Engage with reality on your terms, not on the mind’s terms or the world’s terms
Suppose we want to watch some educational program on TV. If someone else had set the TV to a celebrity gossip channel, we would change [...]
Our thoughts are not always wise – we don’t have to follow their advice
Suppose we have a chronic disease. Our acquaintances may recommend various remedies. Knowing that they aren’t medical experts, we wouldn’t immediately follow their recommendations. We [...]
Deeming everything an illusion is not liberation – it just makes even liberation an illusion
Some people say, “Everything is an illusion. Those who understand that everything is an illusion attain liberation.” However, if everything were an illusion, how could [...]
When emotions appeal within us, be the umpire, not the appealer
In cricket, the fielding players often appeal vociferously, claiming that the batsman is out. The umpire evaluates the appeals based on their merit, not their [...]
Act it till you achieve it
When we practice bhakti-yoga, we sometimes feel bored, apathetic, unconnected. We may wonder, “Am I being a hypocrite by practicing devotion when I don’t feel [...]
Seeking satisfaction through accumulation increases accumulation, not satisfaction
We all want to be happy. However, where we seek happiness determines whether we will become happy or not. Frequently, we look for happiness through [...]
Passion increases desire not just in intensity but also in quantity
We may see responsible people become alcoholics and wonder: how can anyone get so bound by desire? Gita wisdom explains that our desires grow by [...]
Not every thought is worth our thought
The word “thought” can mean two different things: an idea that has appeared in our consciousness (“I got a thought”) or our calm conscious deliberation [...]
Gita 14.18 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Now Krishna will give some [...]
The mind makes us juggle too many balls – and then makes us drop them all
Some circus artists juggle many balls, expertly catching them all before they fall. Still, even they have their limits – they can’t juggle too many [...]
Possessions can’t provide satisfaction – we need purification
Today’s culture indoctrinates us into believing that satisfaction lies in the possessions we don’t have. Indeed, the craving for such possessions is the fuel that [...]
Learn to see pause as an action
While watching a video, if we press the pause button, the action stops. Regularly operating such digital switches, we tend to think of pause as [...]
Our mind is a madhouse, but we don’t have to be mad
In a mental health care center, not everyone is mad. The medical staff are sober and are meant to take care of the mentally sick. [...]
Trying to be materially over-productive is spiritually counter-productive
Suppose somebody who can lift a twenty-five-kg weight tries to lift a fifty-kg-weight – they will injure themselves. We too similarly hurt ourselves when we [...]
Unhealthy cravings are often unhealthy expressions of healthy needs
We are sometimes told to differentiate between desires and needs. However, just an intellectual differentiation is not enough. Sometimes, our desires are misdirected expressions of [...]
Scriptural study helps us differentiate our authentic needs from our artificial needs
We often feel we need many material things. But when we work to get them and even when we get them, they don’t satisfy us. [...]
Our activities may need to be spaced out, but we don’t need to be spaced out
The word “spaced out” can refer to our actions or to our consciousness. When we have a lot of things to do, especially demanding things, [...]
Introspection distances us from our situations and our emotions
Sometimes, people do things that provoke us, and we react angrily. But our kneejerk reaction only worsens the situation, which we realize after the passage [...]
We are not our feelings – we are the feelers of our feelings
Some people ask, “We often act on our feelings such as anger, frustration or dejection, and later regret those actions. How can we avoid such [...]
See as much as you can while you can
Suppose we are walking at night on a dark road and our flashlight starts flickering. While the light is on, we will try to see [...]
Comfortable misery is still misery
We living in our AC homes and offices may pity people of the past who had to work outdoors, sweating profusely under the burning hot [...]