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 [...]
How lust distorts our value system
How lust distorts our value system - Suppose a shopping mall were built to psychologically manipulate consumers to buy anything that attracted them, without considering [...]
Lust allures men with pleasure and women with power
Men sometimes accuse women of dressing provocatively. Women sometimes accuse men of seeing women just as sex objects. Taking the discussion beyond such blame games, [...]
Tolerance means withstanding the presence without succumbing to the influence
Suppose we have a disagreeable neighbor. We can’t evict him, but we don’t have to waste our time quarreling with him. We do the needful [...]
Respond to the fire of desire not with fright but with fight
Suppose a novice firefighter is faced with the task of dousing a huge fire. The sight of the conflagration may overwhelm him – instead of [...]
To divorce the personal from the professional is to be blind to the essential
Nowadays there’s an increasing tendency to divorce people’s personal life from their professional life. Heads of state may have scandalous affairs, but if they keep [...]
Rationalization is temptation’s spin-doctor
When we strive to lead a principle-centered life, we reject the temptations that violate our principles. However, temptation doesn’t so easily take no for an [...]
Our intelligence can be overcome by illusion, yet it is also the key to overcome illusion
To practice spiritual life means to wage an inner war against the illusion created by our lower desires, especially lust. The Bhagavad-gita (03.36-43) vividly outlines [...]
The culture may give a license to lust, but nature doesn’t
Lust is ubiquitous in today’s society with billboards depicting prurient images and movies enacting explicit scenes. Displays that would have appalled people even a few [...]
Lust de-spiritualizes the subject and dehumanizes the object
When the culture depicts lust as the expressway to enjoyment, how can we understand the Bhagavad-gita’s declaration (03.37) that lust is the enemy of the [...]
The cure for lust comes not by condemning the object but by cleansing the subject
The object of lust refers to the thing that triggers lust. The subject of lust refers to the person within whom lust is triggered. Condemning [...]
Lust doesn’t just bind us – it also makes us fight to hold on to its bonds
If someone were being bound by ropes, that person would naturally fight to untie the bonds. But suppose that person fights instead to hold on [...]
Conquer vice not just by fighting harder, but by rising higher
Vice is the inner self-destructive force that promises quick pleasure but ends up binding us to misery and bondage. The Bhagavad-gita (03.36 - 03.43) provides [...]
That which is unwillingly learned is willingly unlearned
When we practice bhakti-yoga, we frequently find ourselves relapsing to worldly anti-devotional indulgences. Why does this happen? Because in the school of devotion we are [...]
Don’t just punish lust-dominated individuals; purify lust-tormented individuals
The Bhagavad-gita’s flow contains many leaps of thought that when understood using the commentaries of devotionally adept Gita teachers provide precious insights into life and [...]
When a wildfire appears to be the cure for a burn, a wildfire is burning our head
When a fire burns us, we immediately move away from it towards something cooling and healing. Yet when the fire of lust burns us, we [...]
Beware of the heart attack that makes us morally unconscious
Heart attacks are among the most feared things today. They may reduce a healthy, normal person to an unconscious heap on the ground in a [...]
Love values, but value love more
Values protect us from impulses. When we become angry or lusty or greedy, our values, especially our ethical and behavioral values, check us from acting [...]
The mental avatar of AIDS
AIDS is an extremely dangerous disease, largely because of its sinister method of attack. Normally when a disease attacks the body, the immune system springs [...]
Spiritual culture is the bridge from hypocrisy and perversity to purity
We sometimes get impure desires such as sexual attraction towards someone. Many people choose to fulfill these impure desires privately through various secret arrangements. By [...]
Let sleeping tigers sleep – don’t pinch them
“I thought I had become free from that attachment. Why has it come back?” Questions like these often describe our inner trajectory as devotee-seekers. When [...]