Bhagavad Gita Chapter 08

• Chapter 08, Text 04
• We don’t breathe twice in the same body
• Chapter 08, Text 05
• What we think of at our death is more important than what others think about us after our death
• We are like birds on a branch — our wings need to grow before the branch breaks
• Chapter 08, Text 06
• Life is a test of taste
• Our disposition at death determines our destination after death
• Our belief system doesn’t just shape our perception of reality - it becomes our reality
• Chapter 08, Text 07
• Bhakti integrates our emotional and rational faculties
• Balance the here and the hereafter through bhakti-yoga
• Be not scared of the sacred
• Let devotion be your steering wheel, not your spare wheel
• Go beyond naughty desires and knotty doubts
• Devotion enables us to strike a deal between the extraordinary and the ordinary
• Let our potentials, not our problems, define us
• Are we changing the world or is the world changing us?
• “Now and then” or “from now on”?
• Feed the heart a healthy diet, not a deadly diet
• Life’s speed-breakers are meant to be faith-builders, not faith-breakers
• Krishna is not life’s sole goal – he is life’s whole goal
• The key to offering ourselves to Krishna is offering our mind and intelligence to him
• At death, we don’t have to leave home; we can go home
• Express affection through recollection and attention
• Count your blessings – and your toes too
• Appreciating Krishna’s immanence integrates recollection and participation
• Combination of inner recollection and outer contribution nourishes devotion
• When we love the Lord more than the world, he takes us out of the world
• Don't just keep waiting – keep pushing too
• Devotion is expressed through intention and attention, not just emotion and action
• We can’t avoid being pushed by time, but we can choose where we are pushed by time
• Our deepest desires should direct us from within, not disappear within
• Meditation is not the antithesis of action, it is the basis of action
• Chapter 08, Text 08
• Leave no space to space out
• To end our forgetfulness, let’s first commit to end our forgetfulness of our forgetfulness
• Chapter 08, Text 09
• Remembrance of Krishna’s immanence brings resilience during our march to transcendence
• Just as wet clothes can’t dry us, an impure mind can't purify us
• For God, no problem is too big – or too small
• Chapter 08, Text 10
• Let the restless mind find rest in Krishna
• Chapter 08, Text 14
• Seek not moments of devotion; seek momentum in devotion
• Krishna is not just a point for meditation - he is the person for supplication
• The world’s being a miserable place doesn’t mean we have to be miserable
• We live in a broken world, but we don’t have to live broken lives
• Fixing the mind on Krishna is the lever for fixing the mind
• Spiritual evolution is best energized by devotional elevation
• We may have a great vehicle, but we won’t get anywhere unless we get into it
• Chapter 08, Text 15
• Might we be shooting the messenger instead of pondering the message?
• We can’t create paradise, nor were we created in paradise – but we can go to paradise
• Beyond the love that hides to the love that guides
• We can’t change the nature of nature, but we can change the nature of desire
• The world is a hospital; be hospitable to the doctor
• To see life’s positive side, understand what life is and what its positive side is
• See misery as confirmation of scripture – and as impetus to further confirm scripture
• Death for the devoted is not destruction, but discharge
• Trying to get rid of misery is like trying to get rid of one’s shadow
• The Gita is optimistic about what matters most
• Suffering doesn’t have to be isolating – it can be integrating
• Our focus reveals our purpose
• Misery is a fact of life, but it is not the purpose of life
• Reality is not as rosy as our dreams, but neither is it as scary as our nightmares
• The world is a place for treatment, not enjoyment
• See pain as a protector and a pointer
• Life may be filled with problems, but life is not a problem
• Just because pain is circumstantially beneficial doesn’t mean it is intrinsically desirable
• When life is uncomfortable, thank God that it is not unbearable
• To forget that the world is a hurtful place is to place ourselves on a path full of hurts
• Chapter 08, Text 16
• Gain double empowerment for destination eternity
• Our life takes off when we understand how soon life takes us off
• Even if we fare well in life, we still have to say farewell to life
• Chapter 08, Text 17
• Reflect on time’s cyclicity to reduce the mind’s imbecility
• Chapter 08, Text 19
• Material nature is characterized by cyclic proces, not linear progress
• Chapter 08, Text 20
• Waking up from the nightmare of death
• The spiritual world exists not just at a different location but at a different level of reality
• Chapter 08, Text 21
• Meaning is determined by not just content but also context
• The supreme abode is the Supreme’s abode
• Chapter 08, Text 22
• Let the pat on the back for our intellectual conquests not become a nail in the coffin of our devotional prospects
• Everything is in Krishna and Krishna is in everything
• Think not how far the spiritual world is; think how close the Lord of the spiritual world is
• Chapter 08. Text 27
• In life’s final exam, worry not about circumstantial logistics; rely on transcendental dynamics