When devotion doesn’t feel good …
Suppose a disease weakens us and kills our appetite. If we are provided a healing and energizing medicine, we don’t have to feel hungry to [...]
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 eating (18.52) — one way [...]
Does devotion result in renunciation?
The bhakti tradition features sterling examples of great saints who became so devoted to Krishna as to completely renounce the world. Simultaneously, bhakti-yoga is celebrated [...]
Is our body fast becoming an ego feast?
Suppose we fast strictly on sacred days, abstaining even from water. When we see others eating normally, we may look down at them, thinking, “These [...]
Fanatics use God’s name to give God a bad name
The news often reports how religious fanatics kill innocent people and justify their barbarity in the name of God. Such reports, coupled with ghastly imagery, [...]
Let your practices make you a spiritual fruit, not a religious nut
Religious nuts are those people who in the name of religion become fanatical, irrational, disagreeable. In contrast, spiritual fruits are those religious practitioners who manifest [...]
If an ideal inspires more regret than reform, an intermediate ideal is required
Suppose a hospital gym has weights so heavy that they can’t even be budged by those patients who need to exercise. Such weights will make [...]
Don’t let our desire to use something for Krishna become greater than our desire for Krishna
Suppose we are driving to meet someone dear to us, and we get a desire to offer them a special gift. But we get so [...]
To respect Krishna, respect the time we have carved out for Krishna
Suppose we are to meet someone who says they respect us profusely. But suppose they don’t turn up for the meeting – and that happens [...]
Without going deeply into one tradition, we can’t deeply appreciate any tradition
When we start exploring life’s spiritual side, we may hesitate to commit ourselves to any particular spiritual path: “Won’t that make me close-minded and incapable [...]
Keep the mind on one track, don’t keep a one track mind
To keep the mind on one track means to keep our attention focused on one overarching life-purpose, whatever distractions the world may present. Those with [...]
Fanatics don’t see how God is present everywhere; they see how God is absent everywhere
Religious fanatics often attack those whom they deem heretics. They usually justify their actions by claiming that they are fervently devoted to God. However, their [...]
Ritualists see hierarchy above equality, spiritualists see equality above hierarchy
We cherish equality; we don’t want anyone to be discriminated against. Simultaneously, our hard-nosed side cautions that some hierarchies are essential for the orderly conduct [...]
Humility is the pathway to Krishna, not the password to position in a power structure
Some people are humble and submissive in front of their seniors, but haughty and abusive with their juniors. Why are they two-faced? Because their humility [...]
The cure for ritualism is not the rejection of ritual but the infusion of emotion into ritual
Some people criticize religious rituals as mindless performances and campaign for their rejection. However, rituals are present in every walk of life. For example, when [...]
Use self-control to commit the self to the control of the supreme self
Suppose a person has a severe digestive disorder that requires not just dietary regulation but also medical treatment. The patient’s self-control in eating is beneficial [...]