Gita 01.24 – Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan das So, now camera is [...]
Gita 01.09 – Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan das Bg 1.9 anye ca [...]
Inability to face life’s challenges may diminish us, but unwillingness to face life’s challenges will demolish us
We all face challenges in life. And some challenges are such that we are unequipped or underequipped to face them. At such times, we may [...]
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 [...]
To be assertive, we sometimes need to be aggressive, adequately and adeptly
The nature of people, and the nature of life itself, is such that we are sometimes put in confrontation with others. Amidst such face-offs, we [...]
Just as our body needs physical nutrition, our soul needs metaphysical orientation – a sense of place and purpose in the world
If we lack physical nutrition, we have no energy to do anything. We become similarly de-energized when we lack metaphysical orientation. Usually, we orient ourselves [...]
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 [...]
Hold your plans lightly, not tightly
Suppose we catch a beautiful butterfly and hold it in our fingers. If we hold it too tightly, fearing that it may slip away, we [...]
Never make irreversible decisions based on reversible emotions
Our emotions can easily mislead us. When we become strongly emotional, we tend to make snap decisions. Such decisions can be detrimental, sometimes devastatingly detrimental. [...]
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 [...]
Focus on the cause that brings us together, not on the conditions and conditionings that push us apart
We all are irreducibly individual. Naturally, we all have varying opinions on various issues. When these opinions differ strongly, conflicts occur. How can we deal [...]
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 [...]
Hating the wrongs done to us blinds us to the wrongs done by us
When we feel wronged, we often magnify our side of the story, while minimizing any other side the story may have. Such was the disposition [...]
We are always full of thoughts, but we aren’t always thoughtful
Our consciousness is always filled with thoughts, for we can never stop thinking. Even the notion of stopping all thinking is also a thought. Thus, [...]
To mistake the hilarious to be malicious is ridiculous
The Bhagavad-gita is spoken before a fratricidal war between the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas. What caused cousins to fight till death? Their enmity [...]
The Gita’s setting reflects not logical absurdity but metaphysical urgency
Some people ask, “In the Mahabharata, when both armies were about to fight a war, how could they all have waited for so long while [...]
Intelligence means to understand how the mind makes us misunderstand
Suppose we are driving a car and our rear-view mirror gives us a distorted picture, making a proximate car appear distant. If we turn around [...]
Don’t waste your pain
Amidst pain, if we obsess on it, we can’t learn from the pain and grow through it. By thus squandering the opportunity provided indirectly by [...]
We may be theists nominally and yet be atheists essentially Gita 01.04
We think of atheists as people who reject God’s existence. If we are religious, we would never count ourselves among the atheists. However, atheism 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 [...]
To lose the will to fight is to lose the fight
The Bhagavad-gita’s dramatic setting depicts the greatest archer of the times, Arjuna, on the verge of fighting the greatest war of his life on the [...]