The better way to feel better about ourselves is by appreciation, not denigration
We naturally want to feel better about ourselves. Sometimes we try to feel thus by criticizing others. By pointing others’ faults, we think that the [...]
Temptation can knock us down, but it can’t knock us out
In a boxing match, a boxer may be knocked down, but only when the fallen player fails to rise does the knock down become a [...]
Devotion brings knowledge into action and action into knowledge
In Vedic wisdom, two main paths are the path of action, karma-yoga, and the path of knowledge, jnana-yoga. Gita wisdom explains how the strengths of [...]
Courage centers not on standing up to others but on staying true to your self
When a principled person stands up to a powerful person, especially when that powerful person is autocratic or atrocious, then that act of standing up [...]
Catch the current of emotion – don’t be caught by it
In an ocean, there are often multiple currents moving in different directions. To give a somewhat simple example for a complex phenomenon, in the Indian [...]
Enlightenment doesn’t terminate devotion, but culminates in it
Some impersonalists say, “Enlightenment terminates devotion. As long as we are conditioned and are habituated to thinking about forms, we can conceive the Absolute Truth [...]
To best work with the mind, first work on the mind
Every device requires basic maintenance for smooth functioning. Otherwise, like a woodcutter working with a blunt axe, the device-user may well toil inefficiently, putting in [...]
We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing them
The culture assaults our senses with perceptions of tempting sense objects and we often can’t avoid those perceptions. How then can we protect ourselves from [...]
Eat food made of plants, not food made in plants
Food made of plants is both spiritually and physically congenial. Spiritually it shows due reverence for the Creator by minimizing violence to his creation, by [...]
Let the restless mind find rest in Krishna
In some fictional narratives, a Superman-like being stops by the force of his arms a fast moving car. Though such a feat looks spectacular on [...]
Spiritual knowledge transforms hopeless end into endless hope
Death is the hopeless end of all our aspirations of success and happiness at the material level of reality. At that final moment of our [...]
Transcend duality by absorption in a reality higher than duality
The world is inevitably a place of duality – something that we can’t avoid just as a boat can’t avoid being moved up and down [...]
Accepting our smallness requires greatness
Megalomania, the illusion of imagining oneself to be far greater than what one actually is, afflicts all of us, to smaller or greater degrees. In [...]
The more we crave, the more make ourselves a slave
We live in an age that cherishes freedom and abhors slavery. If anywhere we hear of anyone being enslaved, we often feel dismayed, if not [...]
To think we are beyond danger is the greatest danger
When a boat is at sea, the danger of a storm exists constantly. If the boater becomes lulled into complacency by, say, the calm waters [...]
Break the habits that can break you – before they break you
Some people say, “We drink, but we don’t get drunk – we drink moderately.” Such reasoning neglects the subtle and subconscious way habits become addictive. [...]
Hoping to cure alcoholism by improving wine quality is insanity
Suppose an alcoholic suffering from a hangover resolves, “I am suffering because I drank low-quality wine. Next time I will drink only high-quality wine.” Such [...]
Circumstances are like carpets – keep them below, not above
Sometimes we feel overwhelmed by our circumstances. Not being able to respond appropriately to them, we may even feel as if we are simply being [...]
Rift with God makes us drift with the mind
We are pleasure-seeking beings. And we are intrinsically the eternal parts of Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) states. Because Krishna is the all-attractive reservoir of [...]
The world is a classroom, not a courtroom
Some religious people have a negative fear-centered conception of God as a judge waiting to catch them doing wrong. They also view the world darkly [...]
Renunciation centers not on running away from the world but running towards Krishna
Some people say, “Those who can’t face the world’s problems run away from them by becoming renunciates.” Sadly, it’s true that some people do take to [...]