Be not human silkworms – be humans
Nature is rich with demonstrations of spiritual truths. One central truth is that our misery is often self-inflicted, as nature demonstrates through the silkworm. It [...]
Inner resonance leads to outer coherence
“Why do things keep going wrong?” Life often vexes us thus due to its unpredictable upheavals. Gita wisdom suggests that we might be asking the [...]
We don’t have to stay suspended between the unknowable and the unavoidable
As we rush about on our daily routines, we periodically check the clock to see if we are on time. Yet we rarely check where [...]
Don’t let lifestyle get in the way of living
“You are your watch!” So says a billboard. It implies that our watch makes a statement about who we are, what our status is and [...]
Resting on our laurels? No resting! Not our laurels!
In material consciousness, whenever we achieve any success, we tend to parade and brag about it. We often carry this tendency with us into our [...]
Hubris is the recipe for debris.
Debris usually doesn’t need a recipe. It results from a violent enough force that reduces an attractive structure to an unattractive mess. A recipe, on [...]
Subordinate the empirical and the rational to the scriptural
In today’s science, consciousness is a mystery that exposes the split between the empirical and the rational approaches to studying the world. From the empirical [...]
Information is not enough in formation of character
We may have seen normal, sensible people suddenly act abnormally and insensibly. They knew well the harms of what they were doing – or at [...]
The Lord within is neither an active imposer nor a passive spectator; he is a proactive selector
Life sometimes slaps us with pointless problems and senseless sufferings. To aid us in responding positively, Gita wisdom offers us an encouraging insight: the world [...]
Don’t slip on the philosophical banana peels of scriptural paradoxes
Some of us may be put off by the apparently contradictory statements in the Bhagavad-gita. Several such statements are found in the thirteenth chapter of [...]
Let’s make our memory our treasury
When the present presents us with difficulties, we often turn to our memories of past emotionally fulfilling moments for inspiration. As our culture bombards us [...]
Humiliation is false ego frustrated, humility is false ego rejected
The Bhagavad-gita (13.08) lists humility as the first of the twenty qualities that comprise wisdom. Significantly, the Gita mentions humility in a negative way to [...]
When Krishna seems far away, it is we who have strayed away
The Bhagavad-gita (13.16) states that Krishna is situated far away from us – and is simultaneously very close to us. Paradoxical scriptural statements like this [...]
Denying our blindfolds keeps us blind
The Bhagavad-gita (13.09) indicates that the wise contemplate seriously the inevitability of death in our present existence. The Gita integrates this pessimistic-seeming contemplation into an [...]
Humility opens the door to wisdom
The Bhagavad-gita (13.8) mentions humility as the first among the twenty virtues that comprise wisdom. This indicates that humility is the doorway that enables us [...]
The cutting edge of discrimination
The word “cutting edge” refers literally to the sharp cutting side of the blade of a knife. Figuratively, it has come to refer to the [...]
End your divorce from reality
Imagine a group of people who desire to play a virtual-reality video game. Their desire divorces them from the reality of their identity and propels [...]