Why did Vidura in the Mahabharata not join the Pandavas?
Why did Vidura in the Mahabharata not join the Pandavas when he was driven away by Duryodhana? That's because in the Mahabharata, the close relative [...]
Gita 01.01 explained
Chapter 1 – Overview Total 46 verses, preparation for Krishna to speak His message. In the original Mahabharata written by Srila Vyasa Deva, and [...]
Gita 01.01 explained: How each word of the Bhagavad-gita’s first verse is pregnant with meaning — 2
Let's look at the significance of the last three components of the Bhagavad-gita 01.01: Historical significance (samaveta yuytsavah): Literally, this describes the juncture when the [...]
Gita 01.01 explained: How each word of the Bhagavad-gita’s first verse is pregnant with meaning — 1
The Bhagavad-gita’s first verse (01.01) can be said to have six key components: dhritarashtra uvaca, dharma-kshetra, kuru-kshetra, samavetah yuyutsavah, mamakah pandavas caiva and kim akurvata. [...]
The cause of fights — a deeper examination
Whenever fighting breaks out between two sides, we may naturally ask: “What is the cause?” While a particular issue may be stated as the cause, [...]
Why does the Gita begin with Dhritarashtra’s words not Krishna’s or Arjuna’s?
The Bhagavad-gita is the song of God, or more precisely, Krishna’s poetic words of philosophical wisdom to Arjuna. Yet it’s noteworthy that the Gita begins [...]
Why the Gita begins with Dhirtarashtra’s words
The Bhagavad-gita is, as its very name indicates, God’s message in the form of a song. Why does the Gita begin with the words of [...]
Why is the book called Bhagavad-gita when it contains words other than those of Bhagavan?
Among the Gita’s 700 verses, Krishna speaks 574 verses, Arjuna speaks 84, Sanjaya speaks 41 and Dhritarashtra 1. When the Gita contains words in addition [...]
Three kinds of blindness in the Gita’s first chapter
Dhritarashtra’s blindness — physical: His blindness, being physical, was the most self-evident. It prevented him from ascending the throne and left him with an unfulfillable [...]
How we all can be dangerous, be we strong or weak
Suppose someone is strong, be it physically, economically, politically. We easily understand that they can be dangerous if they start abusing their strength. However, [...]
Attachment is the inability to say no, whatever the cost
Suppose we are buying something. Usually, we would compare its cost with its value: is what I have to pay commensurate with what I will [...]
When we are attached to someone, we don’t care much for them; we care much more for what they think about us
Suppose a doctor needs to give an injection to a sick child. But the child starts crying and complaining about the doctor: “You are so [...]
Detachment is absence of emotional dependence, not absence of emotion
Some people fear, “If I become detached, will I become emotionless, uncaring, stone-hearted?” No, detachment empowers us to care truly for others, for it frees [...]
Just because something is not our fault doesn’t mean it is not our responsibility
Suppose a father who owns a firearm keeps it accessible to his teenage son. If the son injures someone with that gun, the son is [...]
The world’s darkness prevents perception, the heart’s darkness perverts perception
Darkness of the heart refers to the distortion of our desires, the degradation of our consciousness that happens because of our distorted desires, thereby making [...]
If we don’t give up our attachments voluntarily, we will have to give them up involuntarily
At the start of the Bhagavad-gita (01.01), Dhritarashtra asks: What did the two armies assembled for fighting do? Herein, the unspoken query was: did his [...]
The Gita is not a spatial martial narration, but is a universal spiritual revelation
The Bhagavad-gita begins and ends with references to places. In its first verse, Dhritarashtra asks his assistant Sanjaya about the events that transpired at the [...]
Detachment doesn’t make us hardhearted – attachment does
Sometimes people fear, “If I become detached, I will become hardhearted.” However, what makes us hardhearted is not detachment, but its opposite: attachment. When we [...]
A self-answering question points to factors beyond the self-evident
A question that contains the answer within itself raises questions about the question. For example, suppose someone asks, “After the diners sat down at the [...]
Will we have to lose everything before we lose our blindness?
Attachment makes us blind – blind to everything other than the object of our attachment. The Bhagavad-gita (01.01) indicates this blinding power of attachment through [...]