- Chapter 03, Text 01
- Chapter 03, Text 02
- Chapter 03, Text 03
- Chapter 03, Text 04
- Gita 03.04 explained
- Bhakti is not inaction – it is action with the deepest sense of purpose
- A lot is happening when nothing seems to be happening
- Suppression causes aggravation, not rectification
- What is violence for the infectant is benevolence for the infected
- Chapter 03, Text 05
- Gita 03.05 explained
- Four meanings of karma (Gita concepts series: Karma 1)
- Say nothing doing to doing nothing
- Chapter 03, Text 06
- Gita 03.06 explained
- Three levels of deception
- What moments of weakness can do — and what they can’t do
- Why lying to ourselves is so dangerous
- Honestly dishonest?
- More damaging than the lies we tell others are the lies we tell ourselves
- As long as we hide behind ourselves, we can’t challenge ourselves
- The most exhausting burden is a mask
- The cunning combination of complacency, complicity and carnality consumes our conscience
- When we rationalize, we indulge in rational lies
- Compartmentalization is a mental mechanism for self-deception
- To stop defeating yourself, stop deceiving yourself
- Know the mind by the company it craves
- Don’t equate change of position with change of disposition
- When we hide ourselves from ourselves, we destroy ourselves
- Temptation induces the pretender’s mask to fall and the seeker’s guard to rise
- Spiritual advancement comes not just by change of activity but by change of mentality
- See rituals as opportunities to spend quality time with Krishna
- Chapter 03, Text 07
- Chapter 03, Text 08
- Chapter 03, Text 09
- Gita 03.09 explained
- The capacity to trade the present for the future is the defining human characteristic
- When we do karma-yoga for Krishna, Krishna takes the karma and gives us the yoga
- Inaction is no protection from reaction
- Chapter 03, Text 10
- Chapter 03, Text 11
- Chapter 03, Text 12
- Chapter 03, Text 13
- Chapter 03, Text 14
- Chapter 03, Text 15
- Chapter 03, Text 16
- Gita 03.16 explained
- Love without sacrifice?
- The tension between purpose and pleasure
- Life becomes meaningless not when we tire of life's problems, but when we tire of life's pleasures Gita 03.16
- Living for the moment is a prescription for chaos at best and calamity at worst
- Liberty from responsibility is not liberty – it is slavery to irresponsibility
- Living the way our senses dictate is not living at all
- Sensuality is the rust that blunts the axe of our consciousness
- Free love is far too costly
- The vain live in vain
- Those who make pleasure the purpose of their life make their life purposeless
- When comforts become ends, life becomes a dead end
- Sensual pleasures are easily visible, rarely relishable
- Take exception to the hope for an exception
- Chapter 03, Text 17
- The life of pleasure or the pleasure of life
- Gita 03.17 explained
- To bear the weight of freedom, we need big shoulders
- Chapter 03, Text 18
- Chapter 03, Text 19
- Chapter 03, Text 20
- Chapter 03, Text 21
- Fearless = Shameless?
- Gita 03.21 explained
- How our actions matter to others more than we think
- Why do scriptures give extreme examples?
- Don’t use others to feel better about yourself, learn from others how to become better
- If we justify our weaknesses by comparing ourselves with those who are weaker, we weaken our motivation to rectify ourselves
- Don’t try to be someone better, try to be an example of something better
- Our choice has a louder voice than our voice
- It’s not just about you – it never was
- Why not model the desired example instead of desiring the model example?
- The Gita lives through those who live the Gita
- Chapter 03, Text 22
- Gita 03.22 explained
- Krishna’s second indirect self-revelation (Exploring Gita chapter 3 series - 4)
- Chapter 03, Text 23
- Chapter 03, Text 24
- Gita 03.24 explained
- Krishna overturns Arjuna’s argument (Exploring Gita chapter 3 series - 5)
- Nonviolence that allows exploiters to become rulers is violence
- Chapter 03, Text 25
- Gita 03.25 explained
- The idea to serve Krishna is far more important than the ideas to serve Krishna
- Chapter 03, Text 26
- When compassion discourages instead of encouraging
- Effective education: what to NOT focus on
- Gita 03.26 explained
- The difference between compassion and compromise
- Shifting focus from certainty to curiosity (Religious tolerance series 2)
- Krishna’s incredible inclusivity
- Will ethical self-assessment increase our guilt? (Ethics & devotion series 5)
- How to expand our God consciousness in our relationships
- Why compassion matters more than erudition
- How not to share spirituality
- When being truthful makes us unhelpful ...
- What we believe vs how we behave
- Conflict resolution - Right or Rightly Directed?
- Showing others how they are wrong is not compassion, seeing how they can help themselves become more right is
- If an ideal inspires more regret than reform, an intermediate ideal is required
- Know when to give others space and when to give them pace
- Wrong philosophy may not obstruct people spiritually as much as our calling their philosophy wrong
- Make judgments, but don’t be judgmental
- If people don’t walk in, don’t slam the door on their face
- Outreach requires that we speak in the conceptual language that our audience understands
- The inconsiderate can be as injurious as the incorrect
- Our words should open people’s hearts, not close them
- Break people’s misconceptions - don’t break people
- Spiritual success depends on stamina, not speed
- Don’t be so concerned about others’ future destination as to be cut off from their present emotion
- Might we be burning the very bridge that we want others to cross?
