Krishna is not just a point for meditation – he is the person for supplication

Yogis, specifically dhyana-yogis, start meditation by focusing on some point, such as the tip of the nose or the space between the eyebrows.

As such yogis advance, they turn their focus inwards and meditate on the immanent manifestation of Krishna present in their heart. As long as they think of Krishna as simply a point for concentration, their progress depends on their own spiritual determination. They don’t ask him for help, in fact, they don’t even think of him as a source of help, for to them he is just a focus-point. And he reciprocates by not intervening in their spiritual journey.

Of course, very few yogis think of Krishna as a mere focus point. But taking their extreme example illustrates graphically the limitation of the path of yoga, even when its focus is Krishna. Even those yogis who see Krishna as a source of mercy often entertain deep down the notion that he is not the ultimate reality, but is a transitional tool for attaining an impersonal ultimate reality. Such a notion undercuts the sincerity of their devotion and proportionately undercuts their reception of his mercy.

Some yogis by associating with devotees understand that the Absolute Truth is eternally and essentially personal, as the Gita (07.07) declares. Acknowledging the ultimate sentience of the highest transcendence brings authenticity and depth to their devotional supplication and opens their heart fully to receive his grace. That mercy eases and accelerates their spiritual journey.

The Bhagavad-gita while overviewing yoga in its sixth chapter acknowledges the difficulty of that path (06.33-34). The Gita contrasts the difficulty of yoga with the felicity of bhakti by declaring (08.14) that those who remember Krishna constantly attain him easily, thereby unequivocally endorsing bhakti as the best path to spiritual perfection.

An intruder inside us is an intruder still

Suppose we find someone in our home. Will we assume that just because that intruder is now inside our home, he is our well-wisher? Suppose he asked us to do something, will we immediately do that?

Certainly not.

We will seek to know the intruder’s antecedents and motivations. And we will evaluate the prudence of whatever he asked us to do before deciding what to do.

While such a response seems obvious, it doesn’t seem so obvious when the intruder comes inside not our physical house but our mental house, that is, when we get intrusive feelings. As we go about our life, disruptive feelings sometimes invade our mind: craving for immoral pleasures, jealousy towards a successful peer, greed for possessions, apathy towards our devotional practices, for example.

We tend to think that whatever is inside me is me. So, we frequently identify feelings inside us as our feelings.

We tend to think that whatever is inside me is me. So, we frequently identify feelings inside us as our feelings. And we sometimes unthinkingly act on them, only to later realize that we wasted our energy, needlessly and harmfully.

Certainly we can’t reject or neglect all our feelings. But that doesn’t mean we have to uncritically surrender to all of them. The Bhagavad-gita (14.23) urges us to view the various feelings that come into our minds as things distinct from our nature as souls. By observing them from a distanced, detached perspective, we can analyze: Do they reflect my values and concerns? Or are they incidental intrusions stimulated by the material modes?

To situate ourselves in a distanced, detached perspective, we need to stimulate our intelligence and conscience. Studying Gita wisdom sharpens our intelligence, and prayer and meditation refine our conscience. When we are thus internally alert, we can distinguish authentic feelings from intrusive ones and choose to act only on those feelings that promote, not impede, our well-being.

The real me is beyond jeans and genes

Being influenced by our superficial culture we often evaluate others based on externals. We may similarly evaluate ourselves too, imagining, say, that we are lovable only when we wear flashy jeans.

If a culture ties our self-worth to something so peripheral and changeable and losable as a dress, then how much worth is it actually offering to our self?

Very little.

We esteem a shadow-self that a change in fashions or fortunes can distort or destroy.

No wonder self-esteem is so scarce nowadays. We esteem a shadow-self that a change in fashions or fortunes can distort or destroy.

Some of us may esteem another shadow-self: our blood. We may let our birth-dynasty determine our self-worth. Or the culture may pin us down to our birth, as it regrettably in caste-conscious India and color-conscious America.

Today we recoil at such discrimination, but we unwittingly hold on to the underlying bodily misidentification. Scientific materialism, today’s prevalent philosophy, pins our identity to our genes. But monozygotic twins – twins who being born from the same zygote have identical genes – still have distinct personalities. As their upbringing is very similar, their significant differences can’t be attributed to the environment either. Clearly, the essence of our personality is trans-genetic.

