The mind gets us alone – and then gets us
During the Mahabharata war, Arjuna’s sixteen-year-old son, Abhimanyu, battles and bests the greatest Kaurava warriors. Unfortunately, on the thirteenth day of the war, the Kauravas [...]
Bhakti is beyond feminism – and beyond male chauvinism too
Gender roles are becoming increasingly intermingled and blurred nowadays. Conservatives blame feminism for various social problems such as marital ruptures and teenage delinquency. Liberals counter [...]
Seek not to be enjoyers or achievers; seek to be cooperators
Spiritual literature often talk about the inner war in the hearts of seekers: the war between our higher self and our lower self – between [...]
Bhakti empowers us to use our free will fully and fulfillingly
Our free will is our most precious asset. It enables us to seek success and happiness. But we can’t pursue these aspirations effectively if we [...]
Don’t chase the ball that the mind and the senses toss to each other
Two kids sometimes tease a third kid by making the latter catch a ball that they keep tossing to each other. In recent intellectual history, [...]
Focus on harmony, not hormones
From the time we enter adolescence, we feel ourselves impelled by our hormones. We find ourselves craving and exploring a whole new world of sensual [...]
For self-improvement, go beyond self-criticism and self-congratulation to self-realization
Some people say that to succeed in life, we should be hard on ourselves. We should unrelentingly critique ourselves, unsparingly punish ourselves for our mistakes [...]
We don’t just have a relationship with Krishna – we are a relationship with Krishna
One of the fields in a Facebook profile is relationship status. Some of us may fill it with “none” to indicate that we are not [...]
Krishna is the master before whom we stand truly erect
“Krishna is our master and we are his servants.” This scriptural tenet can evoke resentment within us: “Why should I bow down to God?” The [...]
We help ourselves best by remembering that we are helpless without God
The saying “God helps those who help themselves” conveys validly that we shouldn’t expect God to do everything for us, but should strive to do [...]
Our sense of beauty points to our transcendence
We have an innate sense of beauty – beautiful things naturally attract our heart. But where does this sense come from? If we are just [...]
The rest of me is no rest for me
The "rest of me" refers to our physical and mental side – the two other levels of our present three-level existence as embodied souls. Our [...]
Don’t divorce who you are from whose you are
“Who we are” is the first philosophical message of the Bhagavad-gita. It explains that we are at our core eternal souls. Understanding this can free [...]
Break free from the material conception of the external and the internal
Suppose a thief has broken into a house’s premises. In one sense, the thief is outside the house, being in the courtyard. But in another [...]
Don’t wait for God – wait on God
Many people want God to give them a special signal for commencing their spiritual life: “When God calls me, I will begin.” However, such an [...]
Rift with God makes us drift with the mind
We are pleasure-seeking beings. And we are intrinsically the eternal parts of Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) states. Because Krishna is the all-attractive reservoir of [...]
Defiance of God dooms us to dependence on matter
Some people openly defy God and claim, “I am independent – I will do whatever I want and enjoy whichever way I choose to.” While [...]
God we cannot be, but godly we can be
Some spiritualists claim that we, as eternal spiritual beings, are God, or will become God on attaining liberation. But the Bhagavad-gita (15.07) declares that we [...]
The Gita’s choice is not about nonviolence or violence – it’s about disintegration or integration
The Bhagavad-gita’s asking Arjuna to fight understandably unnerves many people. Though the Gita’s framing narrative involves choosing violence over nonviolence, its core is far deeper. [...]
Service is unavoidable – why not make it relishable?
The scriptural teaching that we are servants of God often seems unpalatable to our ego: “Why should I serve God?” Rarely do we grasp the [...]
By recognizing our identity and redefining our activity, we revolutionize our destiny
Our identity, activity and destiny are our defining features. But do our names, jobs and dreams actually define us? After all, we can change them [...]