To master your senses, make Krishna your master
Suppose our boss is a taskmaster. He promises us raises, but hardly ever delivers those promises; he just keeps demanding backbreaking work. If we are [...]
Our individuality is meant to lead us towards our spirituality, not away from it
In today’s individualistic culture, people feel, “I want to be who I am. And no one should stop me.” The intention underlying this feeling is [...]
Freedom comes not by rejecting all restrictions, but by respecting the right restrictions
Some people advocate that we reject all restrictions, claiming that only by such rejection will we attain freedom. Yes, restrictions can take away our freedom, [...]
What we can know depends on what we know
People sometimes ask, “Can you show me the soul?” Before we can see the soul, we need to know enough to know what to see. [...]
The senses may be windows to the world, but they are mere portholes to reality
A window gives us the sensation that we are looking at a large part of the outside world through it. In contrast, a porthole, being [...]
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 [...]
Perception is a function of association
Suppose some non-Indians unfamiliar with cricket come to India and enter a cricket stadium. They may find the hullabaloo bewildering, and the noisy, sweaty, jammed [...]
Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him
Sometimes we may feel that Krishna is far away from us, existing as he does in the spiritual world. However, Krishna doesn’t exist only in [...]
God is the rationale not for gaps in our knowledge but for our knowledge itself
Atheists sometimes argue, “Theists commit the God-of-the gaps fallacy: They invoke God to explain gaps in our scientific knowledge of how things work – as [...]
Spirituality transforms our journey into an odyssey
During our life, we sometimes go on journeys. But we may not realize that life itself is a journey. It is essentially a journey of [...]
By looking further horizontally, we can’t see vertically
Suppose a person walking along a road wants to see ahead – and does so using binoculars. But as long as they are looking ahead, [...]
The mind is the TV – and the TV-thief
Suppose a person is watching TV, and a thief sneaks into the house and starts carrying the TV away. However, the person is so engrossed [...]
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 [...]
Mentally junk the mental junk
In today’s hi-tech age of planned brand obsolescence, yesterday’s glamorous gadgets often become little more that junk today. Over time, we often end up with [...]
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 [...]