Bg 15.2 adhaś cordhvaṁ prasṛtās tasya śākhā guṇa-pravṛddhā viṣaya-pravālāḥ adhaś ca mūlāny anusantatāni karmānubandhīni manuṣya-loke Synonyms: adhaḥ — downward; ca — and; ūrdhvam — upward; prasṛtāḥ — extended; tasya — its; śākhāḥ — branches; guṇa— by the [...]
We are in the Jyana section and in this section, Krishna is systematically establishing how Jyana culminates in Bhakti. In the 13th chapter, He talked [...]
Our eyes are among our most used and most relied sources of perception. To make sense of things and make decisions, we want to see [...]
The Vedas are a voluminous body of knowledge. Often compared to a desire tree, they provide guidelines for people at all levels of consciousness to [...]
Scripture is not merely to be learned, but to be lived – a truth that every translator of scripture needs to constantly remember. Getting scriptural [...]
Atheists sometimes argue, “Seeing is believing. Only if you show me things like the soul will I believe in them.” The belief underlying this slogan [...]
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 Bhagavad-gita (15.18) states that those who are enlightened offer all their heart's love to Krishna, understanding him to be the supreme person, the highest [...]
“The eye can’t find the I” means that the eye being material can’t perceive the real I, the soul, which is spiritual. “The I seeks [...]
Physical blindness makes us unaware of our surroundings, whereas metaphysical blindness makes us unaware of ourselves – our identity and our purpose. The Bhagavad-gita (15.10) [...]
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. [...]
Some neophyte devotees ask, “In bhakti-yoga, why do we need to study scripture and gain knowledge? Isn’t simply loving Krishna enough?” Yes, it is. But [...]
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 [...]
In today’s multi-cultural world, religious tolerance, a ‘live and let live’ attitude towards different religious groups, is appealing. The Bhagavad-gita strikes an ecumenically tolerant note [...]
Emotions are the central feature, indeed the driving force, of our present existence. Many spiritual paths, especially impersonal spiritual paths, consider emotions as distractions, even [...]
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 [...]
“Always remember Krishna? That’s impossible.” This may be our understandable reaction on hearing the Bhagavad-gita’s central devotional recommendation. Thinking about Krishna constantly will naturally seem [...]
Many people conceive of spiritual perfection as a state of absolute oneness, wherein one’s sense of personal identity is dissolved in the impersonal absolute. This [...]
We sometimes feel a hole within – a sense of emptiness that gnaws especially when we aren’t deadening ourselves internally with the racehorse pace and [...]
When we practice bhakti-yoga, we frequently find ourselves relapsing to worldly anti-devotional indulgences. Why does this happen? Because in the school of devotion we are [...]
During our spiritual journey, we face dangers from worldly temptations. When we encounter things that seem delightful but are actually painful, our conscience acts like [...]
