Take the mind’s promises with a bucketful of salt
Whenever we see an ad promising a huge gain for a tiny price, we tend to become skeptical. Such skepticism is the understandable and desirable [...]
Self-help can’t help without divine help
The Bhagavad-gita (14.10) indicates how the subtle forces of nature known as the modes exert competing psychological influences on us. Their contrary influences cause our [...]
Gita insights for New Year resolutions
The Bhagavad-gita (18.33)(18.34)(18.35) describes resolution or determination in the three modes of nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. The modes comprise subtle cosmological forces that exert [...]
Cultivate devotion not for its survival value but for the value it brings to survival
The struggle for survival characterizes the existence of all living beings – nonhuman and human. So, while evaluating whether a particular thing is worth doing, [...]
Is that me?
In the Bhagavad-gita, when Arjuna asks Krishna about what his activity should be, Krishna's sequence of answers indicates that the question of identity takes priority [...]
Questioning our questions
The Bhagavad-gita begins in its first chapter with Arjuna asking a series of rhetorical questions meant to justify his views and choices. Lord Krishna responds [...]
Lack of devotional appetite is natural yet unnatural
As spiritual seekers, we may at times feel apathetic or averse to the spiritual practices like meditation or prayer that connect us with Krishna and [...]
Krishna is realer than reality
In our times of trouble, we may doubt, “Does Krishna really exist?” Gita wisdom turns this doubt on the head by prompting the doubt, “Does [...]
Familiarity is not understanding
The Bhagavad-gita (4.9) describes that the result of understanding Krishna – his divine birth and his sublime activities – is liberation and reinstatement in his [...]
Balance the here and the hereafter through bhakti-yoga
Gita wisdom declares the world we live in, the here, to be a place of ephemerality and misery. So, it deems the spiritual world, the [...]
See rituals as opportunities to spend quality time with Krishna
The various rituals that are a part of spiritual life – chanting, praying, worshipping and meditating – are opportunities for us to spend time with [...]
The Gita guarantees ultimate success
The Bhagavad-gita (18.78) concludes with the proclamation that success is guaranteed for those who harmonize their human will with the divine will. This proclamation is [...]
Ask not “Is God with me?” Ask “Am I with God?”
The Bhagavad-gita (18.73) expresses the summit of humanity’s faith in divinity when Arjuna declares to Krishna, “I will do your will.” Our faith in God [...]
My message of love, Will you ban?
Gita Banning: Krishna’s side of the story In the backdrop of the present sad controversy over the banning of the Bhagavad-gita in Russia, we present [...]
The Bhagavad-gita is open-minded, not empty-minded
The Bhagavad-gita presents an open-minded worldview that integrates all people, no matter how diverse their values, goals and paths. According to their level of spiritual [...]
Denying our blindfolds keeps us blind
The Bhagavad-gita (13.09) indicates that the wise contemplate seriously the inevitability of death in our present existence. The Gita integrates this pessimistic-seeming contemplation into an [...]
Value change, but don’t change values
Our present existence is bi-dimensional: we are spiritual beings residing in material bodies. Harmonizing the material and the spiritual dimensions of our existence is a [...]
Beyond lamentation to love
In the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna’s instructions begin (2.11) and end (18.66) with a call to give up lamentation. Between these two calls is another call: [...]
Humility opens the door to wisdom
The Bhagavad-gita (13.8) mentions humility as the first among the twenty virtues that comprise wisdom. This indicates that humility is the doorway that enables us [...]
We Are Products But Not Prisoners Of Our Past
“Is this just the way I am? Am I a prisoner of my past?” Gloomy thoughts like these may haunt us when we fail in [...]
Love not just ideal people, but also real people
It’s relatively easy to love ideal people: those who have only virtues, no vices. And we do need to love them so that we develop [...]