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
• The Personal Absolute is not a tool to transcendence - he is the summit of transcendence
• 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
• Chapter 15, Text 06
• 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
• Chapter 15, Text 07
• 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
• 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
• Chapter 15, Text 09
• 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?
• 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?
• Chapter 15, Text 12
• Chapter 15, Text 14
• Matter points to matters that matter more than matter
• 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?
• Chapter 15, Text 16
• The oneness of love rests in the twoness of the lovers
• Chapter 15, Text 18
• Our Choice: Infinite Longings or Longing for the Infinite?
• 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
• Peel the cosmic onion to discover spiritual diversity in unity