The True Result of Spiritual Practice
When we commit to practicing spirituality and understanding our true identity as eternal souls, what is the actual, tangible result in our daily lives? According [...]
The Only Time I Failed an Exam
“I just can't believe that I failed.” A distraught student at the University of Toronto said this to me after my talk there on September [...]
Why We Must Not Reduce Ourselves to Our Roles
In life, we wear many hats and play many roles. We possess functional identities based on our gender, age, profession, nationality, and relationship status. While [...]
The Bhagavad Gita on Overthinking
Bhagavad-gita 18.35 describes determination in the mode of ignorance through five mental habits that together provide a remarkably comprehensive picture of how thinking goes wrong [...]
Question: Why exactly did Arjuna collapse at the start of the Bhagavad Gita? What made him so indecisive that he became paralyzed?
Answer: Decision-making is hard when there is no good choice. That was Arjuna's dilemma, because both fighting and not fighting were painful options. Fighting meant [...]
When a Child’s Cry for Help Goes Unheard
According to reports, a nine-year-old student in Jaipur allegedly died by suicide after prolonged bullying at school. Recently released CCTV footage has led to renewed [...]
Question: Considering the case of Ketan Agarwal, is murder destined or is it because of poor judgment?
Answer: Such a question has no simple answer. As the Bhagavad Gita itself acknowledges, gahanā karmaṇo gatiḥ—the workings of karma are profound and difficult to [...]
Loss, guilt, and despair: the trio of emotions that can make our inner world toxic
Life often thrusts upon us difficult, dangerous, or distressing situations that can trigger negative emotions. While most such emotions decline and depart with time as [...]
Why has God created our mind to act as our enemy so frequently and forcefully?
God has provided us with the mind as a functional tool to link our spiritual selves with our physical bodies. However, the specific way the [...]
Our mind deserves better than its present contents
Suppose we travel extensively and come across a place that is exquisitely beautiful, naturally rich with resources, and yet feels desolate and desperate. This could [...]
In pursuing self-discipline is our imagination working for us or against us?
Whenever we decide to discipline ourselves, we are often jolted into action by external situations. For instance, we may notice how much weight we have [...]
What’s wrong with the worldview of dread?
What's wrong with the worldview of dread? The worldview of dread refers to a deep-rooted fear of the entangling nature of existence, characterized by a [...]
What’s wrong with the worldview of despair?
The worldview of despair arises when individuals believe that life has no inherent meaning. This outlook often emerges when people recognize the futility of materialistic [...]
Why exhaust ourselves by believing in our worries when we can energize ourselves by believing in God’s promises?
When we encounter challenging situations, our minds tend to focus on all the ways things might go wrong. This constant worrying can drain us, filling [...]
Developing Resilience by Changing Our Driving Question
We all need to develop resilience because life is hard—it will knock us down sooner or later. Resilience is largely determined by what goes on [...]
Be upright not uptight be gentle but not fickle
To be upright means to have high moral integrity and resistance to temptation or corruption. On the other hand, to be uptight means to be [...]
Detachment: Gaining flexibility and perspective
Attachments often make us rigid in ways that are curious, as we become inflexible about things that aren’t particularly important. For example, we might [...]
Anxiety: is it coming from insecurity or from gravity?
Anxiety: is it coming from insecurity or from gravity? - Anxiety can arise from a sense of insecurity or a sense of gravity. The latter [...]
Unmanageable Emotions and Temptation: Seeking Relief Through Indulgence
Our vulnerability to temptation comes not just from unmanageable desires but also from unmanaged emotions. Whenever we succumb to temptation, we tend to think that [...]
When the urgent seems important and makes us impotent
When the urgent seems important and makes us impotent - Suppose we have ten urgent things to do that all seem equally important. If these [...]
How to let go of the unchangeable
How to let go of the unchangeable - Suppose a dream project of ours fails irrecoverably. Having no other alternatives, we may grit our teeth [...]