Don’t look over temptation – overlook it

Our eyes hunger for alluring sense objects. On seeing such objects, we look over them, sometimes again and again. Wanting to extract as much pleasure as possible from those objects, we consume them visually.

But whatever pleasure we get leaves us dissatisfied and tormented.

Why dissatisfied? Because most sense objects are unattainable. Even if we attain some of them, their beauty is short-lived. And even while that beauty lasts, our physical capacity to enjoy them remains limited.

Why tormented? Because the more we visually prey on sense objects, the more our craving for them grows, eventually becoming irresistible. By courting desires that are on one hand irresistible and on the other hand insatiable, we make ourselves miserable.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.59) acknowledges our hunger for pleasure by stating that abstaining from sense objects feels like starvation. And yet the same verse assures that if we persevere in our abstinence, we will become pacified and satisfied when we get a higher taste. That higher taste comes from appreciation of higher spiritual reality. Gita wisdom explains that underlying our sensual thirst for ephemeral beauty is our spiritual longing for Krishna. He is the all-attractive Lord of our heart – the original source, supreme manifestation and ultimate reservoir of everything beautiful.

To relish Krishna’s beauty, we need to purify ourselves by practicing bhakti-yoga diligently. And while we are becoming purified, we need to overlook temptations. That is, we need to neglect temptations by conscientiously raising our vision beyond them. On seeing tempting objects, we can avoid dwelling on them by redirecting our consciousness elsewhere, preferably towards constructive activities in Krishna’s service. By thus preventing our heart from getting entangled at the sensual level, we make it available for Krishna. And he, by his mercifulness and sweetness, purifies and propels our heart towards perennial pleasurable absorption in him.

Don’t give the mind monopoly over your inner conversation

Our mind carries on a continuous one-way conversation inside us. It allures, grumbles, distracts. Using subtle suggestions or imperious instructions or anything in between, it distorts our view of things, thereby acting like our enemy, as the Bhagavad-gita (06.05) indicates.

For example, if someone snubs us, the mind may go on a complaining litany: “People always hurt me; no one cares for me; I am alone in this big bad world; life is not worth living.” If we passively listen to the mind’s rants, we give it monopoly over our inner conversation – and end up misled.

How can we resist the mind’s monopolization? By using our intelligence to counter its ideas.

What if our intelligence isn’t sharp enough? Then we can simply verbalize the mind’s ideas. For example, we can verbalize, “My mind is saying that life is not worth living because I have been snubbed.” Such second person reference to the mind reminds us that it is different from us and its ideas need to be critically evaluated.

What if we don’t recognize that the misleading inner voice belongs to the mind? Then we can simply verbalize our feelings: “I am feeling that life is not worth living because I have been snubbed.” Putting our emotions in words triggers our intelligence and helps us realize that our reaction is absurdly disproportionate.

Such verbalization and realization can come faster if we train our intelligence by regular Gita study.

Ultimately, we need to fix the mind on Krishna to cleanse it of its inimical nature. But sometimes by monopolizing our inner conversation, it can dishearten us in our bhakti practice. Challenging its monopoly prevents such discouragement and helps us better focus on Krishna.

Overall, by becoming alert participants in our inner conversation, instead of remaining naïve recipients, we can make wise choices.

Focus on your steps, not your sidesteps

While walking on a road, suppose we keep worrying about all the slippery spots that we will have to sidestep. The resulting fear that we may slip and injure ourselves can paralyze us. But our paranoia is unwarranted if the road is largely good and the occasional risky patches are negotiable with due caution.

The same principle applies to our spiritual journey. To move towards Krishna, we need to focus on him and avoid indulging in anti-devotional temptations. However, if we keep worrying about all the future tempting circumstances we will have to side-step, we will become disheartened, thinking that the temptations are too many or too strong to resist.

Caution about our vulnerability to temptation is desirable, but paranoia isn’t. Why not? Because the process of bhakti-yoga is essentially positive, not proscriptive. Its thrust is on connecting us with Krishna and granting us access to higher happiness, not on rejecting worldly temptations.

