Hope Amid Hardship
Now, tolerance is sometimes misunderstood to be passivity. But the Gita is not talking about tolerance in those terms. For example, the Gita tells Arjuna [...]
Gita 02.14 explained
2.11-2.30: counters first argument – compassion In this context Arjuna says, I am concerned because my relatives will not be there with me, and I [...]
The first application of spiritual knowledge
Suppose a medically well-informed person gets a disease with scary symptoms. If they know that those symptoms are an inevitable and non-lethal part of the [...]
Imposing social equality or inspiring individual spirituality?
Suppose we are organizing an athletic competition. To be fair to all participants, we will want to make the playing field level; no one should [...]
Amidst unmanageably distressing times, reduce your working frame to manageable units of time
Sometimes, we face such huge distress that everything seems dark. How can we deal with such times? By reducing our working frame. If we start [...]
Life may knock us down, but it can’t keep us down
Suppose we are walking along a road, and a sudden stormy wind knocks us down. Thankfully, no storm lasts forever – so, it can’t keep [...]
Tolerance comes by meditating on not just matter’s ephemerality but also spirit’s eternality
Tolerance is a great power that enables us to keep small things small so that we can focus on big things. How can we increase [...]
Acknowledging the variables we can’t control doesn’t mean abandoning the variables we can
Suppose while doing a calculation using an equation, we get an undesirable result. By changing the variables in that equation, we may seek a better [...]
Tolerance is meant to be the preventer of imbalance, not its perpetuator
Some people feel that tolerance perpetuates the imbalance of power – tolerating powerful wrongdoers simply makes them more brazen. Actually however, tolerance prevents imbalance in [...]
Problems are like leeches – don’t overreact
When a leech bites us, we may be panic-struck to sense its tentacles sucking our blood. If we impulsively try to pull it out, it may have such a strong grip that we will end up pulling out a sizeable part of our own skin. If, however, we just stay calm and let the leech do its work, its tubules are not infinite; it can’t suck all our blood. Once its tubule is filled, it will itself let go and we can flick it off.
Spirituality provides a capacity to cope that transcends our capacity to comprehend
We usually approach technology pragmatically – we use gadgets if they work, even if we can’t comprehend fully the science involved. The Bhagavad-gita demonstrates a [...]
Focus not just on what lies around, but also on what lies ahead
Life's perplexities and adversities can drain our inspiration to do anything tangible in the present. To stir ourselves out of the present's negativity, we need [...]
Tolerance is not passivity – it is maturity
Some people ask, “Does tolerance, as recommended in the Bhagavad-gita, mean that I just passively accept everything, even injustice?” No, tolerance is not at all [...]
Possibilities expand when we begin where we are instead of where we should be
Suppose we take a wrong turn and end up somewhere other than our destination. If we keep resenting, “Why am I here instead of where [...]
Resentment of reality can hurt more than reality
Suppose we plan to go for a picnic, but suddenly get fever and have to abandon our plan. And we lie on a bed resenting [...]
Tolerance means to call off our war with reality
Tolerance is sometimes equated with weakness and passivity. But it is actually the basis for strength and dynamism. Tolerance essentially means that when faced with [...]
Don’t sensationalize sensations
The sensations of taste, touch, smell, sight and sound are the sources of sensual pleasures. Such pleasures are the goals of materialism, the worldview that [...]
Tolerance fosters not impotence but perseverance
In spiritual life, tolerance is an important virtue. Internalizing this virtue may present us a dilemma: “If I just tolerate the things that happen to [...]
Imprisoned by circumstances, liberated by consciousness
Sometimes life pushes us into a tight corner from which we just can’t wiggle out. We feel imprisoned by our circumstances. Such imprisonment is an [...]
The journey to realizing “I am not the body” begins with living “I am more than the body”
The Bhagavad-gita’s fundamental teaching (02.13) is that we are not material bodies but are spiritual beings. Even when we understand this intellectually, we can’t abruptly [...]