Suppose we have a problem in the software of our computer because of which we are getting a blurred or blank screen. If we purchase a new monitor, that won’t solve our problem. We need to tackle the software problem at the level of the software.
Simple living is a virtue lauded by thinkers since time immemorial. This virtue was mocked as primitive with the spread of the modern culture of lifestyle products, wherein people equated possession of state-of-the-art luxuries with success. While wealth has always been flaunted as a marker of success, most modern luxuries were unprecedented in the ecological destruction that went into making them.
Practicing spiritual life is like fighting a war against our inner enemies. The Gita (16.21) cautions that the inner enemies of lust, anger and greed destroy the soul and lead to hell. Still, it concludes by urging us to give up these enemies, not kill them.
Wisdom-texts often use metaphors as intellectual tools. Metaphors make abstract, abstruse concepts intelligible by comparing them with concrete, clear things from the real world. The Bhagavad-gita uses metaphors frequently.
“Are addicts forced to indulge in their addiction? Have they lost their free will?” Such questions often confront addicts and those associated with them, especially [...]
Some people ask, “Do you take everything in the Bhagavad-gita literally?” This is a loaded question. Answering yes provokes rationalists – they label such answerers [...]
Some people argue, “Everything is relative; nothing should be generalized.” But this argument begs the question: “Nothing should be generalized – should this statement be [...]
Suppose a blind person considered their blindness as a matter of pride to be paraded. We would wonder: would anyone do such a thing? Yes, [...]
Whatever power we have to do anything depends on our foundational power to focus. For example, a batsman may have phenomenal talent, but if he [...]
The news often reports people protesting vehemently against any law that seems draconian, that threatens their liberty. Dictatorial regimes that curtail individual rights often earn [...]
Some fanatical materialists claim, “Matter is all that exists — the idea of consciousness is an illusion.” However, their very assertion of this claim proves [...]
Suppose a person climbs on a horse, but the horse goes wild, endangering the rider. Something similar happens to us when we climb on the [...]
Suppose a warrior is being attacked by an enemy who is charging in with an upraised sword. But before the enemy comes close enough to [...]
A person driving a car needs fuel, but if they carry with them nothing except fuel and if they imagine that fuel can satisfy their [...]
To be labeled as poor and be looked down at by others ranks among people’s most dreaded nightmares. Money is essential. However, when it becomes [...]
We live in a materialistic, money-centered culture that is almost mercenary in its obsession with money. Money is essential for our survival, so it is [...]
A contemporary intellectual trend is deconstructionism, which some nihilists appropriate to invent all sorts of creative and destructive interpretations of things. Nihilists argue that there [...]
The word desert can refer to both a place and an action. As a place, it refers to a region without water. As an action, [...]
We all seek happiness – and we all do various things to become happy. Today’s materialist culture, especially with its stress on advertisements, makes us [...]
Suppose we are shown a movie in which events are utterly unconnected; characters pop in and out with no logic; and the story moves without [...]
Sometimes people may have some addiction such as alcoholism that they feel that they can’t live without. But their feeling that it is essential doesn’t [...]