Here’s a thought-exercise to grasp this. Suppose we discovered that our parents had adopted us from some unknown family. Would that change who we were essentially? Sure, it would change a lot about us, but it wouldn’t change us.

Our core – the person beyond jeans and genes – is the soul. The Bhagavad-gita (02.25) declares that the soul is indestructible. As souls, we are beloved parts of Krishna. He has always loved us, even when we had no jeans and no genes. And he will always love us, whatever we may have or not have. When we base our self-worth on our loving bond with him, then our self-esteem becomes, like our self, indestructible.

Decrease the perception of effort and increase the anticipation of reward by intellectual conviction

When we practice spiritual life, our mind holds us back by making us feel that the effort is too much and the reward too little.

To counter the mind, the Bhagavad-gita(06.25) urges us to deploy the force of intellectual conviction. Such conviction decreases the perception of effort and increases the anticipation of reward.

Scriptural study reveals the glory, beauty and mercy of Krishna – and the never-ending thrills of remembering and serving him.

Perception of effort: As long as we believe that worldly things are founts of joy, turning away from them towards Krishna will seem too demanding and exhausting because our energy will be internally sucked by our misbelief. We can counter the misbelief by studying scripture seriously, thereby understanding that all worldly pleasures end inevitably in misery. The material level of reality is doomed to disaster and destruction. Once we understand that the Titanic of this world is sinking, we won’t begrudge the effort needed to get out – we will see it not as deprivation but as protection.

Anticipation of reward: Scriptural study reveals the glory, beauty and mercy of Krishna – and the never-ending thrills of remembering and serving him. By remembering that those thrills await us, we can kindle our spiritual anticipation. We have occasionally glimpsed the peace and bliss of absorption in Krishna. By regularly revisiting those experiences, we can add the fuel of personal realization to further kindle that anticipation. Deep spiritual experiences may be presently rare, but we can see their infrequency not as an enthusiasm-dampener but as an anticipation-heightener. After all, scripture assures us that those experiences will become increasingly regular if we persevere in bhakti.

Steady bhakti practice will not only drive away the impurities that distract us from Krishna but also increase our attraction for him, thereby making absorption in him easier and sweeter.

Those who let the culture fill their brain with junk beliefs fill their belly with junk food

Junk food is fast emerging as a serious health hazard. It is a major cause of obesity, which is rapidly becoming a leading global cause of avoidable death.

Regulated eating can counter obesity, but many people can’t regulate themselves.

Why?

Because they often try to change their eating without changing their thinking, especially their thinking about what comprises enjoyment.

Trying to extract extra enjoyment by stimulating the senses more is like throwing a boulder on a sponge to squeeze out more water.

Their definition of enjoyment is determined by the culture’s prominent mode: passion. This mode fills their brain with the junk belief that extravagant sensual stimulation is the expressway to enjoyment. This belief is junk because the senses’ capacity to provide enjoyment is limited, like the amount of water in a sponge. Trying to extract extra enjoyment by stimulating the senses more is like throwing a boulder on a sponge to squeeze out more water. A little more water may come, but the sponge ends tattered. Similarly, excessive sensual stimulation may bring a little more pleasure, but it leaves the body damaged.

The Bhagavad-gita (17.09) states that foods providing excessive sensual stimulation are in the mode of passion, and cause distress and disease. This could well be a description of junk food, which is known to lure with its surplus of stimulants such as salt, sugar and fat.

As long as people buy into the junk belief that greater sensual stimulation means more enjoyment, they will fall for junk food unthinkingly and sometimes even unwillingly. That’s why lasting solution requires a revision of their definition of enjoyment.

For those seeking such revision, Gita wisdom offers systematic education about their true identity as souls and the supreme happiness available in spiritual love for Krishna. That lasting fulfillment is the essential fruit of Gita wisdom with freedom from the lure of junk food being an incidental benefit.

Reason is confounded not by faith, but by faithlessness

Does faith in God confound reason, as atheists argue?

Not at all. Far from confounding reason, faith is the foundation of reason.

The very idea that reason can help us discern the truth rests on faith – the faith that there is a rational order to things in nature, so things that are not rational can be deemed as incorrect or unreal.

