Enlightenment that is universal, beneficial and non-imitable
What is enlightenment? It essentially means understanding where to direct our heart's longing for love and directing it accordingly. The Bhagavad-gita (15.18) states that the enlightened offer [...]
Conviction and purification take us from the poison to the nectar
As devotees who wish to rise from the material level to the spiritual level, we often face the question, “How do I sustain myself during [...]
Go beyond the stocking of information to the flowing of service
As we live in an information-centered age, we are often stimulated by new information. When we encounter the Bhagavad-gita, we tend to seek stimulation in [...]
Be not fanatical – be fanatically focused
Some people ask Krishna devotees, “When the Vedic culture includes the worship of so many gods, why are you a Krishna fanatic?” Because Krishna devotees [...]
Don’t blame gravity for the sinking of the boat
“I succumbed to immoral indulgences because my material desires were too strong.” Sometimes we may thus rationalize our fall from principles of spiritual integrity. This [...]
Why pursue pleasure in a prison of protoplasm?
Our material body is a prison of protoplasm for us souls. Just asprison life inevitably involves sufferings like grueling work and unpleasant living conditions, the [...]
Anahankara = an + aham + car (I am not my car)
“You are your car,” claims a billboard displaying a person driving a flashy car. The ad indicates how one’s car determines one’s image in [...]
When attention seems like detention, we need education
Attention is crucial for enjoying anything. When a reputed sports player is in action, fans enjoy by attentively watching all the action and even the [...]
Let sleeping tigers sleep – don’t pinch them
“I thought I had become free from that attachment. Why has it come back?” Questions like these often describe our inner trajectory as devotee-seekers. When [...]
Navigating our way between the ideal and the real
Life frequently forces us to face the conflict between the ideal and the real: what we want to be ideally and how we are really; [...]
Science and Bhagavad-gita both go from the visible to the invisible
The fall of a fruit. Millions of people had seen this specific event that Newton saw. What made Newton different was that he went beyond [...]
Contemplation on Krishna brings illumination
Some people question the spiritual recommendation to think about Krishna at all times and especially in times of distress: “What is its benefit? How is [...]
Raise the curiosity radar from the how questions to the why questions
Curiosity is one of our defining characteristics – we are shaped by what we seek and find on our curiosity radar. Science, philosophy, literature and [...]
Lust is our longest and worst life-partner – divorce it
Lust is our longest life-partner – from the first hints of adolescence to the last gasps of old age, even to the death-bed; from the [...]
Devotion takes us beyond being hunted and haunted
We sometimes face problems that seem to hunt us externally and passions that seem to haunt us internally. Hunted: We may feel attacked by problems [...]
Are my attachments holding me or am I holding my attachments?
As aspiring devotees, we often find that our attachments abduct and drag our consciousness away from Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (2.44) outlines. Consequently, we may [...]
Don’t eternalize the present; contextualize it
When we face problems, they sometimes overwhelm us so much that we can’t think of anything else. We feel as if the problem will never [...]
Train yourself to avoid mental potholes
When we travel regularly along a pothole-filled road, we carefully avoid the potholes, thereby saving ourselves of unnecessary jolts. By analogy, when the Bhagavad-gita (02.58) [...]
Use technology – don’t be used by technology
In today’s society, living without technology is almost impossible. As aspiring devotees living in a techno-centric society, we usually think of technology as a neutral [...]
Place Krishna at the center of your secret life
All of us have a public life where we interact with the world and a personal life where we interact with our loved ones. Additionally, [...]
Transform disappointment into his-appointment
When life confronts us with disappointments, we can transform them into his-appointments, into opportunities to connect with Krishna at a deeper level and thereby enrich [...]