Stop blaming your outer world, start building your inner world
Suppose the weather suddenly turns chilly. We could blame the weather and feel sorry for ourselves. Or we could don warm clothes and get on [...]
Krishna doesn’t promise a stormless sea – he provides an unsinkable ship
When we practice bhakti, we often expect to become free from problems. And if that expectation is not met, we become disheartened. Dharmic traditions often [...]
Even when bhakti doesn’t make life easier, it makes us tougher
Suppose we have a job to lift huge weights. That job can become easier if someone lightens that load or if our muscles become stronger. [...]
If we prayed as much as we worried, we would worry a lot less
We all worry, sometime or the other. Worrying may seem natural and unavoidable because so many things that are important for us are not in [...]
The less time we have for our problems, the less problems we have
We sometimes feel burdened by our problems, as if they were heavy weights on our back. And the more we obsess over them, the bigger [...]
Wrongdoing is not just the wrong we do, but also the right we don’t do
Suppose a thief robs someone – that’s a wrongdoing. Additionally, if a cop were nearby but didn’t stop the thief – that’s also a wrongdoing. [...]
When life hurts, don’t let the mind increase the hurt
Suppose we fall on our arm and hurt it. If someone starts hitting the hurt arm, that would be malicious. Our mind often attacks us [...]
Focus not on life’s unfairness; focus on Krishna’s mercifulness
Life sometimes seems terribly unfair. For no good reason, people accuse, cheat or hurt us. When faced with life’s unfairness, we often feel indignant and [...]
If we neglect what we are saved for, we gravitate towards what we were saved from
Today’s sensual culture fills our mind with agitation, dissatisfaction and frustration. When we start living by the Gita’s spiritual wisdom, we become significantly free from [...]
Even if we can’t be grateful for all situations, we can be grateful in all situations
Suppose we have a sickness for which we are being treated. Understandably, we will find it difficult to be grateful for being sick. But we [...]
Even if our past seems like a prison, Krishna is the key to unlock it
Our past can sometimes seem like a prison, especially if some of our past indulgences have become compulsive. The way out of the prison of [...]
We are not products of our situations; we are products of our decisions
When difficult situations come in our life, we often feel negative emotions such as anger, resentment or self-pity. Though such feelings may be natural, even [...]
See problems as opportunities to expand our conceptions of the scope of Krishna consciousness
We often think of God as an insurance against problems; if we worship him, he will protect us. However, sometimes amidst problems when such relief [...]
We don’t determine God’s job description – he determines ours
When we approach God, we often have certain expectations: for example, he should protect us and provide for us. If such expectations are not met, [...]
See God’s love not just in relief from problems, but also in relief amidst problems
When we face problems too big for us to manage on our own, we frequently seek divine help. However, the material world by its very [...]
Faith is not just certainty – it is also openness to possibility
We often equate faith with certainty, as in, “I am sure that God exists.” Such equalization is valid in terms of ontology – we need [...]
We may be taken aback, but we don’t have to go back
When things turn out opposite to our expectations, we mentally shrink back, being surprised or shocked. Such an inner reaction is described by the idiom [...]
We can’t delete our memories, but we can choose what we remember
Some of our memories may have scarred us – memories of abuses we have suffered or allurements we have succumbed to may agitate us whenever [...]
Being grateful in general is like being married in general
With the increasing secularization or more specifically desacralization of mainstream culture, many of the uplifting values that comprised the core character of respectable people in the past have been divorced from the fabric of the spiritual worldview on which they had been based. Thus, for example,
Be not fretful or fearful – be faithful
The present is all that we have – and all that we will ever have. But our mind often distracts us towards the past and the future through fretfulness and fearfulness. Fretful: The mind misdirected towards the past makes us fretful. We agonize over the many things that have gone wrong in our life
The essence of bhakti is not moving backward or forward, but moving upward
Some spiritually-minded people, being engaged in mainstream society with its notions of progress centered on science and technology, pursue bhakti for getting peace, meaning and fulfillment – things elusive in today’s world. They see bhakti as a complement to their present way of living.