Let Krishna permeate, pervade and possess our heart
Devotional advancement essentially means letting Krishna enter and rule our heart. This may happen in the following three progressive stages: 1. Permeation: Just as water from [...]
From the reality of nature to the nature of reality
The reality of nature: Intrying to understand this,science equates the natural with the material. All the great theories of science are essentially attempts to understand [...]
Don’t fall for the mind’s “no time” trick
“You don’t have any time.” This is how the mind often summarily rejects our plans for devotional activities like mantra meditation. We may indeed have [...]
Ask not “Why this?” but “How now?”
When we encounter sudden adversities, we usually get the question, “Why is Krishna doing this to me?” Gita wisdom explains that when we hold Krishna [...]
Give Krishna his due to prevent death from taking more than its due
Death has a right on our physical body. We can’t stop it from consuming its due, but we don’t have to give it more than [...]
Go beyond captivity to futility and utility
As practicing spiritualists, we may face the question, “What should be my attitude towards the material world?” Let’s first look at the three broad attitudes [...]
Enlightenment that is universal, beneficial and non-imitable
What is enlightenment? It essentially means understanding where to direct our heart's longing for love and directing it accordingly. The Bhagavad-gita (15.18) states that the enlightened offer [...]
Conviction and purification take us from the poison to the nectar
As devotees who wish to rise from the material level to the spiritual level, we often face the question, “How do I sustain myself during [...]
Go beyond the stocking of information to the flowing of service
As we live in an information-centered age, we are often stimulated by new information. When we encounter the Bhagavad-gita, we tend to seek stimulation in [...]
Be not fanatical – be fanatically focused
Some people ask Krishna devotees, “When the Vedic culture includes the worship of so many gods, why are you a Krishna fanatic?” Because Krishna devotees [...]
Don’t blame gravity for the sinking of the boat
“I succumbed to immoral indulgences because my material desires were too strong.” Sometimes we may thus rationalize our fall from principles of spiritual integrity. This [...]
Why pursue pleasure in a prison of protoplasm?
Our material body is a prison of protoplasm for us souls. Just asprison life inevitably involves sufferings like grueling work and unpleasant living conditions, the [...]
Anahankara = an + aham + car (I am not my car)
 “You are your car,” claims a billboard displaying a person driving a flashy car. The ad indicates how one’s car determines one’s image in [...]
When attention seems like detention, we need education
Attention is crucial for enjoying anything. When a reputed sports player is in action, fans enjoy by attentively watching all the action and even the [...]
Let sleeping tigers sleep – don’t pinch them
“I thought I had become free from that attachment. Why has it come back?” Questions like these often describe our inner trajectory as devotee-seekers. When [...]
Navigating our way between the ideal and the real
Life frequently forces us to face the conflict between the ideal and the real: what we want to be ideally and how we are really; [...]
Science and Bhagavad-gita both go from the visible to the invisible
The fall of a fruit. Millions of people had seen this specific event that Newton saw. What made Newton different was that he went beyond [...]
Contemplation on Krishna brings illumination
Some people question the spiritual recommendation to think about Krishna at all times and especially in times of distress: “What is its benefit? How is [...]
Raise the curiosity radar from the how questions to the why questions
Curiosity is one of our defining characteristics – we are shaped by what we seek and find on our curiosity radar. Science, philosophy, literature and [...]
Lust is our longest and worst life-partner – divorce it
Lust is our longest life-partner – from the first hints of adolescence to the last gasps of old age, even to the death-bed; from the [...]
Devotion takes us beyond being hunted and haunted
We sometimes face problems that seem to hunt us externally and passions that seem to haunt us internally. Hunted: We may feel attacked by problems [...]