If everything is simply the debris blown apart by a primeval explosion, then why do lumps of such debris obey laws, and laws of mathematical precision?

This faith begs the question: why does such order exist?

If everything came about by chance, why did things arrange themselves in a rational order? If everything is simply the debris blown apart by a primeval explosion, then why do lumps of such debris obey laws, and laws of mathematical precision – all the more so when both the concepts of law and mathematics are, according to the atheistic worldview, nothing more than patterns of electrochemical signals in our brain cells, which too are nothing but lumps of that same debris?

Regarding the origin of mathematical laws, Eminent mathematician Roger Penrose in his book The Road to Reality quotes approvingly his colleague Richard Thomas: “To a mathematician, these things cannot be coincidence; they must come from a higher reason. And that reason is the assumption that this big mathematical theory describes nature.”

Gita wisdom identifies the source of that higher reason: the highest being, Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (10.08) indicates that he is the source and sustainer of everything, including whatever order we perceive in nature.

What confounds reason is not faith, but faithlessness. Without faith, we couldn’t presume that nature had a rational order and so couldn’t use reason to study nature. And even after reason is granted a role, it would have no validity if a higher intelligence hadn’t infused nature with a rational order.

Thus, reason far from being confounded by faith, is confounded without it.

Don’t pander; ponder

Some people ask, “Isn’t it our nature to be pleasure-seeking? Why then does the Bhagavad-gita ask us to give up pleasure?”

The Gita doesn’t ask us to give up pleasure; it asks us to ponder the actual nature of what we have been taught to believe is pleasure.

The glory of sex pleasure is one of the most sacrosanct beliefs of popular culture.

The culture without and the mind within indoctrinate us into believing that pandering to the desires of the senses will bring pleasure. And sexual pleasure is deemed the summit of such pleasures. Attaining it is touted as life’s most splendid success, indeed the very purpose of existence. This notion is so aggressively propagated externally and so deep-rooted internally that we almost never question it. Indeed, the glory of sex pleasure is one of the most sacrosanct beliefs of popular culture.

Yet does this belief deserve such uncritical devotion? Are glamorized media depictions of unending erotic bliss ever replicable in real life? After all, the body’s capacity for sensual indulgence is limited – unchangeably, non-negotiably limited. And after the few moments of sensual pleasure have passed, they leave in their wake a network of aggravated bodily attachments that sentence us to ever-increasing misery as the body goes inexorably down its doomed slide towards disease, debility and destruction. To protect us from such misery, the Gita (05.22) urges us to ponder the nature of sensual pleasure instead of thoughtless pandering to urges for such pleasures.

Of course, the falsity of sensual pleasure is not the only thing to ponder. Gita wisdom offers us for contemplation a captivating conception of the Absolute Truth as the all-attractive SupremePerson, Krishna, who delights and gives delight in reciprocating spiritual love.

If we ponder his loving nature and direct our heart towards him by rendering devotional service, his glory, beauty and mercy will gradually satisfy our longing for happiness perfectly and perennially.

Recover the soul; don’t re-cover it

We may get the question: “If I am a soul different from my body, then why can’t I realize myself as such?”

Because of our desire to enjoy bodily pleasures, which binds our consciousness to the material level of reality and blinds us to spiritual reality. The primary among such desires is lust.Human life is an opportunity to recover the soul, that is, to release it from spiritual forgetfulness by removing the covering of lust.

The Bhagavad-gita (03.38) gives three analogies to convey how lust covers the soul. Gita commentators explain that these analogies refer to the coverings on the soul in different species. The analogy of the womb covering an embryo, which connotes the thickest covering, refers to the soul in the plant species, where its consciousness is most constricted. The analogy of dust covering a mirror, which connotes a thinner covering, refers to the soul in the animal world, where its consciousness is slightly more freed. The analogy of smoke covering a fire, which connotes the thinnest covering, refers to the soul in human species, where its consciousness is most freed – free enough to perceive spiritual reality.

By expertly stoking the fire, we can remove the smoke and the fire can blaze forth. Similarly, by leading a regulated life under scriptural guidance, we can remove the covering of lust and gradually re-ignite our spiritual consciousness so that it illumines our path to eternal life with Krishna. Thus, human life is an opportunity to recover the soul, that is, to release it from spiritual forgetfulness by removing the covering of lust.

