing the world's problems
- How detachment protects us from negativity
- How to be more creative?
- A Bhagavad-gita approach to new year resolutions
- When we can’t do anything wonderful …
- The power of being detached from fruits
- How to deal with discouragement
- When work doesn't work, detachment works
- We are the makers of our destiny but not the masters of our destiny
- Attachment to results confuses cause and effect
- Be detached from results, not goals
- Detachment from results culminates in attachment to something bigger than results
- Performance matters, but performance is not all that matters
- Chapter 02, Text 48
- Gita 02.48 – Explanation
- Gita 02.48 explained
- Put the world out of the equation by the strength of devotion
- Chapter 02, Text 49
- Gita 02.49 – Explanation
- Gita 02.49 explained
- Choose the good when it protects you from the bad, but not when it deprives you of the best
- Don’t take shelter of the intelligence – take shelter of Krishna with the intelligence
- Chapter 02, Text 50
- Chapter 02, Text 51
- Chapter 02, Text 52
- Gita 02.52 – Explanation
- Let my realization go beyond the reach of reason (2.52)
- Gita 02.52 explained
- How intelligence and scripture may increase our illusions
- How can we be true to ourselves?
- Chapter 02, Text 53
- Chapter 02, Text 54
- Gita 02.54 – Explanation
- Gita 02.54 explained
- Arjuna’s second question (Exploring Gita chapter 2 series - 6)
- Chapter 02, Text 55
- Gita 02.55 – Explanation
- Hold my hand and hold my heart as I turn inward (2.55)
- Gita 02.55 explained
- Happiness is savored best when seen through the corner of the eye, not when stared at straight
- Learn to avoid the stimuli that cause mental diarrhea
- Sense pleasure is not imaginary, but it is a product of imagination
- The mind’s feelings are frequently the soul’s failings
- Chapter 02, Text 56
- You offer stability beyond the world’s duality (2.56)
- Gita 02.56 – Explanation
- Gita 02.56 explained
- Fighting urges is like a timed arm wrestling match – if we just survive the present round, we will resume on neutral ground
- The best protection from agitation is absorption
- When neither the summits nor the valleys matter…
- Chapter 02, Text 57
- Let my joy be in inner connection, not outer gratification (2.57)
- Gita 02.57 – Explanation
- Avoiding arrogance and diffidence in dealing with temptation
- Gita 02.57 explained
- Those who rail at destiny derail themselves
- Chapter 02, Text 58
- Two ways to deal with our triggers
- Help me pull my mind away from the world (2.58)
- Gita 02.58 – Explanation
- Can we stop the flow of temptation into our consciousness?
- Do we need to flee from temptation to be free from temptation?
- Resisting Temptations
- The easiest way to face temptation
- Gita 02.58 explained
- Creating safe zones in our war against temptation
- What avoiding sense objects doesn’t mean
- Is it cowardly to avoid temptations?
- Self-discipline: outside-in and inside-out approaches
- Protect the fences that protect you – keep temptation at a healthy distance
- If we don’t give the devil his due, he will take more than his due
- Self-control is best maintained by avoiding situations that require self-control
- To check the outflow of self-defeating actions, check the inflow of self-deluding perceptions
- Willpower is a finite resource – use it wisely
- Use propinquity to grow in bhakti
- Learn to use the mind's laziness for spiritual growth
- Not everything that comes in our vision is worth our attention
- Ceaseless visual temptation causes pointless mental agitation
- Out of sight is out of the mind provided the mind is out of it
- Devotion frees us from living life inside a shell
- Don’t just battle over your choices – choose your battles
- To minimize weariness, maximize wariness
- Are we trying to move up while looking down?
- Train yourself to avoid mental potholes
- Titillating the senses ends in all pain, no gain
- Chapter 02, Text 59
- Please change the memories replaying inside me (2.59)
- Gita 02.59 – Explanation
- How discipline in meditation helps in discipline in all areas of life
- When our mind weakens our connection with reality
- Intelligence means to see beyond the things that glitter
- The higher taste is not smaller it is subtler
- Why self-discipline is essential nowadays …
- Gita 02.59 explained
- Dealing with temptation — a positive approach
- Wanting our wants or valuing our values?
- Saying no to temptation doesn’t mean much if we don’t mean no
- Resisting temptation while holding on to attachments is like fighting an enemy while staying shackled
- The weighing scale does not lie
- Better than to beware is to be aware
- Don’t look over temptation – overlook it
- Biological hunger is need, but sensual hunger is greed
- The bird may be encaged, but its desires stay engaged in the field
- Don’t try to empty the heart of selfish desires; crowd them out
- When we give up sense enjoyment for Krishna’s sake, Krishna gives us the best enjoyment through the senses
- Let self-mastery be devotion’s fruit, not determination’s feat
- A game that we can’t win and can’t quit
- Chapter 02, Text 60
- I need you the most whenever I feel that I need you the least (2.60)
- Gita 02.60 – Explanation
- Gita 02.60 explained
- Four stages in self-transformation
- How to overcome unhealthy habits?
