Indiscriminate indulgence makes the impulsive compulsive
No one desires to become an addict. When people drink, they usually want to have a good time with their friends. However, each time they [...]
Krishna is the stabilizer of material emotions and the stimulator of spiritual emotions
Our emotionality is an innate feature of our very being – it comes from the core of who we are, conscious, spiritual beings. A central [...]
Misery is a fact of life, but it is not the purpose of life
D During our life-journey, we all experience miseries, which may leave us disheartened, disoriented, devastated. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (08.15) states that the material world where [...]
Beating our head against a wall is not humility – it is stupidity
“Beating our head against a wall” refers idiomatically to any activity whose only result is to hurt us. When we share spiritual knowledge with others, [...]
Gita 13.04 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Bg 13.4 tat kṣetraṁ yac [...]
The heaviest thing to hold is a grudge
When someone hurts us, we may become filled with anger and resentment. Entertaining revenge fantasies, we may hold grudges against them. Just as heavy weights [...]
We can’t delete our memories, but we can choose what we remember
Some of our memories may have scarred us – memories of abuses we have suffered or allurements we have succumbed to may agitate us whenever [...]
Focus not on letting go of things – focus on taking hold of your thoughts
In spiritual life, we are often exhorted to let go of things. However, we viscerally resist because we feel as if we are losing the [...]
To see Krishna’s love through the filter of our desires is to blind ourselves to his love
Suppose a child gets infatuated with a toy and demands it from his mother. If she refuses, he cries, “You don’t love me.” The mother [...]
When we distribute what we have, we appreciate what we have
Suppose someone works with medicines day in and day out. Medicines lie all around them. Because of the prolonged familiarity and abundant availability vis-à-vis medicines, [...]
The search for security is ultimately the search for spirituality
Some people say, “I am not interested in any spiritual stuff.” They feel uninterested because often they don’t understand what spirituality is. In today’s culture, [...]
Life is too precious to be wasted in doing perpetual post-mortem operations
When someone dies because of unknown causes, legal authorities often do a post-mortem operation to determine the cause. Similarly, in our life, when things go [...]
Empowerment doesn’t mean absence of obstacles – it means perseverance amidst obstacles
In spiritual circles, special souls who do extraordinary services are considered empowered by the divine. When we try to do some service and face some [...]
We may be unloved, but we are never unlovable
Small children feel unloved when their parents are too busy to spend time with them. Worse still, if this happens repeatedly, they feel unlovable – [...]
Culture is meant to channel our curiosity constructively, not destructively
To be curious is natural for us as conscious beings. Where we direct our curiosity is largely shaped by our culture; what we are exposed [...]
Cultivation of satisfaction requires not the rejection of desire, but the selection of desire
Some people feel, “Dissatisfaction is the spur for performance. If we simply become satisfied and give up the desire to excel, how will we achieve [...]
Don’t let the mind control the activities meant to control the mind
During a war, an army can sabotage its opponents by seizing control of their weapons and then using those very weapons against them. Our mind [...]
Anesthesia is meant to help heal sickness, not hide it
Suppose a surgeon is operating on a patient. Naturally, the surgeon needs to give anesthesia so that the patient’s pain while being operated is minimized. [...]
Life’s miseries are meant to be analyzed and addressed, not anesthetized
Suppose a distressed person on finding their pain decreased by anesthesia before surgery regularly starts anesthetizing themselves. This would deaden them in their capacity to [...]
Comfortable misery is still misery
We living in our AC homes and offices may pity people of the past who had to work outdoors, sweating profusely under the burning hot [...]
See temptation as an attack, not as a defeat
Suppose soldiers guarding the national border against a hostile neighbor find bullets whizzing past them. Naturally, they will see the bullets as signs of attack [...]