Are we trying to move up while looking down?
Seasoned mountaineers who aim to scale a lofty summit avoid looking down unnecessarily. Of course, they stay aware of the terrain below so that they [...]
Are we sending our intelligence on a vacation?
Imagine a person who has a priceless treasure carefully protected by a competent guard. Suppose a thief persuades the owner to send the guard on [...]
Are we using religion as a cloak instead of as an armor?
A cloak is often used to concealoneself; an armor, to protect oneself. When we use our religion as a cloak, we hide our weaknesses under [...]
When neither the summits nor the valleys matter…
The Bhagavad-gita’s recommendation(02.56) to stay equipoised amidst success and failure puzzles many people. It is antipodal to the modern sporting ethos, wherein the winner is [...]
A business that is more serious than business
We take few things as seriously as business. Moneyusually makes the lazy busy; the frivolous serious; the nonconformists conformists. In marked contrastto our zealous pursuit [...]
How can we be true to ourselves?
We live at the receiving end of a massive propaganda blitz from our materialistic culture. Most people simply blow whichever direction the cultural winds fly, [...]
Give Krishna his due to prevent death from taking more than its due
Death has a right on our physical body. We can’t stop it from consuming its due, but we don’t have to give it more than [...]
Are my attachments holding me or am I holding my attachments?
As aspiring devotees, we often find that our attachments abduct and drag our consciousness away from Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (2.44) outlines. Consequently, we may [...]
Don’t eternalize the present; contextualize it
When we face problems, they sometimes overwhelm us so much that we can’t think of anything else. We feel as if the problem will never [...]
Train yourself to avoid mental potholes
When we travel regularly along a pothole-filled road, we carefully avoid the potholes, thereby saving ourselves of unnecessary jolts. By analogy, when the Bhagavad-gita (02.58) [...]
Use technology – don’t be used by technology
In today’s society, living without technology is almost impossible. As aspiring devotees living in a techno-centric society, we usually think of technology as a neutral [...]
The world is a station, not a destination
We may find the Bhagavad-gita’s injunction to stay equipoised amidst success and failure (2.38) perplexing: “Isn’t it natural to feel happy when we succeed and [...]
Blunt the desire for enjoyment with engagement
The greatest obstacle on the spiritual path for most of us is the desire to enjoy material pleasures, especially anti-devotional material pleasures. Because most of [...]
Don’t let the mind eat your head
The mind sometimes makes us do self-defeating, short-sighted, stupid things. How? By making us headless. The Bhagavad-gita (02.62) indicates that when the mind contemplates sense [...]
Might we be hitting the bull’s eye of the wrong target?
Cellphones, internet, robots – the technological advances in our society are impressive. Yet they haven’t made people happier, as the rising statistics of stress and [...]
What we do reflects on what we do
“What we do” can refer to our specific behavior as well as to our general vocation. What we do in our specific behavior reflects on [...]
Put the world out of the equation by the strength of devotion
“Work without attachment for success or failure.” This message of the Bhagavad-gita (02.48) begs the question: what are we to work for if not for [...]
To get happiness, get the happiness sequence right
All of us want to be happy. The world makes us believe that fulfilling our material desires will make us happy. However, this makes us [...]
Are we winning the misery championship with our eyes?
Most of us have entered the misery championship. Here’s how. The qualifying rounds: Our contemporary culture assaults our eyes with visually alluring images of sensuous [...]
We are dressed by and for our desires
Our desires determine and define us; we are, Gita wisdom indicates, dressed by and for our desires. Let’s see how: Dressed by our desires: The [...]
Endless nibbling at the tastes of this world dulls our taste for Krishna
All of us are innately pleasure-seeking. How we seek pleasure is largely shaped by our external culture. As our present culture constantly glamorizes material pleasures, [...]