- We relapse not because we are witless or will-less, but because we are weapon-less
- Friendly snakes are still snakes – beware of the snake-like senses
- For the godly, illusion is occasional; for the ungodly, illumination is occasional
- When we resolve, “I will not do this,” the mind erases the “not”
- The difference between confidence and overconfidence is vigilance
- Don’t resolve what you will not fall for – resolve what you will stand for
- Yesterday’s victory doesn’t protect us today
- To go beyond thinking wisely and acting foolishly, strive for purification through devotion
- Chapter 02, Text 61
- In pursuing self-discipline is our imagination working for us or against us?
- Gita 02.61 – Explanation
- Let self-control take me closer to you, not deeper into duality (2.61)
- Gita 02.61 explained
- Why does Krishna glorify himself throughout the Gita?
- Krishna’s first indirect self-revelation (Exploring Gita chapter 2 series - 5)
- Does devotion result in renunciation?
- How can we become immune to temptation?
- Why do small desires exert a big pull on us?
- Why bad habits don’t go away easily
- Don’t fight against your bad habits — cultivate good habits and let them fight against your bad habits
- Stop struggling to turn off the inner darkness, start striving to turn on the inner light
- Don’t bolt from temptation bolt the door to temptation
- Stop worrying about avoiding temptation start working on cultivating absorption
- Don’t be oblivious to your weaknesses but don’t be obsessed with them either
- Purification reveals the healthier choice to be also the tastier choice
- Seek strength not just in conviction but also in connection
- Be not just discerning and determined – be devoted
- Change is easier when we focus on starting something positive, not on stopping something negative
- Renunciation is not for deprivation but for connection and satisfaction
- Focus on your steps, not your sidesteps
- Focus not on avoiding entanglement – focus on seeking engagement
- The best way to deal with temptation is to not deal with it
- All noes are not created equal
- See the “Yes” in the “No” to a “No”
- While knowledge curbs the senses, devotion conquers the senses
- Worry not about falling into illusion – worry about staying in devotion
- Focus not on breaking free from illusion; focus on holding on to reality
- Blunt the desire for enjoyment with engagement
- Are we winning the misery championship with our eyes?
- The way to say no to temptation is to say yes to devotion
- Chapter 02, Text 62
- How to not be agitated on seeing tempting objects
- How our desires become our demons
- Gita 02.62 – Explanation
- Save me from becoming a casualty of casual contemplation (2.62)
- Our attention determines what we grasp and what grasps us
- Get off the slippery slope of random inner desires
- Gita 02.62 explained
- Watch your mental input (Managing the mind series 1)
- How are thoughts and emotions related
- Use imagination to reinforce resolution
- Why gratitude is especially difficult in today's world
- Discreet Indiscretions?
- What we contemplate mentally we cultivate mentally
- Even when we can’t avoid sensual perception, we can avoid sensual imagination
- Seek the association that warns us about our urges not warms us to our urges
- Manage the garbage in your mind, and minimize the garbage to manage in your life
- Careless contemplation turns tempting thoughts into time bombs
- Just because a memory can't be deleted doesn’t mean that it has to be recalled
- The power of habit is terrible – and terrific
- Whatever snags our attention sabotages our intention
- Stop the snowball before it snowballs you
- A timely pull can save us from a deadly fall
- Just because something is persistent doesn’t make it pertinent
- The journey from contemplation to captivation is powered by imagination
- Our desires are not just linear, but also triangular
- Place yourself in the gravity pull of Krishna, not of sense objects
- Break the habits that can break you – before they break you
- Don’t let device aggravate vice
- To control temper, temper control
- Are we sending our intelligence on a vacation?
- What we hold mentally holds us mentally
- Whatever catches our attention catches us
- Chapter 02, Text 62 - 63
- Chapter 02, Text 63
- Let me see your boundaries as protectors, not deprivers (2.63)
- Gita 02.63 – Explanation
- Gita 02.63 explained
- The power of negative imagination
- Those who underestimate their mind undermine their intelligence
- If we let our mundane desires drive us, they will drive us mad
- Thwart the thought that can throttle all thought
- Our resoluteness rests on the readiness of our answer to the mind’s “Why not?”
- The mind makes us more foolish than a fool
- Change recollection from selective to comprehensive and deceptive to protective
- Let the road from the eyes to the heart not bypass or bulldoze the head
- Are we sending our intelligence on a vacation?
- Don’t let the mind eat your head
- Be a leader of the mind, not its cheerleader
- Chapter 02, Text 64
- Peace comes by following your path not my mind’s path (2.64)
- Gita 02.64 – Explanation
- Understanding the role of limitations
- Why our feelings are not our failings
- Gita 02.64 explained
- How to be true to ourselves
- Purification means that sensual contemplation stops; determination means that we stop sensual contemplation
- Some limits restrict; some protect - knowing which limit does what is intelligence
- We may be infinite steps away from purity, but we just need to take one step now
- To be fenceless is to be defenseless
- What the uninformed see as restriction, the informed see as protection
- Give yourself the freedom to hear about the wounds caused by freedom
- Discipline is the fusion of intention with action
- Rules free you to be you
- Restraint is not repression – it is the roadway to real expression
- Be present in the present to receive Krishna’s present of purity
- Are we mistaking the lifeline to be a handcuff?
