Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15
- Chapter 15, Text 03
- Sharpen the head, ripen the heart
- As long as we desire to bring matter under our captivity, we remain in its captivity
- Chapter 15, Text 04
- Chapter 15, Text 05
- Tried, tired – and retired
- Lust is our longest and worst life-partner – divorce it
- We need to retire from lust before it will retire from us
- Resign from illusion - don’t re-sign into illusion
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- The tolerance that has no tolerance for transcendence is the worst intolerance
- The point is not to get it right, but to get it across
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- Be a part; be not apart
- Go Within, Beyond the External – and the Internal
- Guard against the last-ditch attack of the false ego
- We are aliens on earth
- Why pursue pleasure in a prison of protoplasm?
- Long to belong where we eternally belong
- Are we trying to live someone else’s life?
- Playing God or playing with God?
- Completeness comes not by material amelioration or mechanical reconnection, but by emotional redirection
- When fulfilling desires doesn’t translate into fulfillment
- Change not just the state of mind – change also the state of being
- By seeing God as a competitor, we devalue ourselves
- Meditation minimizes inner friction and maximizes outer contribution
- Live not for gratification; live for contribution
- The more Krishna seems unnecessary, the more worldly unnecessities seem necessary
- Play the part of the part and the whole will fill the hole
- By recognizing our identity and redefining our activity, we revolutionize our destiny
- Service is unavoidable – why not make it relishable?
- The Gita’s choice is not about nonviolence or violence – it’s about disintegration or integration
- God we cannot be, but godly we can be
- Defiance of God dooms us to dependence on matter
- Rift with God makes us drift with the mind
- Don’t wait for God – wait on God
- Break free from the material conception of the external and the internal
- Don’t divorce who you are from whose you are
- The rest of me is no rest for me
- Our sense of beauty points to our transcendence
- We help ourselves best by remembering that we are helpless without God
- Krishna is the master before whom we stand truly erect
- We don’t just have a relationship with Krishna – we are a relationship with Krishna
- For self-improvement, go beyond self-criticism and self-congratulation to self-realization
- Focus on harmony, not hormones
- Don’t chase the ball that the mind and the senses toss to each other
- Bhakti empowers us to use our free will fully and fulfillingly
- Seek not to be enjoyers or achievers; seek to be cooperators
- Bhakti is beyond feminism – and beyond male chauvinism too
- The mind gets us alone – and then gets us
- Freedom comes not by rejecting all restrictions, but by respecting the right restrictions
- Our individuality is meant to lead us towards our spirituality, not away from it
- To master your senses, make Krishna your master
- Our connection with Krishna is both constitutional and cognitional
- We can’t avoid being controlled, but we can choose our controller
- Integration inspires integrity
- Self-improvement is best achieved through spiritual development
- Desire for the Lord buffers us from desires for the world
- The mind’s barriers for the entry of nonsense are ludicrously low
- We are in a dream, but we are not a dream
- We are conditioned not by what we are, but by what we are missing
- Technological progress can't fill the hole created by spiritual emptiness
- See weakness as woundedness, not wickedness
- We may be victimized, but we don't have to be victims
- Devotion is not just reverential deference to God’s greatness; it is also passionate advocacy of his sweetness
- When the mind takes charge, the only thing that works is we: hard
- To put ourselves together, put aside the things that pull us apart
- Find your own story or you will become a bit player in someone else’s story
- Even if your better choices don’t create a better world, they will create a better you
- When the part offers its whole to the Whole, the Whole makes the part whole
- The resilience of the human spirit reflects our longing for and our belonging to transcendence
- The mind overpowers us by making us believe that we are powerless
- Individuality breeds creativity and spirituality, individualism breeds self-obsession and self-destruction
- Our individuality is defined not by what we wear, but by what we hold dear
- If we are defeated by temptation, it doesn’t mean we can’t win — it just means we can’t win alone
- To feel small can be disempowering, to feel small in God's presence is empowering
- Present yourself in the present to the One who is always present
- To help the distressed, address both their distress’ immediate cause and remote cause
- The essence of karma is universal harmony, not judgmental morality
- How can we be humble without letting ourselves be trampled by others?
- How can we defend ourselves from our mind?
- When our repentant tears reform and when they don’t
- Looking out for number one or looking at Number One?
- Why we are more than programmed machines
- Why those who agitate for equality are often prone to envy
- Is death the destroyer of meaning?
- How to deal with our inability to resist temptation
- Why do good people do bad things
- Disliking ourselves is not humility
- How does humility differ from low self-esteem?
