Gita 04.09 explained
Bg 4.9 janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna Word for word: janma — [...]
How Krishna’s pastimes reveal him to be the ultimate hero
How Krishna catches our attention: While watching an action movie, our attention is often caught by the hero’s spectacular action sequences. When Krishna descends to [...]
Two purposes of Krishna’s descent (Exploring the Gita chapter 4 series – 4)
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna mentions that he descends for two purposes (04.07-08 & 04.09-10). To better understand these purposes, let’s consider two classificatory frameworks: external-internal [...]
How Superman’s history helps us understand Krishna’s intimate divinity
Superman was among the first in the galaxy of super-heroes that populates the DC universe. The history of Superman’s evolution points to an important truth [...]
How Krishna descends to civilize and spiritualize humanity
One of the greatest civilizing forces in human history has been the belief in a God who keeps track of our actions and who [...]
Devotion is not just about bringing God into our life; it is also about letting God bring us into his life
Most people nowadays are functionally nontheistic; they may not be explicitly atheistic, but they live as if God doesn’t matter. We start bringing God into [...]
Krishna retains his divine position even while he reclines in a supine position
Those who see Krishna’s pastimes as a child sometimes wonder: “How can such a child be God?” To unravel this mystery, let’s first look at [...]
See Krishna not just as an object of entertainment, but as the objective of enlightenment
Many people are introduced to Krishna through his stories narrated by their grandparents or depicted in comics or movies. Such depictions often leave people with [...]
The theatrical Krishna takes us to the transcendental Krishna
We are naturally attracted to theatrical things – to things that are intriguing, entertaining, astonishing. Channeling our attraction to the theatrical, Krishna performs dramatic pastimes [...]
Krishna is not an optional source of entertainment – he is the indispensable source of shelter
Many people like to hear Krishna’s pastimes as a pious form of entertainment. Even if they know vaguely that he is God, their interest in [...]
To understand God, begin with definition, not depiction
On seeing God depicted in temples, we may get the question, “Who created God?” This question arises from a fundamental misunderstanding about God’s nature. To [...]
The more we comprehend Krishna’s transcendence, the more we cherish his munificence
Suppose a country’s president visits a jail for inspiring prisoners to reform and be released. But suppose the prisoners ignorantly mistake the president to be [...]
Evaluating action without understanding position causes delusion
Suppose a tribal ignorant of surgery comes to a hospital and sees a surgeon cutting the patient’s body. Alarmed, he cries out, “Killer, killer, killer.” [...]
The unborn takes birth to save us from rebirth
God is the source of everything. This foundational definition of God implies that he is the source of time too, for everything includes time. This [...]
The divine descent is meant to inspire the human ascent
Among the oft-quoted verses of the Bhagavad-gita are those describing God’s periodic descent (04.07-08): Whenever adharma predominates, he descends and re-establishes dharma, cosmic order. Still, [...]
The spiritual lies beyond both the logical and the psychological
The logical worldview accepts only those things that make sense to the intelligence’s logical faculty. So, it may, for example, dismiss the notion of God [...]
Krishna is the ultimate knight in shining armor
The knight in shining armor is a staple theme in fiction. Usually appearing as the savior of a damsel in distress, the knight fights to [...]
Love God, not the concept of God
The concept of God refers to an intellectualized or sentimentalized notion of God that is more a projection of one’s own preference than the revelation [...]
Study pastimes not to swoop down on their meaning, but to be swept up by their emotion
When we come across something intellectually challenging such as a crossword puzzle or a riddle, we feel stimulated and thrilled to “crack” it. We may [...]
Krishna descends to offer not just protection but also participation
One of the most quoted verses of the Bhagavad-gita (04.08) states the purpose of Krishna’s periodic descents: cosmic protection. He protects the social and spiritual [...]
Krishna’s pastimes are the trailer and the trail
The Bhagavad-gita (04.09) asserts that those who understand Krishna’s pastimes in truth attain liberation. How can liberation, elusive even for renunciates performing prolonged austerities, be [...]