- Standards are for inspiration not condemnation
- Do not make a virtue out of alienating people
- Chapter 03, Text 27
- Chapter 03, Text 28
- Chapter 03, Text 29
- Chapter 03, Text 30
- Gita 03.30 explained
- The Gita is not inciteful, it is insightful
- What needs to be done needs to be done well
- Violence is too small a weapon against evil
- Terrorism arises from ignorance, materialism and ego
- Devotion is more often depleted by indifference than destroyed by hate
- Study scripture as an existential seeker, not as a historical investigator
- Be a warrior, not a worrier
- Fight for all that you have with all that you have
- Better to be exhausted than rusted
- Expecting the default to change by default is a dangerous fault
- Chapter 03, Text 31
- Gita 03.31 explained
- Krishna’s first instance of educating by contrasting (Exploring Gita chapter 3 series - 2)
- Chapter 03, Text 32
- Gita 03.32 explained
- What we know doesn’t define us as much as what we want to know
- Confusion in attribution obscures illumination – end confusion with devotion
- Spiritual advancement comes not by defining, but by refining
- Krishna is attained not by playing with the intellect but by striving with the will
- Chapter 03, Text 33
- Gita 03.33 explained
- The difference between repression and regulation (Exploring the Gita chapter 3 series - 8)
- Developing a healthy relationship with our mind (Managing the mind series 4)
- Educated about desires or educated for desires? — Desire management series 7
- Don't just eradicate the past – engage its product
- Purification centers on channeling our nature, not suppressing it
- Context is critical for comprehending content
- The past won’t last if to Krishna we hold fast
- Chapter 03, Text 34
- Gita 03.34 explained
- We are not masters in our own house, but we don’t have to be slaves
- Our conditionings need cautioning and cushioning
- Aversion is as much a temptation as is attachment
- Our impressions go with us, but they don’t have to grow with us
- Stepping-stones can become sucking swamps if we don’t step over in time
- Take emotions into account but don’t let them be the only thing in the account
- We Are Products But Not Prisoners Of Our Past
- Chapter 03, Text 35
- Why all motivators don’t have to be models
- Gita 03.35 explained
- Why we may provide guidance without respecting independence (Balancing independence and guidance series 2)
- Seeking to understand our nature won’t box us in, it will reveal the box we are already in
- Sculptors can change the shape of the stone, not its structure
- We are all playing on different surfaces – don’t compare
- Let satisfaction be the basis of success, not success the basis of satisfaction
- Commitment is the complement of talent, not its replacement
- Don’t abandon the very differences that make you essential
- The best is not as important as the best for you
- The shoe that fits one person bites another
- Chapter 03, Text 36
- The determination to fight against addiction
- How to see addiction with compassion
- Gita 03.36 explained
- Arjuna’s fourth question (Exploring Gita chapter 3 series - 6)
- See the addicted not as demented or degraded but as tormented
- If the truth makes us flee, it can’t make us free
- We need liberation from the compulsion for self-destruction
- Addiction makes us crave for the things we don’t even like
- The greatest threat to individual freedom is the individual
- Spiritual culture is the bridge from hypocrisy and perversity to purity
- Devotion protects our values from being held hostage by our impulses
- Chapter 03, Text 37
- See discipline as a fight for freedom
- Gita 03.37 explained
- What’s wrong with unrestrained sexual activity?
- Raised fists or linked arms don't transform as effectively as folded hands
- More dangerous than the enemies that threaten are the enemies that tempt
- Impurity needs to be feared before it can be found, found before it can be fought and fought before it can be finished
- The love that leads us to evil is evil masquerading as love
- Never lose faith in your potential to improve, or you will court cowardice and malice
- Those who fight their inner devils are the ultimate daredevils
- The most damaging consequence of indulgence is nonchalance towards indulgence
- The enemy that is not recognized can’t be resisted
- To succumb to temptation is not just immoral - it is also irresponsible
- Addictive desires feed themselves through us and then they starve us
- The biggest battle is not around us; it is inside us
- No enemy is as dangerous as the one we are blind to
- Defamation of character is not as damaging as deformation of character
- Even when a big enemy is out there, the bigger enemy is in here
- Listen to your Lord, not to your lust
- Lust de-spiritualizes the subject and dehumanizes the object
- Lust is not just vicious but also voracious
- One who rides a tiger into its lair becomes its dinner
- Lust is worse than our worst enemy
- Show temptation the red light – not the red carpet
- Lust is a black hole – beware of its gravity pull
- Chapter 03, Text 38
- Chapter 03, Text 39
- Casual attitude
- Gita 03.39 explained
- How lust distorts our value system
- Recognizing our most dangerous enemy and our essential protector
- Addiction is an abductor who extorts ever-increasing ransom but never releases
- Sensual pleasure touts itself as free and then takes toll forever
- Love becomes blind when lust becomes the blindfold
- As long as the mind is impure, no place is secure
- Fighting self-destructive desire by ourselves is like fighting a forest fire with bare hands
- In a war, to be casual is to be suicidal
- Be not tired of fighting against temptation – be tired of forgetting Krishna
- Lust locks the soul in an unholy embrace
- To mistake a ceasefire to be a treaty is suicidal
- To be a spiritual freedom fighter, be a sensual fire fighter
- Satisfying our longing for the infinite with finite pleasures ends in addiction
- We can’t eliminate fire, but we can become firefighters
- Respond to the fire of desire not with fright but with fight
- The soul is wise, but lust makes it otherwise
- Lust doesn’t just bind us – it also makes us fight to hold on to its bonds
- When a wildfire appears to be the cure for a burn, a wildfire is burning our head
- Those who mistake torture to be pleasure sentence themselves to perpetual torture
- Sex is extraordinarily ordinary
- When the heat hits, move away from the heat source, not towards it
- Illusion makes us oblivious to the obvious
- Slick about sin or sick about sin?
