Morning is the time for mooring our heart to Krishna
For us as aspiring devotees, worldly temptations pose formidable challenges to our spiritual integrity. The Bhagavad-gita (02.67) indicates that these temptations are like stormy winds [...]
Today’s medals will be tomorrow’s baubles
One of our innermost drives is the drive to show the world that we are someone significant. This drive impels us to win medals, which [...]
Temptations in the consciousness are like dust in the carburetor
When dust enters into the carburetor of a finely tuned engine, the engine can no longer function optimally. Though the dust initially seems inconsequential, after [...]
Let self-mastery be devotion’s fruit, not determination’s feat
Bending our impulses to our principles and thereby attaining self-mastery is vital for us to make tangible spiritual progress. At the same time, it is [...]
What we hold mentally holds us mentally
Our media continuously offers us high-octane sensory stimulation, especially for our eyes. As compared to the rapidly changing and colorfully overdressed images that are dished [...]
See beyond life’s apparent nonsense to Krishna’s benevolent sense
“Why is Krishna doing this?” We may sometimes get this question when things go wrong and life doesn’t make sense. To help us make sense [...]
Titillating the senses ends in all pain, no gain
Our culture seems to offer us so much sensual pleasure for free. Alluring images in tantalizing poses invite us to enjoy them with our eyes [...]
Ask first “Who am I?” not “What is my?”
Our life-story is essentially the story of our quest for happiness. This quest is directed by a driving question. For spiritualists, the question frequently is, [...]
Be a leader of the mind, not its cheerleader
Daydreaming. It’s so easy. Taking it easy in our thought-lives is one of life’s most deluding distracters. We tend to think that nothing is wrong [...]
Materialism shrinks our options for happiness
Cutting-edge technology prides itself for opening new avenues for enjoyment: so many TV channels, websites and video games, for example. However, might the freedom offered [...]
Spirituality expands our conception of life dramatically and majestically
Is life a doomed journey from a station called birth to a station called death with a bit of pleasure and a lot of pain [...]
Be Intense, not Tense
The pace and pressure of our contemporary lifestyle often makes us stressed. This tension is a nag that lurks constantly in the background of our [...]
Chemical highs cheat us of spiritual highs
All material pleasures are essentially chemical highs. Whenever we perceive any attractive objects with our senses, the corresponding sensory mechanisms secrete certain chemicals. This chemical [...]
Catch the eye, catch the I
Our eyes are often like voracious heat-seekers scanning the horizon for sensually hot objects. Our materialistic culture fully exploits our visual hunger. By planting seductive [...]
Can’t set things right? See things right
Whenever things go wrong in life, we can generally do something to set them right. But when death strikes, there’s nothing that we can do [...]
The way to say no to temptation is to say yes to devotion
We may hesitate to adopt authentic scripture-based spirituality because of the fear that we will have to give up too many worldly pleasures. Such fears [...]
The journey to realizing “I am not the body” begins with living “I am more than the body”
The Bhagavad-gita’s fundamental teaching (02.13) is that we are not material bodies but are spiritual beings. Even when we understand this intellectually, we can’t abruptly [...]
A game that we can’t win and can’t quit
We may get the question: “Why do we need to give up material desires like lust and greed?” Because of their two deadly characteristics: insatiability [...]
Materialism in a religious costume is still materialism
The Bhagavad-gita (02.42-43) deems as undiscriminating (avipashcitah) and shortsighted those people who think that religion has no purpose other than to provide material gains. These [...]
The soul is life’s amazing and empowering secret
When we come to know a pleasant secret, we feel amazed. Naturally therefore, we feel immensely amazed when we come to know life’s great secret. [...]
Be rooted in the unchanging, not the changing
The Bhagavad-gita (02.16) encourages us to meditate on the difference between the unchanging, the spiritual realm within, and the changing, the material realm without. Gita [...]