If, however, we indulge unrestrictedly in lust, as is becoming increasingly common in contemporary culture, then we thicken the covering and transmigrate to the lower species. The soul on the verge of being recovered becomes tragically re-covered.

Nonetheless, even amidst today’s spiritually destructive culture, Krishna stands ever ready to protect, purify and liberate us if we seek his shelter by practicing bhakti-yoga sincerely.

Don’t let propensity for immensity obscure the primacy of intimacy

Many people conceive God’s greatness in terms of size and imagine him to be a giant being pervading the whole universe. Gita wisdom accommodates such seekers by its delineation of the awe-inspiring universal form. This stunning theophany pervades the entire visual range of Arjuna who can find no beginning, middle or end to the panoply of arms, bellies, mouths and eyes (11.16).

The Gita’s championing of God’s personable manifestation underscores the primacy of intimacy in the transcendental arena.

Yet the Gita conveys its disapproval of obsession with immensity through Arjuna’s reaction: the universal form doesn’t appeal much to him. Despite being repeatedly reminded about the rarity of the vision, Arjuna desires to see it no more. Instead he desires to see again the two-handed form of Krishna – a form that the Gita declares to be rarely perceivable even for the gods (11.52).

The Gita (09.15) places those who worship the universal form in the middle between those who decry the personal absolute (09.11-12) and those who adore him (09.13-14). If the propensity for immensity of such seekers spurs them to see beyond sensual pleasures to awe-inspiring contemplation on God’s universal form, then it serves as a stepping-stone on their spiritual journey. But if that propensity makes them minimize the personal absolute due to his seemingly unimpressive size, then it becomes a stumbling block.

The Gita’s championing of God’s personable manifestation underscores the primacy of intimacy in the transcendental arena. Though Krishna can manifest awesome forms at will and though he accommodates those who desire such sights, he and his devotees delight not in displays of majesty but in plays of intimacy. One such play unfolds on the battlefield of Kurukshetra where the original creator becomes the personal charioteer of his dear warrior.

Such intimacy alone can satisfy our innermost longings for love. It is the Gita’s most confidential revelation and life’s ultimate achievement.

The key to offering ourselves to Krishna is offering our mind and intelligence to him

How can we remember Krishna while doing our duties in the world?” This question often perplexes devotees.

Let’s look closely at the Bhagavad-gita verse(08.07) that recommends such dual engagement in meditation internally and occupation externally. This verse also gives the key for applying the recommendation: offer the mind and intelligence to Krishna (mayy arpita-mano-buddhir).

Our mind and intelligence direct our consciousness. We become conscious of things that stimulate us either emotionally or intellectually or both. Out of all the sensory data that flows constantly into us from the world, our awareness focuses on those things that trigger us to either feel them or make sense of them. While sitting in a room, the normal sounds such as the whirling of a fan don’t attract our awareness. But if we hear a voice that sounds like that of a loved one or like an important announcement, then it penetrates our consciousness.

Devotionalizing our mind sensitizes us emotionally to our purpose of serving our beloved Lord through all our activities.

As our consciousness flows along emotional or intellectual lanes, the Gita urges us to direct these lanes towards Krishna by offering our mind and intelligence to him.

We can offer our mind to Krishna by doing emotionally stirring devotional activities such as kirtans, Deity worship, offering prayers and singing devotional songs. These will devotionalize our mind, thereby emotionally sensitizing us to our purpose of serving our beloved Lord through all our activities.

And we can offer our intelligence to Krishna by scrutinizingly studying scripture. This will devotionalize our intelligence, thereby reminding us that everything is Krishna’s energy and everything attractive manifests a spark of Krishna’s splendor, as the Gita (10.41) indicates.

When we practice offering our mind and intelligence to Krishna thus, then our inner being will progressively become pervaded by his presence, whatever activity we may be engaged in externally

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The soul is indestructible in constitution but destructible in cognition

TheBhagavad-gita in its second chapter repeatedly stresses the indestructibility of the soul. Yet the same Gita in its sixteenth chapter talks twice (16.09; 16.21) about the destruction of the soul.

Why this contradiction?

