Surrender to God is not the suppression of human will, but its perfection
Some people hold that surrender to God is demeaning, for it suppresses human will. Their argument assumes that all surrender happens amidst antagonism, as [...]
Materialism reduces life to a disrelation of unrelated events
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 [...]
Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him
Sometimes we may feel that Krishna is far away from us, existing as he does in the spiritual world. However, Krishna doesn’t exist only in [...]
Express affection through recollection and attention
Suppose a husband who works out-of-station returns home for vacation. He tells his wife that, while he is away, he remembers her frequently. But then [...]
We can’t survive for long on secondhand faith
Secondhand faith refers to the faith we have developed in something because of our faith in those who tell us to do that thing. Such [...]
Just because we can’t live without something doesn’t mean that we can live with it
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 [...]
Observe your mental neighborhood just as you would observe your physical neighborhood
Suppose in a new neighborhood, we glance at a passerby with interest. They invite us to a hotel for a chat, and we go along. [...]
The best way to fix the mind on Krishna is to take up responsibilities in his service
The Bhagavad-gita repeatedly urges us to fix the mind on Krishna. The specific phrase man-mana (“fix the mind on me”) occurs twice in the Gita [...]
We are not programmed machines – we are the possessors of programmable machines
Atheists often argue that we are just our neurons – our behavior is simply a function of our neuronal programming, and our belief that we [...]
Become conscious of Krishna in whatever makes you unconscious of Krishna
When we strive to become devoted to Krishna, we often face temptations that obstruct us. Tempting sense objects intrude into our consciousness and captivate it. [...]
God is the rationale not for gaps in our knowledge but for our knowledge itself
Atheists sometimes argue, “Theists commit the God-of-the gaps fallacy: They invoke God to explain gaps in our scientific knowledge of how things work – as [...]
Intellectual gluttony causes spiritual lethargy
When we eat gluttonously, our eating often does the opposite of what it is intended to do – rather than giving us energy, it takes [...]
Our mental inclination is not necessarily our personal intention
The word inclination refers physically to the slope of, say, a road in a particular direction. Mentally, our inclination refers to the direction of the [...]
To say that consciousness is unknowable is to say that consciousness is knowable
Consciousness is one of the biggest unanswered questions in modern science and in modern thought at large. For centuries, thinkers have agonized over questions such [...]
Consciousness is the energy that enables us to experience all energies
Some people ask, “Consciousness is an energy. Why can’t it be considered another material energy, like heat or electricity? Why consider it spiritual?” Because consciousness [...]
To resist sense indulgence, resist the hype around sense indulgence
When scripture urges us to regulate sensual indulgence, our mind objects: “Why shouldn’t I enjoy?” This question misleads by invoking a sense of deprivation. To [...]
Spirituality is not about suppressing grief – it is about transcending grief
The Bhagavad-gita (02.13) states that the spiritually enlightened are not bewildered by death. Does this mean that spiritualists shouldn’t grieve the death of their loved [...]
Love first the creator to love best the creatures
Sometimes people think, “Will loving God make us neglect others? Will focusing on the one who is beyond this world make us uncaring towards those [...]
Just as food adds to our physical weight, thoughts add to our mental weight
In today’s culture with its largely sedentary lifestyle, people often watch what they eat as they don’t want to put on unwanted weight. Such watchfulness [...]
Seeming scriptural contradictions are counterbalances, not counters
Some people argue, “The world is a place of entanglement that needs to be renounced to attain liberation.” Others argue, “Our duties in this world [...]
Krishna’s supervision happens by his super-vision
Supervision refers normally to overseeing, but it can also refer to a vision that sees far beyond the ordinary, just as the word superman refers [...]