The available becomes valuable when it becomes accessible
Suppose we come to know of a powerful feature in our phone. That feature was always available, but to us it was just an icon [...]
Don’t let the mind make you fight more battles than you need to
If soldiers while fighting a battle agonize about a reversal in yesterday’s battle or worry about the danger in tomorrow’s battle, they will undermine their [...]
Don’t relax the treatment just because the symptoms have disappeared
When germs of a deadly disease such as tuberculosis infect us and give rise to manifest symptoms of sickness, we take treatment immediately and diligently. [...]
Let scripture lead beyond the head’s complexity to the heart’s simplicity
The heart’s simplicity refers to, in the context of spiritual life, the simple love of the heart for Krishna, the uncomplicated faith that just by [...]
Check the train before you check into it
Suppose an inattentive person on a huge, noisy, crowded railway station boards a wrong train. Some trains may stop after a few minutes, but some, [...]
If we don’t recognize the mind, it will make us unrecognizable to ourselves
Recognizing the mind means to recognize the voice coming from within us to be the voice of the mind and not our own voice. When [...]
Absorption is a function of not just attraction but also determination
Sometimes during our devotional practices we may find our mind slipping away to other things that we are more attracted to and may wonder, “How [...]
If we let the mind fill in the blanks, it will overwrite the sentence
We all have during our schedules certain slots that are filled with obligatory engagements and certain slots that are freer. Though we may have lots [...]
The mind is illusion’s internal advertising agent
Much of today’s materialistic culture runs through advertising. Most multinational companies often spend far more on product promotion than on quality control. Advertising agents are [...]
Absent-minded means not that the mind is absent, but that our control on it is absent
In common parlance, the word ‘mind’ refers to one’s attention, as in, “Give your full mind to what you are doing.” In the Bhagavad-gita’s philosophical [...]
Don’t give the mind power of attorney – and don’t let it grab it either
Power of attorney refers to the power given by the owner to someone else to act in a legal capacity on one’s behalf. As the [...]
The mind makes the exhausting seem exciting and the exciting seem exhausting
The mind is often declared in scripture to be an enemy, as for example in the Bhagavad-gita (06.06). One way the mind acts inimically is [...]
Spiritual happiness never goes away – it just pushes us on the way
Seekers sometimes ask, “It is said that material happiness is temporary, whereas spiritual happiness is eternal. But even spiritual happiness seems temporary – sometimes we [...]
Regulation is the road to realization
Some people ask, “Isn’t regulation deprivation? If we enjoy something, why should we check ourselves in doing it?” The purpose of regulation is not deprivation, [...]
Don’t give guidance alone – give confidence too
When we practice spiritual life for some time, younger practitioners may come to us for guidance in tackling problems such as the uncontrolled mind. The [...]
Don’t lobotomize ashtanga-yoga to ekanga-yoga
In today’s cultural imagination, yoga is often equated with physical postures meant for shaping and toughening the body. No doubt, practicing postures is better than ingesting [...]
Expand your horizons in vision, but concentrate them in implementation
“Expand your horizons” is a popular saying among the ambitious. The Bhagavad-gita takes this saying to a higher level by expanding our horizons from the [...]
The mind makes us unthinkingly do the unthinkable
The unthinkable refers to actions so bad, so shocking, so reprehensible that they are not even worth thinking, leave alone intending to do, and leave [...]
Don’t just renounce the material for the spiritual – bring the spiritual to the material
The Bhagavad-gita in its sixth chapter analyzes the process of ashtanga-yoga. While such yoga is nowadays seen primarily as a tool for shaping and strengthening [...]
Don’t just hear the mind – mind what you hear
The mind often misdirects our energy. It makes us crave for trivial things or makes us worry about things that haven’t materialized and may never [...]
The mind is naughty and haughty
Naughtiness is an attribute frequently associated with children, who often restlessly move from serious things to frivolous things. The Bhagavad-gita (06.34) points to the mind’s [...]