Why is it so difficult to feel grateful?
If asked specifically to list things we are grateful for, we all can easily list several things. Yet during our daily life, we don’t so [...]
The first application of spiritual knowledge
Suppose a medically well-informed person gets a disease with scary symptoms. If they know that those symptoms are an inevitable and non-lethal part of the [...]
How the mind is a robber who pretends to be a well-wisher
Suppose a robber comes to our house pretending to be our well-wisher and tells us that our car which we had parked on a nearby [...]
How to get the mind to go along with us?
We sometimes resolve to do certain things that are important for us. But our mind stubbornly refuses to go along. Anticipating our predicament, the Bhagavad-gita [...]
How to get away from the mind when it troubles us?
When someone speaks negative things constantly, we may feel the need to get away from them. We may feel a similar need when our mind [...]
How to ensure that our phones are connecting us, not disconnecting us
In today’s fast-moving world, we seek phones to stay connected with our loved ones while we are physically away from them. But when we are [...]
How depressed desire leads to depression
Suppose someone riding a cycle pedals too fast and falls into a ditch. On getting up, they decide that pedaling caused their accident and refuse [...]
How are material achievement and spiritual achievement different?
We all want to achieve something special. Does this drive to achieve need to be renounced if we want to grow spiritually? Not really; we [...]
How to speak an unpalatable truth?
Truth is unpalatable — we may quote this saying while speaking to others some truth that is likely to hurt them. Yes, we all are [...]
Do we choose our interests or do our interests choose us?
We all can think of several things in our life that are important for us, yet they just don't interest us. Why can't we simply [...]
When our interests aren’t in your best interests …
The word ‘interests’ can refer either to the things that we find interesting or to the things that are beneficial and rewarding for us, as [...]
How we become both villains and victims …
Typical movies have two characters: one who acts in villainous ways and one who is victimized by those villainous actions. But suppose a movie featured [...]
When things don’t make sense …
Suppose in a forest, a huge fire suddenly breaks out for no apparent reason. Most people will flee in panic. When trained fire-fighters arrive at [...]
Understanding the reflective self and the impulsive self
We often experience an inner tug of war between opposing voices. To better understand these forces, let’s consider the dynamics of our inner world, as [...]
Avoiding the Duryodhana delusion
At the start of the Bhagavad-gita, Duryodhana assesses the strengths of the two armies assembled on the Kurukshetra batl (01.02-01.10). Therein, he mentions the principal [...]
How we end up neglecting life’s important things
When people face sudden disaster or death, they often realize that they have wasted so much of their life on unimportant things while neglecting important [...]
Is the dark side stronger than the bright side?
We all have inside us a divine side and a demonic side, or phrased metaphorically, a bright side and a dark side. The bright side [...]
When what we do doesn’t seem to matter …
When we experience how the world is filled with big problems, we may think, “What a tiny person like me does or doesn’t do hardly [...]
How we all can be dangerous, be we strong or weak
Suppose someone is strong, be it physically, economically, politically. We easily understand that they can be dangerous if they start abusing their strength. However, [...]
How to see desire as a blessing, not as a burden?
On the spiritual path, we often think of desire as a burden that needs to be shed. And yes, many of our desires do impede [...]
Why do small things irritate us so much?
We may notice that our mood often gets spoiled when some small things go wrong. Why do we get so irritated by small negatives? Because [...]