Because the initial verses refer to the constitution of the soul, whereas the later verses refer to our spiritual cognition, our capacity to perceive the existence of the soul. Though the soul can never be destroyed, our awareness of its existence can be.

Fanatical materialists, by their ideological narrow-mindedness, leave no place in their conceptual cupboard to even consider the possibility of the existence of the soul.

Our awareness of things depends largely on how our intellectual and emotional faculties are tuned. Among the many things that surround us, we become aware of those things that either challenge us to make sense of them or stimulate us to feel them. Accordingly, our awareness of the soul can be destroyed either intellectually or emotionally.

The first Gita verse (16.09: nashtaatmaano) refers to intellectual destruction. It talks about those who accept a fanatically materialistic worldview. Such people, by their ideological narrow-mindedness, leave no place in their conceptual cupboard to even consider the possibility of the existence of the soul. That’s how they intellectually destroy their awareness of the soul.

The other verse (16.21: naashanam-atmanah) refers to emotional destruction. It talks about those who are totally captivated by the materialistic emotions of lust, anger and greed. The consciousness of such hedonists is so consumed with hopes for getting material enjoyment and worries about not getting it that they just can’t think of anything else such as the soul. That’s how they emotionally destroy their awareness of the soul.

Thankfully, such destruction of awareness is reversible. We can counter intellectual destruction by studying Gita wisdom and emotional destruction by elevating our emotions through the practice of bhakti-yoga. Thus, we can regain our spiritual awareness and rejoice eternally in the soul’s joyful nature.

Fanatical materialism banishes materialists to the Siberia of by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16

Materialism is today’s prominent worldview. Most people may not consciously choose it, but they adopt it subconsciously.

Why? Because the contemporary culture aggressively glamorizes material things as sources of pleasure and symbols of prestige. Getting carried away by this pervasive propaganda, most people live as if matter is all that matters.

Fanatical materialists worship the deity of matter, demanding for it not just priority but exclusivity.

Just as any school of thought has its right-wing extremists, so does materialism. Fanatical materialists worship the deity of matter, demanding for it not just priority but exclusivity. Holding matter to be the only reality, they dismiss everything non-material as a figment of imagination – they banish it to the Siberia of hallucination. What they often don’t realize is that by championing such strident materialism, they banish themselves to the same Siberia.

Whatever we do, we do it with our consciousness. Fanatical materialists use their consciousness to deny the existence of everything non-material. But consciousness is utterly different from the insentience that characterizes matter. It is neither explicable nor replicable through matter. Consciousness is eminently non-material. So rigid materialism requires the denial of the existence of consciousness.

But our consciousness is what we essentially are. Our capacities to think, feel and decide – all hallmarks of consciousness – define us. Without consciousness, we cease to exist. That’s how materialists who deny the existence of consciousness end up denying their own existence.

Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (16.09) declares that such a shortsighted materialists destroy their own souls. Though the soul is by constitution indestructible, but it is destructible in cognition in the sense that all perception of its existence can be obliterated by a dogmatically anti-spiritual worldview.

Far more fulfilling than such self-destroying worldview is the self-actualizing Weltanschauung delineated in the Gita. It explains coherently our spiritual identity and glorious eternal destiny, and invites us to attain that destiny by the time-honored process ofbhakti-yoga.

Knowledge in ignorance is tiny, at best vastly tiny by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18

‘Knowledge in ignorance’ is an oxymoron, the placing of contradictory words next to each other to convey a deeper meaning.

To understand this oxymoron, let’s consider the special way the Bhagavad-gita (18.22) uses the word ‘ignorance’ in the phrase ‘knowledge in (the mode of) ignorance.’ Here ignorance refers to not the absence of knowledge, but to a freakishly fragmented mode of perception that keeps one ignorant of most of reality. Thus knowledge in ignorance is tiny.

Ignorance refers to not the absence of knowledge, but to a freakishly fragmented mode of perception that keeps one ignorant of most of reality

A prominent contemporary example of such knowledge is scientific materialism. Modern science frequently uses materialism as its starting presumption and thereby seeks material explanations for natural phenomena. Using this methodology, it has made such strides that today scientific knowledge fills thousands upon thousands of books.

How can this vast body of knowledge be considered tiny?

Because it is vastly tiny – all its vastness is restricted to a tiny fraction of reality: material reality.