- What provides fulfillment and what doesn’t
- How individuality matters more than equality
- How ability, maturity and spirituality can work together in our life
- When acknowledging our insignificance is good and when it isn’t
- Are we devaluing the very thing that makes us unique?
- Does devotion make us successful in everything we do?
- Chapter 15, Text 08
- Material bondage is a restriction not in location, but in conception
- Channelize your capacity to control for connecting with the supreme controller
- Spirituality transforms our journey into an odyssey
- Where we are doesn't determine who we are
- Spiritual growth is defined not by the possessions we give up, but by the conceptions we give up
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- Dissatisfaction is caused not by bhakti's impotence but by the mind's petulance
- To best work with the mind, first work on the mind
- To take back the mind, first take back the roads to the mind
- Mentally junk the mental junk
- The mind is the TV – and the TV-thief
- Our capacity for emotions comes from the soul, but our current emotions come from the mind
- The mind is not just a window; it is also a camera
- Chapter 15, Text 10
- “Seeing is believing” reflects trust in the untrustworthy
- “Seeing is believing” drags humans to the animal level
- The eye to see the I
- Is our sight causing us to lose sight?
- Blinded and addicted or illumined and liberated?
- Might a 20/20 vision lead to blindness?
- How can we pursue that which we don’t perceive?
- Strive not to look good in the eyes of the world; strive to get good eyes to look at the world
- We need to see intellectually before we can see visually
- Spirituality values even the fools who find no value in spirituality
- Metaphysical blindness is more dangerous than physical blindness
- “Seeing is believing” requires unbelievable believing
- Comprehension comes by the integration of visual perception with intellectual education
- Perception is a function of association
- The senses may be windows to the world, but they are mere portholes to reality
- We need the eyes to see what our eyes need to see
- To believe whatever we see is to live like an animal
- When a danger is less visible, it leaves us more vulnerable
- Knowledge expands the avenues available for us to address those problems
- Why some people think consciousness comes from the brain — and why it doesn’t
- How can we know reality?
- Why self-control isn’t the key to overcoming bad habits …
- Chapter 15, Text 11
- How material enjoyment falsifies materialism
- When will the over-estimate be over?
- Is our assumption about love blocking our realization of love?
- Purification transforms theoretical propositions into spiritual realizations
- The eye can’t find the I as long as the I seeks through the eye
- Scripture makes our sight right
- By looking further horizontally, we can’t see vertically
- What we can know depends on what we know
- Evidence is only as good as the person evaluating it
- What we see depends on what we want to see
- When the sensual deludes the eye, the spiritual eludes the I
- How attachment blinds without letting us realize that we are blinded
- How to manage complexity?
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- Chapter 15, Text 14
- Chapter 15, Text 15
- Krishna is not just out there; he is also in here
- Krishna is ever-waiting, ever-willing and ever-working
- Block out the Blackout
- Is the noise without muting the voice within?
- No time to learn the language of faith?
- Krishna is responsive; we are responsible
- Nothing can separate us from the infinite love of the infinite
- Krishna’s inner presence is to coach us, not catch us
- Krishna is not just a portion of knowledge; he is its pre-condition and its perfection
- The Gita teaches not about a distant past but about the eternal present
- Watch the watchdog of conscience that watches for us and watches us
- That which is unwillingly learned is willingly unlearned
- Krishna is concrete, close-by and caring
- Let the Gita lead from the voluminous ambiguous expanse of the Vedas to their essence
- The world is a classroom, not a courtroom
- Krishna is nearest – let us make him dearest
- God is the rationale not for gaps in our knowledge but for our knowledge itself
- Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him
- To be perceptive, be receptive
- We may trigger the inner light bulb, but we don't power it
- God is not present less in the hearts of the godless
- Let Krishna's visible protection increase our faith in his invisible protection
- The heart’s core is never hardcore
- It’s not because we are special that we are loved; it’s because we are loved that we are special
- We may be circumstantially distanced from Krishna, but we don’t have to be devotionally deprived of Krishna
- Are we silencing our watchdog?
- Three steps for hearing God’s voice
- Seek more to connect than to correct
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- Chapter 15, Text 18
- Chapter 15, Text 19
- Enlightenment that is universal, beneficial and non-imitable
- The best direction for the motion of emotion
- Life’s driving force is existence’s crowning reality
- Emotions come from reality and return us to reality
- Knowledge of Krishna’s position stimulates submission and his disposition stimulates affection
- Liberation is integration in intention, not identity
- Chapter 15, Text 20