From gifts in life to the gift of life
When striving to cultivate gratitude, we often attempt to look at the things that are good in our life and see those things as gifts. [...]
Is gratitude a state or a trait?
Gratitude can be both, and it is best when manifested as both. Let’s see how. State: Gratitude as a state refers to the emotions of [...]
What we do with our blessings
In our life, we all have both blessings and problems. Unfortunately, we often tend to fixate on our problems, which may arise due to our [...]
Gita 10.17 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Bg 10.17 kathaṁ vidyām ahaṁ [...]
Love without sacrifice?
Love is one of the most common themes in popular media such as movies and novels. As today’s culture is increasingly moving toward individualism, sometimes [...]
Gita 08.07 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan We have to remember Krishna [...]
Gita 18.35 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Now let us discuss determination [...]
How can grievous wrongdoing be reconciled with devotion?
The Bhagavad-gita (09.30) raises a serious question: How can grievous wrongdoing and devotion go together? To address this question, consider the ocean-anchor metaphor. We all [...]
Gita 07.19 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya In this 7th chapter now we [...]
Seeing Krishna’s love for us and showing our love for him
Many of us turn toward God after we have tried everything else in our quest to be happy and it all has left us disappointed. [...]
Two ways of surrendering to God’s will
In the Bhagavad-gita’s conclusion, Arjuna responds to Krishna’s call to surrender (18.66) by resolving to do Krishna’s will (18.73). To understand what his declaration means, [...]
Gita 12.09 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Below 12.8 is12.9, practice Sadhan [...]
Why Krishna considers as good souls those who come to him even for worldly desires
In the Bhagavad-gita (07.16), Krishna mentions four categories of people who approach him. Among these people, the majority fall into two categories: those who see [...]
Gita 10.09 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Bg 10.9 mac-cittā mad-gata-prāṇā bodhayantaḥ [...]
Gita 18.65 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan Bg 18.65 man-manā bhava mad-bhakto [...]
Why discipline is important — and not just for self-improvement
We often presume that discipline is something we need to adopt if we want to improve ourselves: say, become fitter, more well-read or more skilled. [...]
Whose respect are we trying to earn?
We all have a need to be respected. At a basic level, when we enter a room, we would like to be noticed, greeted, and [...]
Are Krishna’s Gita teachings exclusivist?
Not at all. What makes a path exclusivist is its claim that it alone has exclusive rights to God. What makes an exclusivist path bad [...]
Gita 17.12 explained
Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan But on the other hand [...]
Does Krishna teach Arjuna that all paths lead to the same goal? – part 2
As discussed in the first part of this series, the idea that all paths lead to the same goal doesn’t hold true for Arjuna’s different [...]
Why is Krishna’s description of devotion so unemotional?
In the Bhagavad-gita’s twelfth chapter, Krishna’s list of qualities of devotees (12.13-20) don’t include any descriptions of devotional ecstasy. Far from it, the list stresses [...]