Gita wisdom explains that the totality of reality comprises of three levels: gross material reality, subtle material reality and spiritual reality. All these levels of reality are sustained by the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna.

Only when we expand our investigative lens to encompass all of reality, especially its centerpiece Krishna, will we find meaning in life. Otherwise, scientific materialism will sentence us to a meaningless self-conception: we are nothing more than lumps of matter somehow come alive to flap around while being pushed inexorably from a pre-birth infinity of nothingness to a post-death infinity of nothingness.

Those who see the complete reality see the vastness of scientific knowledge as testimony to the glory of Krishna. If the study of just one of his energies is so rewarding, how much more rewarding will be the study of the supreme source of that energy?

The soul is wise, but lust makes it otherwise by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 03

What makes good people do bad things?” This is a question that has vexed thinking people throughout history. We all have probably witnessed acquaintances suddenly behaving in uncharacteristically ugly ways. In fact, we need to look no further than the mirror to find living evidence for humanity’s susceptibility to iniquity.

Some religious traditions ascribe this tendency to our inherently evil nature. They hold that the first human being indulged in an original sin, which has thereafter afflicted all subsequent generations of human beings, somewhat akin to a genetic defect.

Gita wisdom reconciles the goodness of God’s creation with the weakness of his creatures by differentiating between our pure core as souls and the shell of impurities such as lust.

Such a sin-centric vision of humanity, however, raises more questions than it answers: If all of us are contaminated by the same original sin, why is everyone not equally sinful? Why are some people good? If God is good, how can the overwhelming majority of his creation, excepting the first creation, be innately bad?

Gita wisdom reconciles the goodness of God’s creation with the weakness of his creatures by differentiating between our pure core as souls and the shell of impurities such as lust. Highlighting the contrast between the two, the Gita (03.39) refers to the soul as knowledgeable (jnanino) and the covering of lust as inflammable and insatiable (dushpurenaanalena). The intermediate verse (03.38) employs multiple analogies to underscore that lust covers different living beings to different extents. This variation is due to the different degrees to which they have indulged in lust in the past, in this or earlier lives.

Irrespective of how much lust has covered our pure nature, we can still uncover it. Bhakti-yoga purifies us most effectively by connecting us with the all-pure and all-wise Supreme Person, Krishna. The more we relish happiness in loving and serving him, the more lust loses its allure and the more we become wise, pure and joyful.

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We have to sit in the city of nine gates, but we don’t have to be stuck in itby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 05

You are not the body” is a basic teaching of the Bhagavad-gita. Even if we understand it, we can’t wish away our bodily incarceration – we have to live in the body lifelong.

To help us balance our bodily and spiritual sides, the Gita (05.13) offers a thought-provoking metaphor of the body as a city of nine gates (nava-dvara puri). When we live in a city, we are concerned about what happens in it, but we don’t misidentify ourselves with it. Similarly, by meditating that the body is our city-like residence, we can view it with concern and distance: as important to us, yet different from us. No wonder the same Gita verse urges us to recognize that most bodily activities are just mechanical functions with which we don’t need to get emotionally involved.

By meditating that the body is our city-like residence, we can view it with concern and distance: as important to us, yet different from us.

If we mentally renounce bodily activities, then that enables us to glimpse our innately joyful spiritual nature. And if we further dedicate our heart and activities to Krishna, then that devotional connection enables us to link with his infinite joyfulness.

We may reside in a city, but we don’t restrict our entire existence to that city alone – we stay emotionally connected with our loved ones who may be residing elsewhere, and often that connection is stronger than our connection with those living physically nearby. Similarly, though we have to sit in the bodily city, we don’t have to stay stuck in it. We don’t have to restrict our aspirations for love and happiness to the body and things connected with it. Krishna is our greatest well-wisher, the person with whom we can have the most emotionally fulfilling connection. And we can deepen that connection by practicing bhakti-yoga, gradually relishing joy unending in eternal love for him.

Determination is a function of not just intention but also purificationby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07

Suppose a public speaker while giving a talk is troubled by a persistent cough. Can the speaker deal with it merely by a resolute intention: “I won’t cough anymore”?

Not really. That intention needs to be channelized towards medication.

