Articles

Some people think that scripture teaches the same feel-good message of motivation and inspiration that they hear from worldly sources such as self-help teachers and life coaches. Undoubtedly, the Bhagavad-gita does motivate and inspire, but not by reiterating the world’s feel-good message.

The Bhagavad-gita outlines how everything in material existence can be analyzed in terms of the three modes of material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. Those in goodness and those in ignorance may look similar when they are seated quietly on similar seats.

Suppose we were tormented by thirst, being lost in a desert; and some relief workers came, gave us some water and invited us to their hometown, an oasis with abundant water resources. We all are lost in the desert of material existence, thirsting for happiness.

Identity politics refers to the phenomenon of people identifying themselves with particular political positions and viewing everything in terms of those positions, as for or against those positions. Identity politics can be corrosive.

In today’s world, almost anything gets accepted if it is portrayed as a right to freedom. Especially in the sensual arena, much obscenity is legitimized, even glamorized, by calling it free love. However, when indiscriminate sensuality is rationalized in the name of freedom, people become shackled by their lower desires.

Sometimes, we find ourselves in restrictive situations where we can’t do anything new. Such constriction may make us feel that we can’t learn or grow. However, we grow not just by exploring new things, but also by adapting ourselves to unchangeable old things.

We all have an innate urge to change things for the better. Knowing where to direct this urge so that we can really improve things [...]

When people do something infuriating, we feel like giving them a piece of our mind, blasting them for being irresponsible, insensitive, intractable or whatever else. [...]

Suppose an election candidate has a chequered past but has thereafter done much laudable work. One newspaper may write about him: “Although he is doing [...]

Suppose India is rocked by a war of global significance. If an Indian newspaper barely reports that war, that silence is telling – it highlights [...]

“Are addicts forced to indulge in their addiction? Have they lost their free will?” Such questions often confront addicts and those associated with them, especially [...]

Some people ask, “Do you take everything in the Bhagavad-gita literally?” This is a loaded question. Answering yes provokes rationalists – they label such answerers [...]

Suppose parents learn that their child, who had been struggling at school, has dyslexia. This knowledge, though distressing, is also empowering. How? Because they can [...]

The word “God” is used across the world’s various monotheistic traditions to refer to the Supreme Being. Although all monotheists profess to worship one God, [...]

Suppose we are walking through an unfamiliar area and suddenly the power goes off. We may rant initially, but soon we will turn on our [...]

Suppose a person had got a huge legacy that they could claim by traveling by ship to a distant place. They wouldn’t get their destined [...]

We may know people who are notoriously forgetful. They forget scheduled meetings and when we exasperatedly call them, they reply predictably, “I forgot.” If we [...]

Suppose we want to grow vegetables in a land where only weeds have been growing. We may uproot the weeds and plant the vegetables, but [...]