And Krishna makes himself easily accessible through many manifestations such as holy names, scriptures and deities. We can also serve him in multifarious ways according to our interests. Every moment of connection with Krishna, be it through inner remembrance or outer service, comprises a small but significant step towards him. The Bhagavad-gita (02.61) urges us to dwell on our steps, not our sidesteps, when it assures us that focusing on Krishna solidifies our intelligence and propels us towards self-mastery.

Focusing on our steps towards Krishna, even if they are baby steps, enables us to move slowly but surely from our present vulnerable position to a more devotionally secure position. Connecting with him gives us a higher taste that makes worldly temptations more resistible. Whereas worrying about what we shouldn’t do makes us feel threatened and throttled, focusing on what we can do makes us feel progressively energized, absorbed and fulfilled.

Suffering doesn’t have to be isolating – it can be integrating

When some adversity afflicts us, grief is natural and understandable. Still, after we have given our emotions the necessary vent, we need to counter the mind’s sorry story, which it often spins amidst suffering. Its story usually runs along these lines: “Everyone is enjoying. I alone am suffering. Life is so unfair to me.” This tale worsens our misery by adding feelings of isolation, alienation and victimization.

The reality, as opposed to the mind’s tale, is that we are not alone in our distress. True, others’ problems may not be as grave as ours. But then, some others’ problems may be far graver. The Bhagavad-gita (08.15) states that this world is a place of misery. Meditating on suffering’s universality deflates the mind’s fantasy that happiness is just a few adjustments away – adjustments that others have been able to do, but we haven’t. Freed from this fantasy, we can integrate with material existence’s unpalatable yet undeniable reality: everyone has problems.

More importantly, the Gita helps us see suffering as an impetus for integrating with spiritual reality. The same verse stresses that those who devote themselves to Krishna go beyond this world, uniting with him for a life of eternal love. Even in this world, the more we become absorbed in Krishna by practicing bhakti-yoga, the more we access a spiritual shelter that transcends our material condition.

Moreover, when we experience bhakti’s shelter amidst our specific suffering, that realization can help us connects with others who are suffering similarly. After we have healed sufficiently, we can empathically share with them our realized conviction that bhakti can shelter and heal them too.

Thus, suffering can serve a dual purpose: an impetus for us to go closer to Krishna and a bond that links us with others, thereby helping others come closer to him.

See love in the expression of emotions – and in the concealing of emotions too

Relationships frequently become dry or even break down because people don’t express the affection they have for each other. As finite beings, we can’t read others’ minds. So only when our loved ones express their feelings for us do we feel reassured that our feelings are reciprocated.

But expressing emotions is not the only way to show love. Sometimes, love may be shown best by concealing emotions. If a child is going to a distant land for higher studies, the mother may feel overwhelmed by anxiety. Yet she may conceal her tears so that her child has a happy last memory of a proud parent offering good wishes and blessings.

The essence of love is not emotions, but purpose: the purpose of doing the best for our loved ones. Such a purpose-centered understanding of love illumines the Bhagavad-gita’s exhortation (12.17) to stay equipoised amidst happiness and distress, which may seem like a call for unemotionality. Paradoxically, this same verse states that such equipoise among devotees endears them to Krishna.

Why does unemotionality please Krishna? Because it helps us focus on him. Presently, because we are materially attached, most of our emotions are about temporary material things, and when we let such emotions carry us away, we lose sight of our long-term spiritual good.

In bhakti-yoga, we demonstrate our love for Krishna by both expressing appropriate spiritual emotions whenever we feel them and subordinating those emotions that obstruct our spiritual purpose. For example, on a holy fasting day, we may not like to fast. But instead of spending the whole day with a sullen face, we strive, as an austerity, to absorb ourselves in serving Krishna as cheerfully as possible.

When we cultivate such absorption by concealing inappropriate emotions, we become purified and gradually relish constant spiritual emotions.

Let God be the center and the circumference of your life

To live a life of bhakti is often conceived in terms of living a life centered on God. That is certainly true.

The Bhagavad-gita (12.19) indicates that for exalted devotees, Krishna is the home for their consciousness – he is the center of their inner world, the point to which they return and the point around which they orbit. Just as, say, one celestial object orbits around another – making that object the center of its orbit, so too do we need to make God the center of our life.

