- Chapter 09, Text 01
- You are supremely lovable; to love you, make me able
- Gita 09.01 explained
- Why can the envious not understand the Gita’s knowledge? (Exploring the Gita chapter 9 series - 1)
- Education provides insight; experience provides taste
- The confidentiality of devotion is not due to the frugality of divine grace, but the scarcity of human desire
- Chapter 09, Text 02
- The secrecy that feels like mockery is truly your mercy
- Gita 09.02 explained
- Don’t let doubt stop our human search for understanding (Dealing with doubt 6)
- Three meanings of spring as applied to bhakti
- What differentiates spiritualists from materialists is not absence of pain but presence of healing
- Spiritual knowledge is not just propositional – it is also transformational
- See religion not as a cultural phenomenon, but as a spiritual process
- Practice bhakti for experience, not expedience
- Realization harmonizes scientific experimentation with spiritual revelation
- Devotion passes and surpasses the intellect
- Devotion takes us beyond the rational faculty to the transformational facility
- Let reason be our minister, not our master
- Bhakti is not just cultural or historical but also universal and eternal
- Confirmation comes by conformation
- Bhakti purifies, sanctifies and amplifies our emotions
- Chapter 09, Text 03
- Raise my love to you, O Lord most lovable
- Gita 09.03 explained
- Don’t uproot in doubt what was planted in faith
- Chapter 09, Text 04
- Chapter 09, Text 04-05
- Chapter 09, Text 05
- Gita 09.05 explained
- Spiritual growth requires rising from “either-or” thinking to “and” thinking
- The logic of the finite doesn’t limit the infinite
- Krishna underlies and oversees, pervades and transcends, cherishes and releases
- Krishna’s glory is inconceivable yet relishable
- Chapter 09, Text 06
- Gita 09.06 explained
- Destiny may determine the complexion of our face but we determine the expression on our face
- Our future is shaped not so much by how many options we have as by how well we choose among the options we do have
- God determines the scope of our actions not our actions themselves
- Chapter 09, Text 07
- Chapter 09, Text 08
- Chapter 09, Text 09
- Let me be mad for You, not mad at You (9.09)
- Gita 09.09 explained
- The verdict comes from the judge but is not caused by the judge
- Krishna is disinterested, but not uninterested
- Chapter 09, Text 10
- When to NOT take credit
- Chronic pessimism is covered atheism
- Gita 09.10 explained
- How faith can make us open-minded
- If everything happens by Krishna’s will was Duryodhana too doing Krishna’s will?
- When things don’t make sense …
- The environment is not ours to take or leave it is ours to make
- Suspension of the natural order alone is not miraculous – the natural order itself is miraculous too
- Nature’s regularity is not an intrinsic necessity; it points to an overseeing divinity
- See the providential in the accidental by being devotional
- Don’t just see the provision – see the provider
- Krishna is not an explanation for the unexplainable – he is the explanation for explanability
- Faith requires not the rejection of logic, but its subordination
- Spirituality is the culmination, not the contradiction, of science
- To ascribe omnipotence to the laws of nature is poor – and pure – fiction
- Krishna is not neutral but reciprocal
- Miracles are not against science; they are above science
- Accidents are no accidents
- The incomprehensible comprehensibility and the comprehensible incomprehensibility of the universe
- Attraction to the supernatural is natural
- Krishna's pastimes are fantastic, but not fantasy
- Don’t give up – grow up
- Chapter 09, Text 11
- Gita 09.11 explained
- The Gita’s two approaches to oneness
- When form and substance are different — and when they aren’t
- The self-evident is not always evident to the self
- Avoid a void within
- Chapter 09, Text 12
- Chapter 09, Text 13
- Gita 09.13 explained
- Direct the whole heart towards the heart of the Whole
- Enlightenment ends the mind’s search for alternatives to Krishna
- Devotion is the culmination of intellectual illumination and emotional connection
- Devotion molds our heart and service shapes our life
- Krishna’s mercy enables us to find him – and to find him fulfilling
- Devotion is not a possession, but a person
- Krishna is not only the anchor to which we connect, but also the anchor by which we connect
- Devotion to the greatest soul makes the small soul a great soul
- Fasting is an opportunity to sacrifice the good for the best
- Transform your heart into a blossoming garden
- Chapter 09, Text 14
- The difference between being content to wait and being willing to wait
- When we feel abandoned by our Lord
- Make God both the defining center and the driving force of your life
- Serving when we don't feel like serving
- Gita 09.14 explained
- Faith is seen through both firmness in intention and flexibility in execution
- The notion that love can exist outside of sacrifice is a dangerous lie
- To respect Krishna respect the time we have carved out for Krishna
- Why should Krishna get less from us than what our boss gets?