- Spiritual wisdom restores our freedom to choose our definition of happiness
- Chapter 02, Text 65
- Let the experience of your presence drive my desires (2.65)
- Gita 02.65 – Explanation
- How the craving for pleasure decreases our capacity to enjoy that very pleasure
- Gita 02.65 explained
- How purification and willpower relate with self-transformation
- Our intelligence is our guard – and we need to guard it
- Purity is the key to freedom from misery
- Misery is not the cause of enlightenment – mercy is
- Vice may not give up the wise, but the wise give up vice
- Chapter 02, Text 66
- Gita 02.66 – Explanation
- Let me value my connection with you above all else (2.66)
- Gita 02.66 explained
- To be purposeless is to be powerless
- We don’t need as much to collect as to be collected
- Psychological techniques are a subset of philosophical insights, not their substitute
- To get happiness, get the happiness sequence right
- Ending our history of dissatisfaction
- Chapter 02, Text 67
- Gita 02.67 – Explanation
- Let me not power the temptations that overpower me (2.67)
- Gita 02.67 explained
- So boring or sobering?
- Why indulgences that don’t seem dangerous may still be dangerous
- Our potential for stupidity
- To be caught unawares occasionally is condonable to be caught unawares repeatedly is condemnable
- The mind is omnivorous – it devours whatever is present and feels pleasant
- For the incautious, the dangerous becomes disastrous
- One drink is one too many
- What begins as titillation can end as tribulation
- Those who put themselves in a storm’s way are swept away
- If we let our imagination toy with temptation, we become toys of temptation
- Distraction is an invitation for temptation and degradation
- To think we are beyond danger is the greatest danger
- Take the wind of passion out of the mind by meditation
- Detect the storm of temptation when it is still a blip
- Morning is the time for mooring our heart to Krishna
- Catch the eye, catch the I
- Chapter 02, Text 68
- Let me take the war against temptation seriously (2.68)
- Gita 02.68 – Explanation
- Gita 02.68 explained
- A sight on a site can trigger a fire inside watch what you watch
- The best time to win the battle against temptation is before it begins
- The defect of distraction distorts the defender into a defector
- Beware of the heart attack that makes us morally unconscious
- Use technology – don’t be used by technology
- Chapter 02, Text 69
- Let my desire for you be stronger than the world’s currents (2.69)
- Gita 02.69 – Explanation
- The difference between outer achievement and inner achievement
- A warning about giving others a warning
- Make up for lost time
- Gita 02.69 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Transcendentalists among theists (02.69 analyzed 5 — Devotional level)
- Channeling the need to be different (02.69 Gita analyzed 7 — Human level)
- Balancing candor with consideration (02.69 Gita analyzed 6 — Spiritual level)
- Dutifulness but with a different consciousness (02.69 analysis 4 — Krishna-Arjuna relationship level)
- Stand apart — together (Gita 02.69 analyzed 3 — Book level)
- Be ready to stand apart from the world (Gita 02.69 analyzed 2 - Chapter level)
- The intriguing day-night metaphor (Gita 02.69 analyzed 1 — Text level)
- Is seeking social acceptance leading us to self-rejection?
- A likely feature of our likely future
- People may respond to us with indifference but that doesn't mean we aren't making a difference
- An impurity censor makes no sense to those who don't have even an impurity sensor
- We can't nourish our souls amidst people who are out to sell theirs
- The more we live for the world the further we go from the self
- Those who don't want to drown have to make waves
- Don't take everything literally – use your intelligence
- Be special above the ordinary, not among the ordinary
- Materialism's common wisdom makes us commonly unwise
- The last thing on the mind of the materialists is the first thing on the mind of the spiritualists
- Might we be running in the right direction on the wrong train
- Might we be hitting the bull’s eye of the wrong target?
- Is the social mirror making a fool out of us?
- Ask first “Who am I?” not “What is my?”
- Materialism shrinks our options for happiness
- Chapter 02, Text 70
- Let my consciousness become like an unshakable ocean (2.70)
- Gita 02.70 – Explanation
- How to be unaffected by temptation
- Stay unaffected by desires
- Gita 02.70 explained
- Does self-improvement center on fighting against our desires?
- The difference between what we want and what we want to want
- How desires differ from emotions — and why the difference matters
- To avoid emotional extremes center your emotions on the eternal, not the external
- What we feel doesn’t fell us, what we will does
- We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing them
- Focus not on what we have to renounce for spirituality; focus on what serious spiritualists get that enables them to renounce
- Be thoughtful; believe not thoughts that make us fools
- Ever flowing, never flooding is the state of the serene consciousness
- Chapter 02, Text 71
- Let my unnatural desire be replaced by natural desire (2.71)
- Gita 02.71 – Explanation
- When age brings realization and when it brings frustration
- Gita 02.71 explained
- Fight the inner war that counters the outer war
- Chapter 02, Text 72
- Let my desire for you drive away all my other desires (2.72)
- Gita 02.72 – Explanation
- Gita 02.72 explained
- Chapter 02,Text 36
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02Chaitanya Charan2025-10-16T16:20:48+05:30