Everything we do, we connect with Krishna and we strive to come closer to Krishna.

Additionally, we need to make Krishna the circumference of our life too, That means that we don’t let our life cross the boundaries that Krishna sets. Of course, just as different circles can have different circumferences, so too can different people have different levels of capacities to connect with Krishna.

In the Gita’s twelfth chapter, over a set of five verses (12.08-12), Krishna outlines various circles at which we can practice bhakti, staying connected with him at different levels.

If we claim that our life is centered on Krishna, but if we don’t have him as our circumference, then that centering will largely remain a matter of illusion.

Love always brings with it bonds and boundaries. When we love someone, we choose to do the things that please our beloved and we avoid the things that displease our beloved.

The same principle applies to our aspiration to love Krishna too. If our claim to love him is genuine, then we need to work at regulating our life according to his guidelines.

The more our life is centered on Krishna, the more we will be able to expand the circumference for taking Krishna’s message to others. But before we can consider extending Krishna’s grace to others, we need to first ensure that we ourselves are well connected with Krishna. That requires learning to live within the circumference of Krishna’s guidelines.

Don’t care so much for desire that it doesn’t care for the desirer

The great irony, tragedy and atrocity of desire is that it no longer pays heed to the desirer. Just as a person who rides on a horse and then the horse goes wild, when we ride on the horse of desire, desire grows wild and doesn’t care for what we desire thereafter.

Thus, for example, surveys show that many people who crave for sex throughout the day often are bored when they actually have sex. Or people who are compulsively eaters often don’t even really like the things that they eat. Just as any horse-rider knows that the horse can be a source of pleasure as well as a source of disaster, even death, so too do we need to remind ourselves that desire is not always a source of pleasure – it can a source of utter disaster too.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that glamorizes desire and blinds us to the dangers of desire that spirals out of control.

Of course, our desire is not something external to us like a horse is. Yet our desire is external to us in that it is present in our mind which is external to us as souls.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.10) warns that desire that is insatiable binds us to unclean actions – in fact, we get bound by our own vows, our own crazy resolutions to indulge in ways that are often self-destructive.

When we start practicing bhakti-yoga, we realize that we can find higher happiness in the devotional remembrance of Krishna. Such remembrance is akin to a regulation and redirection of the horse – away from danger and toward a safe home, wherein our desire takes us towards spiritual growth and ultimately liberation. Thus, the Gita focuses on purification of desire – with the need for such purification coming from the recognition of the dangerousness of addictive desire

Fire-sacrifice is literal, metaphorical and transformational

The Gita talks repeatedly about yajna, sacrifices wherein oblations are offered to the sacred fire. We may wonder, “Does it recommend this activity literally or metaphorically?”

Actually, it does both. The principle of offering is universal, being woven into the very fabric of existence. It is manifest not just in spiritual life but also in secular life. Parents offer necessities and comforts to their children; soldiers offer salutes to their commander; citizens offer taxes to their government.

The Gita reveals the universe to be a universal government, wherein the ritual of fire-sacrifice taps into the interconnectedness of the various levels of the cosmos. The sacred fire, invoked through special chants during fire-sacrifices, acts as a conduit for transporting our offerings to the gods who reside at higher cosmic levels. Thus, fire-sacrifice is a literal activity.

But today’s humans can’t perform competently all the minutiae associated with sacrifice, especially the precise intonation of mantras. So, literal fire-sacrifices aren’t recommended today as the primary mode of offering.

Nonetheless, the metaphorical principle underlying sacrifice – of offering something dear to someone dear – still holds true. The Gita (04.25-29) itself underscores this broadened vision of sacrifice when it deems as forms of sacrifice a wide variety of activities such as breathing exercises, charity, scriptural study and fasting. The Gita (04.30) concludes its expansive explanation by stressing the transformational potency of sacrifice: its performers become purified and progress towards destination eternity.

Today, the best way to perform sacrifice is through mantra meditation, which the Gita (10.25) deems a prominent manifestation of sacrifice. Therein, we offer our most innate energy, our consciousness, to the Absolute Truth, Krishna, who manifests in his eminently accessible form as transcendental sound vibration. By becoming purified and transformed through the sacrifice of chanting, we can connect with the highest reality and relish life’s supreme fulfillment.

