How to know when desire becomes dangerous? — Desire management series 8
When we use something powerful like electricity, warning systems such as fuses alert us if electric power starts rising to dangerous levels. Like electricity, desire [...]
The way to a better future
The future can be better than the present and we can play a part in bringing about that future — this hope empowers us to [...]
How are material achievement and spiritual achievement different?
We all want to achieve something special. Does this drive to achieve need to be renounced if we want to grow spiritually? Not really; we [...]
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 [...]
The two endings of the Gita point to the same end
The Bhagavad-gita has two endings based on the two nested conversations that comprise its narrative. The outer, framing conversation is at Hastinapura between Sanjaya and [...]
Enlightenment ends the mind’s search for alternatives to Krishna
We are all searching for some object as a source of love and pleasure. Gita wisdom explains that we are actually searching for Krishna, the [...]
Perceive the way before you pursue the way
http://bhagavadgitaclass.com/bhagavad-gita-chapter-01-text-30/Losing our way is often unnerving. Much more unnerving is feeling so hopelessly lost as to think that there’s no way ahead. This happens when [...]
Spiritual perfection requires detachment from our own body, what to speak of others’ bodies
Contemporary culture revels in glamorizing sex through myriad mind-grabbing means. This pervasive glamorization sometimes even seeps into spiritual circles, wherein appear slogans such as sambhoga [...]
See the pleasure that ends in trouble as trouble, not pleasure
Education enables us to see things as they are, irrespective of how they appear to be. Thus for example a well-informed person, as contrasted with [...]
Sense gratification is a fascinating path to frustration
“Eat this; see this; touch this – and you will enjoy.” The world glamorizes sense gratification thus. In striking contrast, the Bhagavad-gita (05.22) asserts that [...]
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 [...]
Play the part of the part and the whole will fill the hole
We sometimes feel a hole within – a sense of emptiness that gnaws especially when we aren’t deadening ourselves internally with the racehorse pace and [...]
The bird may be encaged, but its desires stay engaged in the field
A bird may be physically restrained by a cage, but it can’t be mentally restrained from dreaming and craving about the grains it could have [...]
Celebrate the commotion of emotion in the ocean of devotion
Some people conceive of spiritual perfection as an emotionless peace, a sanctuary of silence beyond the agitations and complications of material existence. Gita wisdom acknowledges [...]
Devotion is the emotion that takes us beyond all other emotions
When a mother loves her infant, that maternal emotion takes her beyond all other emotions. For example, she may be exhausted after a day of [...]
Losing our way to find our way
Life sometimes brings us to a dead end. In the face of overwhelming obstacles, everything seems lost. We feel as if we have lost our [...]
Let’s learn to laugh with others, not laugh at others
Laughing at others – their fallacies and follies – is something we often enjoy. If not publically, then at least privately. It makes us feel [...]
Are our desires locking us into a world of frustration or releasing us into the world of fulfillment?
We all may have experiences of how while dreaming and desiring something, we get transported somewhere into the world of our dreams, removed from everything [...]
Can we recognize that we haven’t recognized ourselves?
“That couldn’t have been me.” This is what people say when they think of what they did under the spell of alcohol – actions that [...]
Completeness comes not by material amelioration or mechanical reconnection, but by emotional redirection
We all frequently feel that something is missing in our life. In fact, our entire life with its varied pursuits – career, wealth, position, spouse, [...]
Go beyond the beyond
Many people think that the goal of spirituality is to go beyond emotions and actions, and attain peace by merging in an impersonal light. However, [...]