To think that we may become proud suggests that we may already be proud
Suppose we have some special talents by which we can excel in an important service. But we may hesitate to use those talents, fearing that [...]
Demystifying Reincarnation – Chaitanya Charan’s latest book is now available on amazon.com
Demystifying Reincarnation is an engaging read that analyzes how one of humanity’s oldest questions – what happens after death? – is most coherently and empoweringly [...]
Seek more than sense pleasure, not more sense pleasure
Materialistic people consider sense gratification to be life's ultimate purpose – they crave and slave to achieve it. However, sense pleasure is inescapably temporary. The [...]
Krishna does not stand for the Absolute – he is the Absolute
Some people conceive of the Absolute Truth impersonally. As they associate personality with form and finiteness, they feel that the Absolute, being infinite, cannot be [...]
The Gita raises our consciousness from jagat to jiva to Jagadisha
The Gita is a complex philosophical book. Simultaneously, it is a practical spiritual guide. When we understand its essential concepts, we can discern, amidst its [...]
Indiscriminate indulgence makes the impulsive compulsive
No one desires to become an addict. When people drink, they usually want to have a good time with their friends. However, each time they [...]
Krishna is the stabilizer of material emotions and the stimulator of spiritual emotions
Our emotionality is an innate feature of our very being – it comes from the core of who we are, conscious, spiritual beings. A central [...]
Misery is a fact of life, but it is not the purpose of life
D During our life-journey, we all experience miseries, which may leave us disheartened, disoriented, devastated. Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (08.15) states that the material world where [...]
Beating our head against a wall is not humility – it is stupidity
“Beating our head against a wall” refers idiomatically to any activity whose only result is to hurt us. When we share spiritual knowledge with others, [...]
The heaviest thing to hold is a grudge
When someone hurts us, we may become filled with anger and resentment. Entertaining revenge fantasies, we may hold grudges against them. Just as heavy weights [...]
We can’t delete our memories, but we can choose what we remember
Some of our memories may have scarred us – memories of abuses we have suffered or allurements we have succumbed to may agitate us whenever [...]
Focus not on letting go of things – focus on taking hold of your thoughts
In spiritual life, we are often exhorted to let go of things. However, we viscerally resist because we feel as if we are losing the [...]
To see Krishna’s love through the filter of our desires is to blind ourselves to his love
Suppose a child gets infatuated with a toy and demands it from his mother. If she refuses, he cries, “You don’t love me.” The mother [...]
When we distribute what we have, we appreciate what we have
Suppose someone works with medicines day in and day out. Medicines lie all around them. Because of the prolonged familiarity and abundant availability vis-à-vis medicines, [...]
The search for security is ultimately the search for spirituality
Some people say, “I am not interested in any spiritual stuff.” They feel uninterested because often they don’t understand what spirituality is. In today’s culture, [...]
Life is too precious to be wasted in doing perpetual post-mortem operations
When someone dies because of unknown causes, legal authorities often do a post-mortem operation to determine the cause. Similarly, in our life, when things go [...]
Empowerment doesn’t mean absence of obstacles – it means perseverance amidst obstacles
In spiritual circles, special souls who do extraordinary services are considered empowered by the divine. When we try to do some service and face some [...]
We may be unloved, but we are never unlovable
Small children feel unloved when their parents are too busy to spend time with them. Worse still, if this happens repeatedly, they feel unlovable – [...]
Culture is meant to channel our curiosity constructively, not destructively
To be curious is natural for us as conscious beings. Where we direct our curiosity is largely shaped by our culture; what we are exposed [...]
Cultivation of satisfaction requires not the rejection of desire, but the selection of desire
Some people feel, “Dissatisfaction is the spur for performance. If we simply become satisfied and give up the desire to excel, how will we achieve [...]
Don’t let the mind control the activities meant to control the mind
During a war, an army can sabotage its opponents by seizing control of their weapons and then using those very weapons against them. Our mind [...]