Bhakti has to be a choice before it can become a calling

Some people say, “I will become devoted to God when I feel his call from within.”

The problem with such thinking is that we are unlikely to feel God’s call in a sustainable or transformational way. At present, we all are attached to material things. So, though we may feel a sweet devotional pull towards God, that feeling doesn’t usually last for long because our attachments soon resurface and drag our consciousness towards worldly objects.

Even if we somehow feel a stronger call in future, still our deep-rooted attachments won’t let that call stay – they will pull us forcefully, thereby weakening the pull of the divine call. So, we will still have to determinedly choose Krishna instead of worldly objects, even when we don’t feel called towards him. If we have to choose him then, why not choose him now?

True, great saints have often felt Krishna’s overwhelming call. But frequently they have practiced devotion earlier, in that life or a previous life. While outlining the various stages at which bhakti can be practiced (12.08-12), the Bhagavad-gita (12.08) states that feeling called towards Krishna, with mind and intelligence gravitating towards him, is the highest stage. If we are not at that state, the Gita doesn’t advocate waiting passively for some unpredictable call. Instead, it (12.09) recommends that we strive to practice bhakti at a lower level: choosing to conscientiously fix our mind on Krishna, even when we don’t feel naturally attracted to him. By thus diligently choosing Krishna instead of worldly objects, we will become purified and find absorption in him increasingly relishable. As our attraction to him increases, he will eventually become our spiritual calling, and we will become absorbed in him.

Don’t equate the essential with the exclusive

A person driving a car needs fuel, but if they carry with them nothing except fuel and if they imagine that fuel can satisfy their hunger and their thirst, then they are mistaken — horrendously, tragically, ludicrously mistaken.

Money is often the stuff of our strongest fantasies. Such longing is understandable given that we need money for our necessities. Yet more often than not, our longing transmogrifies into an unbalanced, uni-dimensional obsession that has little to do with our needs, and everything to do with our wants, wants that are often triggered within us by our corporate controlled media.

To let money acquire exclusive control over our aspirations and actions is to set ourselves up for disaster. The more we recognize that we are meant to be more than money-minting machines, the more we can strive to ensure that money aids our purpose and doesn’t become our purpose. Otherwise, we court the deadly danger of money slowly, but sinisterly treading over and then trampling upon all the other aspects of our life, aspects that we hold sacred, aspects that make our life worth living. The Bhagavad-gita (16.13-15) outlines the money-centered megalomaniac mentality that makes people murderers of their rivals.

Those who drink car fuel hurt themselves. Similarly, those who live only for money end up hurting themselves. Only when we remember that money is meant to be used for a higher purpose can be keep money in its proper place in our priorities. Gita wisdom offers us a complete understanding of our being and of the purpose of our being, wherein the aspiration for pure eternal love — love for Krishna and all living beings in relationship with Krishna — helps us redefine money as a resource meant for service and contribution, not for aggrandizement and exploitation, thus contributing to our deep inner fulfillment.

The lower our consciousness, the lesser is our contribution

When we live in a fast-paced activity-centered culture, we may wonder whether we are wasting our time by practicing spiritual life, wherein we don’t do anything practical; we just sit and meditate.

Actually, our spiritual activities are potent means for raising our consciousness and thereby maximizing our contribution.

Our consciousness goes up and down because of the three modes of material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. When we are situated in the elevated mode of goodness, knowledge illumines us (Gita 14.11), thus making our actions contemplative and contributive. When we are situated in passion (14.12), we are impelled towards actions driven by selfish desire, especially greed. Amidst such action, we focus not on contribution, but on consumption. Though we may do a lot, we remain obsessed with what we will get out of what we do, not what we are giving.

When our consciousness is in the lowest mode of ignorance, we are stripped of our capacities for both illumination and action – we are afflicted by a delusion that induces paralysis. We sink into ourselves, daydreaming about doing hundreds of things but not doing even one of them. We may even withdraw into some alternate reality through TV or video games, imagining ourselves to be big heroes shooting images on a screen. When we do act while being driven by ignorance, our actions are not contributive, but destructive.