- Pure devotion is atelic, not telic
- Devotion is meant to be manifested not just on our lips but also in our lives
- The pursuit of God is never a 9-to-5 endeavor
- The cure for ritualism is not the rejection of ritual but the infusion of emotion into ritual
- Bhakti is not just emotion – it is also action that expresses and enriches emotion
- To gain spiritual momentum, focus on the soul’s nourishment, not the mind’s amusement
- Devotion is not just a calling but also a choice
- Let repetition be a re-petition
- Prayerfulness is not the replacer of prayer, but its reinforcer
- Choose to act your way to feelings, not feel your way to actions
- Don't hide the devotion in the heart; hide the heart in the devotion
- The essence of empowerment is not disappearance of obstacles, but persistence amidst obstacles
- The supposition that we have spontaneous devotion sentences us to sporadic devotion
- To grow in devotion, focus not on emotion but on dedication
- Process produces progress - focus on process, not progress
- The more we expect meditation to be a break from hard work, the more meditation becomes hard work
- Let determination enthrone, not dethrone, devotion
- See spiritual advancement in overall dedication not ritual specialization
- Fasting is an opportunity for feasting
- Love is a prize far bigger than the palliative of peace
- Love is in the SOUND
- Chapter 09, Text 15
- Chapter 09, Text 16
- Chapter 09, Text 17
- Chapter 09, Text 18
- Let me seek the support that draws me to you, not away from you (9.18)
- Gita 09.18 explained
- Seeing beyond our employer to our provider
- The source is the ultimate resource
- Krishna is a coach, not a critic
- Chapter 09, Text 19
- Chapter 09, Text 20
- Chapter 09, Text 21
- Gita 09.21 explained
- Break free from the small desires that have held you hostage for lifetimes
- Practice dharma for attaining spiritual purity, not material prosperity
- When karma runs its course, karmic flyers crash down to earth by force
- Seek not higher material happiness, seek higher than material happiness
- The temporary is a means to the eternal – not the eternal a means to the temporary
- Chapter 09, Text 22
- Gita 09.22 explained
- The eternality of bhakti yoga (Appreciating bhakti-yoga 3)
- Seek security not just in the soul but in Krishna
- To eliminate mental phantoms, contemplate the transcendental person
- Realizing our dispensability can be a prick for the ego or a balm for the heart
- To understand God’s provision, first understand God’s vision
- When worry accelerates the imagination, let faith become the brake
- Utilize impoverishment as an opportunity for enrichment
- If we have the capacity to worry, we have the capacity to meditate
- Chapter 09, Text 23
- Chapter 09, Text 24
- Chapter 09, Text 25
- Chapter 09, Text 26
- Practice devotion for absorption, not achievement
- Gita 09.26 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- When we feel that we lack ability …
- The simplicity of bhakti-yoga (Gita 09.20-34 explained: Appreciating bhakti-yoga 2)
- Everything expensive is not valuable, everything valuable is not expensive
- Don’t let our desire to use something for Krishna become greater than our desire for Krishna
- The world sees outside-in; God sees inside-out
- Devotion is more a function of intention than of action
- No rite can make us right with God – we need to make our heart right
- The idea that choosing God costs nothing reduces God to nothing
- Devotion’s simplicity is the refuge for the empty-handed, not the subterfuge for the close-fisted
- Devotion is Krishna’s appetizer
- Chapter 09, Text 27
- Gita 09.27 explained
- Don’t give Krishna your leftovers
- Let Krishna permeate, pervade and possess our heart
- Go beyond captivity to futility and utility
- Chapter 09, Text 28
- Gita 09.28 explained
- Spiritual discipline is the road to freedom not a roadblock
- Love is not just feeling – it is giving
- If you can’t offer with a pure heart, offer to get a pure heart
- Liberation is not just about what we are released from but also about what we are released to
- Chapter 09, Text 29
- Krishna is equal - be encouraged, not discouraged
- Gita 09.29 explained
- Why equal treatment can sometimes seem unequal
- Why does Krishna take sides when he is equal to everyone?