- Chapter 03, Text 40
- Gita 03.40 explained
- Why the cause of illusion is not what we usually think it is
- Are emotions subjective or objective?
- Regret for wrongdoing reforms, regret for only the consequence of wrongdoing deforms
- Covering our tracks thoroughly is not intelligence, choosing our tracks thoughtfully is
- We are inflammable, not incorrigible – we need caution, not condemnation
- Taking advice from vice traps us in the vise of vice
- Temptation talks and stalks, relentlessly
- Corruption of the intelligence needs correction by the intelligence
- Our inner vulnerability increases our outer vulnerability
- Focus not on where the inner voice is coming from, but on where it is taking
- Lust doesn’t need a hideout – it has a hide-in
- Let intelligence be the inspector of impulse, not its incubator
- Lust allures men with pleasure and women with power
- The threat in here is much bigger than the threat out there
- Rationalization is temptation’s spin-doctor
- The cure for lust comes not by condemning the object but by cleansing the subject
- Opportunity doesn’t create immorality; mentality does
- Chapter 03, Text 41
- A free entry-pass into our consciousness?
- Gita 03.41 explained
- What is your most dangerous distraction?
- How to know when desire becomes dangerous? — Desire management series 8
- Protecting ourselves by defining and defending boundaries
- No barrier is foolproof, that is not proof no barrier is useful
- Sensuality erodes both our tendency and our capacity for spirituality
- Be vigilant to know when the mind becomes incoherent
- For changing internals, changing externals is almost always necessary and almost never sufficient
- Culture is meant to instill values, not instigate cravings
- Stay aware of your triggers – and stay away from them
- Regulation is the foundation for purification
- Remission is not elimination
- Regulation is a protection measure, not a trust issue
- To resist sense indulgence, resist the hype around sense indulgence
- Our intelligence can be overcome by illusion, yet it is also the key to overcome illusion
- Pause is not inaction but action
- The mental avatar of AIDS
- Where is the glory in a backdoor victory over attachments?
- Let sleeping tigers sleep – don’t pinch them
- It is never too late - and it is already too late
- Watch what you watch
- Let temptation trigger an alarm bell, not a welcome tune
- Chapter 03, Text 42
- A better lie or a better life?
- Gita 03.42 explained
- How to distance ourselves from the wants induced by the world
- Think with our sense, not our senses
- The mind may be a drinker, but the intelligence doesn’t have to be a bartender
- The mind is not your boss – don’t let it boss you
- Conquer vice not just by fighting harder, but by rising higher
- Chapter 03, Text 43
- Understanding what pushes us toward transcendence and what pulls us toward transcendence
- How discernment makes detachment easier
- Support the intelligence to be supported by the intelligence
- Gita 03.43 explained
- Krishna’s two-pronged strategy to combat lust (Exploring Gita chapter 3 series - 7)
- Understanding the reflective self and the impulsive self
- The mind is like ice to truth and fire to lies
- If we are robbed repeatedly by the same suspect, it is our intelligence that is suspect
- Use cleverness to counter corruptness, not cover corruptness
- To see our own stupidity, unvarnished and unjustified, is infuriating and invigorating
- To decrease unhealthy reactions, increase healthy reminders
- Impulse may run over intelligence, but don’t let it take over intelligence
- Use your intelligence to identify and rectify your conditioning, not to justify it
- Counter temptation not just at the level of activity but at the level of identity
- Use intelligence to see beyond appearance
- Let introspection be for fact-finding, not fault-finding
- Prohibition can be a support for purification, not a substitute
- What someone is not telling can be telling
- Reformation requires reformulation
- Let temptation activate the warrior within, not the philanderer within
- Deepen detachment by discernment
- Let intelligence guard the path from impulse to intent
- Activating our skeptical antenna
- The mind traps us materially and trips us spiritually
- Conviction is the fuel for our resolutions to fly from take-off to landing
- Dwell, Desire, Decide, Degrade – No! Discriminate
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03Chaitanya Charan2021-07-07T10:51:37+05:30