A similar dynamic applies to our spirituallife. When we try to serve Krishna, we find ourselves frequently distracted by persistent worldly desires induced by lust, anger and greed, for example. We often make a resolute intention to no longer succumb to them, yet they keep tormenting and toppling us again and again.

Why is that?

Because such lower desires are akin to a disease of the heart – a disease that needs to be cured not by intention alone but by purification through spiritual medication.

What is the purifying spiritual medication?

Contact with Krishna, who is all-pure and all-purifying, by the practice of bhakti-yoga.

Even if our bhakti practice is distracted by our present impurities, still whatever connection we establish with him by practicing bhakti according to our capacity will stand us in good stead. It will give us an enchanting taste of the sweetness of Krishna and equip us with sobering insight into the futility of worldly pleasures. The more we become purified thus, the less we will be affected by the dualities of pleasure and pain that distract us from Krishna. The Bhagavad-gita (07.28) assures that after such purification we will practice devotion with determination.

Significantly, the strength of bhakti-yoga is that its purificatory potency rests not just on our endeavors to connect with transcendence, but primarily on the grace of Krishna, who being pleased with our sincere efforts rewards us with philosophical insight and spiritual taste. When our intention is thus complemented by purification, our solidified determination enables us to march towards supreme liberation.

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Don’t read so much between the lines as to miss the lines by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 09

Erudite Gitacommentators throughout history have unpacked its wisdom-filled verses in multiple ways. By examining the context, tone, word usage and similar details, they reveal the many levels and layers of meanings in its verses.

Yet all such reading between the lines follows a cardinal principle: the deeper meanings supplement or complement or contextualize the text’s direct meaning – never reject it. Rejection of the direct reading comprises violence to the text, for the interpreter’s voice silences and supersedes the author’s voice.

Such unscrupulous usurping of authorial authority is evident in the commentary of an (in)famous modern commentator to the Gita verse (09.34). In the whole Gita, this verse is one of the clearest calls for committed devotion to a Personal Absolute Truth. It uses the first person pronoun mam and its variants five times, thereby leaving no ambiguity about the object of devotion.

Yet this commentator claims that the intended object is not Krishna, but some unborn Absolute within him.

Does the context justify such a depersonalized reading?

Not at all. The text is preceded and succeeded by sections that emphasize the ultimacy of the Personal Absolute Truth (09.24;10.08). Moreover, the verse’s call is reiterated in the conclusion of the Gita (18.65), which uses again five first person pronouns and 70% identical words.

When the text features self-evident lucidity that is confirmed by its context, an indirect reading that contradicts the direct reading comprises not reading between the lines, but replacing the lines. This kind of reading is a product of the interpreter’s brain, not the author’s brain. It won’t connect us better with the author; instead, it can block the connection from being formed or, worse still, even break an existing connection.

To go close to the Gita, it’s best to keep such commentaries far away.

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Far more important than the book cover is what the book covers by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is almost a truism. Yet it has special relevance for the Bhagavad-gita because its cover can intrigue as well as beguile, for it reveals as well as conceals its content. Of course, the Gita as an ancient text hasn’t always had a fixed cover. The tradition revered sacred texts like the Gita, so the parchments that comprised the text were encased in a holy cloth, sometimes without any covering image. The cover became especially prominent after the Gita became mass published a few centuries ago. More often than not, the Gita’s cover features its setting: Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot in the middle of the Kurukshetra battlefield (02.10). The setting is intriguing – the idea of a philosophical conversation right before a battle in the midst of the warring armies captivates the human imagination. Yet this book cover doesn’t even begin to cover the scope of the Gita’s message. This timeless classic is also placeless – that is, its message is not limited to its setting. Far from being a war manual, as the cover might suggest, it is a universal guide for living. The Gita’s central message (02.11 – 18.72) doesn’t refer to the war more than a dozen times, underscoring that its focus is not on the war. It answers fundamental questions about our identity and destiny by revealing a magnificent vision of existence. That endearing vision centers on an all-attractive, all-loving Supreme Person who is the fulfillment of our innermost longings for lasting happiness and enduring love. The Gita’s culmination is an inspiring call for pure spiritual love as the best pathway to life’s ultimate success. Those who explore the Gita are in for an intellectual and spiritual feast that can nourish and enrich them lifelong, indeed, for all of eternity.

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