Going beyond counting our blessings
Counting our blessings is an oft-recommended activity for cultivating gratitude and positivity: When we count our blessings, we learn to appreciate what we have and [...]
Counting our blessings is an oft-recommended activity for cultivating gratitude and positivity: When we count our blessings, we learn to appreciate what we have and [...]
While practicing bhakti, suppose we feel attracted not to Krishna, but to the world’s allurements. Seeing our devotional weakness, we may lament: “I don’t love [...]
Suppose schools started teaching kids, “The world is such a terrible place that you can’t even survive unless you learn to lie.” When parents express [...]
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Bg 18.77 tac ca saṁsmṛtya saṁsmṛtya [...]
Throughout our life, we make decisions, consciously or unconsciously, about what to eat, what to read, whom to spend time with. Some decisions are far [...]
Mindfulness is often equated with greater awareness of both our outer and inner worlds. Still, not every detail of the outer world needs attention, and [...]
Suppose we are working in customer support and a disgruntled customer is speaking with us rudely, even obnoxiously. Still, we may have to plaster a [...]
When we try to follow moral standards to live purely, we sometimes feel harassed by temptations that keep coming upon us. And if we compare [...]
Suppose we have to decide about complex and consequential issues such as choosing a career, a life-partner or a spiritual teacher. We may be told, [...]
To understand, consider an analogous question: do sensations reside in the body? Suppose a 20 kg dumbbell is placed in our palm, and we feel [...]
When a person having unhealthy habits is told to imagine the disasters that may result if they continue with those habits, they worry, “Won’t such [...]
Love is founded in freedom: Suppose a boy proposes to a girl saying, “I love you. Will you marry me?” Suppose she declines. And he [...]
The Bhagavad-gita’s conclusion contains a disarming declaration: Krishna is determined to love us (18.64: ishto ‘si drdham iti). This is no empty claim — he [...]
The Bhagavad-gita concludes, in one sense, with Arjuna agreeing to do Krishna’s will (18.73). Yet the Gita continues for five more verses describing the realizations [...]
Suppose a person dear to us is sick and in great pain. Suppose further the only available doctor is in a noisy, filthy, smelly place [...]
The future can be better than the present and we can play a part in bringing about that future — this hope empowers us to [...]
Suppose we pray to God for help amid difficulty but the difficulty remains. Does that mean God doesn’t care? God does care. However, any care [...]
In today’s educated circles, doubt is celebrated as an intellectual strength. Whenever thoughtful people encounter any claim, especially any claim connected with religion or spirituality, [...]
Pleasure and misery are opposites — how, then, can there be any pleasure in being miserable? Because the mind is a peculiar thing; it can [...]
When we see someone with intelligence far greater than ours (as measured by some parameter such as IQ), we may feel inferior or insecure. We [...]
When someone complains too much about how hard things are, they are sometimes told to grow up. What does that mean? It means to understand [...]