“If you say yes I say no” – why we sometimes make irrational decisions
To reject an opinion by default just because we dislike the person giving that opinion is just as bad as accepting an opinion just because [...]
How meditation differs from obsession and frees us from obsession
The Bhagavad-gita (18.22) describes knowledge in the mode of ignorance, which leads people to obsess over one thing as if it were everything. Such an [...]
Might we be narrow-minded?
Narrow-mindedness means to think that what matters to us must matter to everyone else. Most of us, if asked, would not consider ourselves to be [...]
How to make judgments without being judgmental
Making judgments is a functional necessity in life. We need to make judgments about the kind of people we want to befriend, the habits or [...]
When winning an argument backfires …
Suppose we come to know that an acquaintance has a harmful misconception. To protect them, we try to counter that misconception, and an argument ensues. [...]
Why it’s easy to be narrow-minded
The world around us is so complex that we need to reduce it to some simple functional categories. For example, suppose we need to ask [...]
Beyond tolerating to appreciating (Religious tolerance series 4)
In modern history, religious tolerance was promoted primarily to stop the religions in power from persecuting other religions. Though such tolerance is necessary, it is [...]
When knowledge increases ignorance … (From ignorance to knowledge series 5)
We usually consider knowledge to be the cure for ignorance: where knowledge increases, ignorance decreases. In fact, a celebrated Upanishadic quote implies these opposing attributes [...]
How to counter spiritual reductionism (Ethics & devotion series 6)
Spiritual reductionism refers to the tendency to reduce spirituality to some specific parameters that are deemed vital and to gauge everyone's value based on those [...]
How our experience may increase our ignorance (Beyond black and white conceptions series 2)
Suppose someone has hurt us badly, several times. We may start seeing them as a villain, a person whose existence is a curse to the [...]
When positive thinking affects our life negatively
“Think positively,” is an oft-circulated message in our self-help steeped culture. And it’s helpful to the extent it encourages us to look at a glass [...]
How morality and moralizing affect our spiritual growth differently
We all need morality as a behavioral safeguard. If we indulge in some unhealthy pleasure indiscriminately and repeatedly, we become attached, even addicted. Over time, [...]
Why people think that theism is unscientific
Atheism often parasitically draws on the prestige of science to take unsuspecting masses away from theism. How? By equating science with scientism. Science investigates the [...]
Just as bigotry can blind emotionally, ideology can blind intellectually
In today’s social justice ethos, if someone makes a racist or sexist statement, they are called out immediately. Prejudices of any kind are frowned upon. [...]
Science is the study of matter, spirituality is the study of what matters
We live in an age of science and technology. Technological advancement has increased enormously our knowledge of the world around us, especially our knowledge to [...]
Technology may change our world for the better, but let it not change our worldview for the worse
We live in a world that has been dramatically transformed by technology, be it through electricity, airplanes or net connectivity. Many places whose extreme weather [...]
Fanatics don’t see how God is present everywhere; they see how God is absent everywhere
Religious fanatics often attack those whom they deem heretics. They usually justify their actions by claiming that they are fervently devoted to God. However, their [...]
On disagreements and fanaticism
Disagreement over issues is not as disruptive as disagreement over the importance of the disagreements When we see disruptive disagreements among friends who share our [...]
To become broad-minded, know that reality is broader than what the mind shows
Why are some people narrow-minded? Because they are very attached to their mind. Their vision is limited to what their mind shows, and they hold [...]
Fanatics don’t hold opinions – their opinions hold them
We sometimes find some people irrationally attached to their opinions – attached to the point of being fanatical. Their behavior may make us wonder: “What [...]
Knowledge in the mode of ignorance increases ignorance, not knowledge
Suppose a person goes deep into an unending dark tunnel. The deeper they go into the tunnel, the further they go from the light. Similar [...]