Don’t lobotomize ashtanga-yoga to ekanga-yoga
In today’s cultural imagination, yoga is often equated with physical postures meant for shaping and toughening the body. No doubt, practicing postures is better than ingesting [...]
Practice bhakti for experience, not expedience
Those brought up or living in a devotional culture may go through the motions of bhakti for expedience’s sake, for example, to avoid reproach in [...]
The ego’s dissolution is not self-destruction, but the doorway to self-actualization
When we are told that we are wrong, we often resent it. Worse still, when we are told that we are wrong about our core [...]
Don’t use the axe of criticism where the scalpel of correction is needed
When someone commits a mistake, we often feel as if it is our right and our duty to correct that person. Certainly, many situations call [...]
Doubts are not the problem – believing them is
Believing doubts might sound like an oxymoron because after all we think of doubts as something centered on disbelief. Yet the truth is that belief [...]
Expand your horizons in vision, but concentrate them in implementation
“Expand your horizons” is a popular saying among the ambitious. The Bhagavad-gita takes this saying to a higher level by expanding our horizons from the [...]
Don’t equate change of position with change of disposition
Many spiritual novices think that living in the world is the cause of entanglement and renouncing the world is the source of liberation. They sometimes [...]
Don’t just talk about the other – talk with the other
The other refers to any person whom we consider as distant from, even hostile to, us. Talking about the other means talking with various people [...]
The spiritual may be unfamiliar but it’s not unnatural
When we travel through an unfamiliar place, we often feel uncomfortable. Similarly, when we explore spirituality, we may feel uncomfortable because the concepts or customs [...]
Happiness comes from sameness – the balance between oneness and otherness
Oneness is a buzzword among spiritual seekers – they often want to feel one with the universe, with nature, with existence. As our lives are [...]
Impersonalism perpetuates the padlock on the heart
Our heart naturally longs to move outwards in search of a worthy object of love. However, this search often ends in misery when those we [...]
The stars continue to shine even if we can’t see them
Stars brighten and beautify the night-sky. But when thick clouds darken the sky, we can’t see the stars, though we know with out intelligence that [...]
Don’t beat yourself down – pick yourself up
When we make mistakes, we naturally feel annoyed, even infuriated, with ourselves. While these feelings can help if they prompt us to self-improvement, they can [...]
Practice dharma for attaining spiritual purity, not material prosperity
Most of the people who practice dharma, in the sense of doing some religious rituals, do so for getting material things. Some people extend this [...]
Better to admit, “I am wrong” and be right than to insist, “I am right” and stay wrong
The Bhagavad-gita begins with Arjuna deciding to not fight in the upcoming war (01.46). Yet given the grave consequences of either decision – to fight [...]
Caste by birth is the perversion of class by worth
The modern discriminatory caste system has been a source of great exploitation and misery. This regrettable state of affairs has resulted because some power-hungry people [...]
Ego is not the problem – false ego is
In normal parlance, ‘ego’ refers to arrogance and carries negative connotations. The Bhagavad-gita uses its Sanskrit equivalent, ahankara, in this sense (16.18), but also in [...]
Essential intention is more important than incidental action
To err is human. Whenever we attempt anything worthwhile, we usually go through failures before attaining success. Even children taking their first steps slip and [...]
Don’t confuse activity with productivity
We often have a heavy workload that makes us rush in a frenzy from one task to the next. Though we are active, working hard, [...]
Gita 5.13 explained
Now Sri Krishna will talk about how one can stay detached further Bg 5.13 sarva-karmāṇi manasā sannyasyāste sukhaṁ vaśī nava-dvāre pure dehī naiva kurvan na [...]
Gita 5.5 explained
This will be clearer in next verse: Bg 5.5 yat sāṅkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṁ tad yogair api gamyate ekaṁ sāṅkhyaṁ ca yogaṁ ca yaḥ paśyati sa [...]