Does surrender necessitate checking the brain at the door of the house of God?
Does surrender necessitate checking the brain at the door of the house of God? - Surrender doesn't mean checking our brain at the door on [...]
How to counter the fickle mind with a stable intelligence
How to counter the fickle mind with a stable intelligence - Even if we can't stop our mind from being fickle, we can start making [...]
How ego blocks self-improvement and humility aids self-improvement
How ego blocks self-improvement and humility aids self-improvement - Humility can be an extremely empowering virtue, especially for self-improvement. This might seem counterintuitive because people [...]
Supervise vice or It Will Catch Us in a Super-Vise
Vice refers to the impure, dishonorable, and destructive desires within us that can lurk in the background, loom in the foreground, or leap into a [...]
A Moment of Thought to Evaluate the Thought of the Moment
We are constantly filled with thoughts, many of which pop up and then disappear without us paying much attention. This in itself is not a [...]
Are we connecting the dots or concocting the dots to connect?
Connecting the dots is a sign of perceptive intelligence, while creating the dots that can then be conveniently connected is a sign of deceptive intelligence. [...]
Understanding what pushes us toward transcendence and what pulls us toward transcendence
Intelligence means keeping accessible not just the factors that push us toward transcendence but also those that pull us. When we aspire to grow spiritually [...]
How desire abducts and abandons us
Desire abducts with the promise of pleasure and abandons us in the province of trouble. The Bhagavad Gita (18.38) states that sensual desires lead us [...]
Preventing the need for food from becoming greed for food
Detachment arises from understanding that desire can only be dealt with by tolerating it, never by titillating it. We all face sensual desires, and it [...]
What truth will our life story demonstrate?
We can choose what truth our life story will demonstrate: what is possible with God or what is inevitable without him. Our life is defined [...]
Two steps to stop feeling sorry for ourselves
Wherever we go, we will be carrying our sorry self with us; stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and stop being the kind of person that [...]
Three tests to counter rumor-mongering
One of the fundamental implications of the Bhagavad Gita 16.2 directive to be averse to fault-finding is to avoid engaging in rumor-mongering. This means not [...]
Tackling impurity from indulgence to transcendence
Impurity needs to be tackled by focusing on transcendence, not tickled by fantasizing about indulgence. Whenever we have any impurity within us that triggers desires [...]
From wishful and fretful thinking to prayerful and purposeful thinking
Let our thinking not be wishful or fearful; let it be prayerful and purposeful. Our thinking capacity is our most powerful capacity. It is the [...]
The essence of karma philosophy is not punishment but encouragement
The essence of karma philosophy is not punishment but encouragement The concept of karma has become widespread to the point of having gained mainstream acceptance, [...]
How discernment makes detachment easier
Detachment becomes easier with discernment. When we understand that what we seek to let go of was never really there or was never really ours, [...]
Three ways to differentiate between punishing and scapegoating
The difference between finding a criminal and scapegoating someone can be broadly defined by three main aspects: Method: In the case of scapegoating, the accused [...]
Three reasons for differences of opinion
Three reasons for differences of opinion Differences in opinion can often lead to conflict, especially in today’s hyper-individualistic age. The tendency now is to view [...]
“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 [...]
When orthodoxy overrides morality decency humanity
Devotion is characterized more by the protection of morality than by the protection of orthodoxy. All theistic traditions worldwide are associated with certain ritual practices [...]
Speaking our mind or speaking with our mind?
Before we speak our mind, we need to speak with our mind; otherwise, it is our mind that will speak—instead of us, and not for [...]