- How Krishna is both impartial and reciprocal (Exploring the Gita chapter 9 series - 3)
- God's transcendence means that he is free from taking sides – and free for taking sides
- God does not play favorites but he has his favorites
- The Absolute’s different manifestations reflect his different moods
- Don’t divorce the head from the heart in the Gita symbiosis
- Krishna is impartially partial
- Chapter 09, Text 30
- Never distance yourself from the Lord
- Gita 09.30 - Explanation from Bhakti Shastri Class
- Why focusing on relapse prevention can be unhelpful
- How can grievous wrongdoing be reconciled with devotion?
- The transformatory potency of bhakti yoga (Appreciating bhakti-yoga 4)
- Are we holding others to an unrealistically high standard?
- Respond to moral failure not by mental punishment but by spiritual reinstatement
- God focuses not on what wrongs we have committed but on where our heart is committed
- Just because we have drunk a sip of poison doesn’t mean we have to drink the whole cup
- Even if we can’t succeed in Krishna consciousness we can fail in Krishna consciousness – not fail out of Krishna consciousness
- We may be battered, but we don’t have to be shattered
- Be not distracted or disheartened – be devoted
- Even if our attachments hold on to us, we can still hold on to Krishna
- Use Krishna’s mercy to wash yourself, not whitewash yourself
- Temptation can knock us down, but it can’t knock us out
- Essential intention is more important than incidental action
- Falling down is not failure – staying down is
- When we have a feeling of failure instead of a failure of feeling, we have a success
- We may fall down, but we don’t have to fall away
- Might we be sentencing to the jail those who need the hospital?
- What defines us as devotees is not how we fall, but how we rise
- Krishna’s love is unconditional yet conditional
- Chapter 09, Text 30-31
- Chapter 09, Text 31
- Gita 09.31 explained
- How Krishna protects (Exploring the Gita chapter 9 series - 2)
- See Krishna’s reciprocation more in spiritual absorption than in material protection
- Everything is not Krishna's plan but everything is within Krishna's plan
- There’s no need to be confidently pessimistic
- We may let go of Krishna, but Krishna will never let go of us
- When the Absolute Truth doesn’t speak the absolute truth
- Transcend the labor pains of devotion through loving anticipation
- Chapter 09, Text 32
- Let me focus on your will, not my skill (9.32)
- Gita 09.32 explained
- The universality of bhakti
- Devotion transforms backbenchers into toppers
- Don’t let the quest for perfection become the tomb of progression
- Expect not the absence of the shadow; embrace the presence of the light
- Don’t equate what is in scripture with what scripture teaches
- Let our deficiencies be not sinking pits for depression, but launching pads for devotion
- Never lose heart on the path of the heart
- Spiritual growth depends on disposition, not position
- Bhakti brings equality and universality on the spiritual path
- Chapter 09, Text 33
- Gita 09.33 explained
- The necessity of bhakti (Appreciating bhakti-yoga 5)
- Is stating that life is tough pessimistic?
- How the search for equality becomes imbalanced
- Life is a school in which everyone thinks their exam is the toughest
- Learn to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable
- The Gita is too important to be left to scholars alone
- Expect not the absence of the shadow; embrace the presence of the light
- Our heart may not have a place for Krishna, but Krishna has a place for our heart
- The world is in a mess – as usual
- Seek not a problem-free life, but a purpose-filled life
- Discover the democracy of misery
- The loose ends never end
- Chapter 09, Text 34
- Gita 09.34 explained
- 09.34 Four glories of bhakti-yoga (Gita 09.20-34 explained: Appreciating bhakti-yoga 1)
- In bhakti we don’t just make the offering - we are ourselves the offering
- Remembering Krishna is not a function of the memory – it is an inclination of the heart
- Devotion is not just an emotion we feel – it is an action we do
- Don’t read so much between the lines as to miss the lines
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09Chaitanya Charan2025-10-16T16:40:39+05:30