When the tendency to doubt helps
When the tendency to doubt helps - In today’s educated circles, doubt is celebrated as an intellectual strength. Whenever thoughtful people encounter any claim, especially [...]
When the tendency to doubt helps - In today’s educated circles, doubt is celebrated as an intellectual strength. Whenever thoughtful people encounter any claim, especially [...]
How pride can corrupt both faith and doubt - We often equate pride with respect-demanding and self-congratulatory hubris. But it can appear much more subtly [...]
What does it mean to know Krishna? - The Bhagavad-gita repeatedly talks about knowing Krishna — those who know him attain his abode (04.09). What [...]
How could past people believe in things we find irrational? - Some people argue, “Past people who believed ancient texts were irrational — that’s why [...]
Three benefits of fasting - Fasting is a time-honored practice in most of the world’s great traditions. The Bhagavad-gita too urges us to minimize our [...]
Is the Gita’s declaration about the world’s distressful nature pessimistic? - When we hear the Bhagavad-gita statement (08.15) that the world is a place of [...]
The Bhagavad-gita begins with a rigid differentiation between matter and spirit (02.11-30), wherein the properties of the spiritual particle, the soul, are shown to be [...]
Does devotion result in renunciation? - The bhakti tradition features sterling examples of great saints who became so devoted to Krishna as to completely renounce [...]
Is our body fast becoming an ego feast? - Suppose we fast strictly on sacred days, abstaining even from water. When we see others eating [...]
Are scriptural descriptions of Krishna literal? - When we hear the descriptions of Krishna given in scripture — for example, his complexion is bluish-black — [...]
We live in an uncertain world where sudden and severe changes can fill us with fear, even panic. If we get our sense of confidence [...]
Suppose we walk on the streets of a giant metropolis, surrounded by huge skyscrapers, thousands of passers-by and hundreds of cars. We may feel small, [...]
Most people nowadays are functionally nontheistic; they may not be explicitly atheistic, but they live as if God doesn’t matter. We start bringing God into [...]
Suppose a coach takes the potential of a budding cricketer seriously. That means even if the player goes through a bad patch, the coach stands [...]
Suppose we are speaking with someone and we sense that they aren’t really hearing us, that they aren’t offering us either an attentive ear or [...]
Contemporary society has largely said no to God — not so much by denying his existence as by relegating him to irrelevance. Most people nowadays [...]
On seeing impressive scientific instruments, we may wonder, “Can science develop an instrument sophisticated enough to perceive God?” That’s like asking: will a future telescope [...]
When people do horrible things, we may wonder, “Where does such evil come from? Are some people innately evil? Or are they impelled to evil [...]
The world is becoming increasingly materialistic and opportunistic. Such people often have no purpose or value beyond the gratification of their sensual desires (Bhagavad-gita 16.07). [...]
Some people ask, “If God loves us, why does he interfere with our enjoyment?” God doesn’t interfere with our enjoyment; he helps us infer what [...]
Some people ask, “Is God impartial? If so, then why does Krishna take the Pandavas’ side in Mahabharata?” Yes, God is impartial. He is transcendental [...]