As our contemporary culture is largely in the modes of passion and ignorance, we are constantly susceptible to be caught by those modes, thus undermining our higher purpose and our bigger contribution. When we invest time in spiritual practices such as meditation and scriptural study, we become empowered to raise our consciousness and become enriched with the capacities for clear illumination and purposeful action, thereby maximizing our contributions.

Don’t raise your eyes alone – raise your heart too

When we face overwhelming problems in life, we may lift our eyes and look for help from higher powers, ultimately from God, Krishna.

Such lifting our eyes above life’s routine realities is auspicious; it indicates that we have accepted that forces higher than the human are for real and can make a real difference. The Bhagavad-gita (07.16) appreciates such people who approach Krishna as pious.

While the mitigation of our problems does provide some relief, unfortunately, no worldly relief lasts for long. Some or the other problem soon comes up. Our vulnerability to such disruptions stems from our misdirected desire. We are souls who are eternal parts of Krishna. Though we are meant to love and serve him, we are craving for worldly things. But these things are inherently temporary, so they are incapable of providing us lasting shelter.

If we are fortunate, we understand by studying the Gita that Krishna is the embodiment and fulfillment of all our heart’s desires. Whatever has attracted us gets its attractiveness from Krishna, as the Gita (10.41) informs us. Understanding this inspires us to seek him as our ultimate goal, not as a means to something else that presently rules our heart.

Thus, we raise not just our eyes but also our heart. That is, we strive to make Krishna our most desirable object by practicing bhakti-yoga diligently. When we thus enthrone him as the Lord of our heart or at least cherish him as our loftiest aspiration, then we experience a sublime peace and empowerment in our inner connectedness with him through devotional remembrance.

Aptly, the Gita (07.19) declares that those who devote themselves to Krishna are enriched with knowledge (jnana-van); they surrender wholeheartedly to him, thus deserving and receiving the worthy epithet of being great souls (mahatmas).

For self-improvement, go beyond self-criticism and self-congratulation to self-realization

Some people say that to succeed in life, we should be hard on ourselves. We should unrelentingly critique ourselves, unsparingly punish ourselves for our mistakes and unsentimentally subject ourselves to the grind of discipline. Such self-criticism can help us on the path of self-improvement. But it can harm too – it can keep us trapped under a heavy burden of negativity that can sap our morale and prevent us in the long run from even attempting some difficult things because of the fear of doing them wrong. Some other people say that we should be gentle to ourselves and coddle our inner child – by generously praising ourselves for even our smallest self-improvement steps, we will feel encouraged to take bigger steps. Such self-consideration can help us progress realistically towards self-improvement. But it can degenerate into a form of self-congratulation, wherein we get so caught in lauding ourselves for being good as we are now that we don’t push ourselves out of our comfort zones. The authentic path to self-improvements steers clear of both extremes of self-criticism and self-congratulation and focuses instead on self-realization. The Bhagavad-gita (02.13) begins by explaining that we are at our core spiritual beings. As souls, we are eternal parts of Krishna (15.07) and can relish lasting happiness by learning to love him with whatever talents and resources we presently have. For such devotional utilization of our God-given gifts, self-realization also means better understanding our present embodied condition, wherein we understand our God-given strengths and our limitations. We can work on our strengths to improve them, thereby making tangible contributions. And by learning to live with our limitations, we can vigilantly steer clear of any pitfalls that those limitations make us prone to. By such holistic self-realization, we can march steadily and strongly towards self-improvement and self-actualization in a mood of loving service to Krishna. –

What we don’t have is not the problem – what we don’t see is

We frequently crave for the many things we don’t have, things often aggressively glamorized by today’s corporate controlled media. Such greed and its concomitant dissatisfaction are, the Bhagavad-gita (14.12) indicates, characteristics of the mode of passion. Greed is like a malaise afflicting our psyche. As long as we are thus afflicted, satisfaction will elude us, no matter how much we acquire; greed will make us dissatisfied about not having some other thing. To cure greed most effectively, we need to practice the potent purificatory process of bhakti-yoga. This yoga makes us aware of the indwelling presence of Krishna, who is the all-attractive, all-loving, all-joyful Absolute Truth. We are his eternal parts. Absorption in his remembrance enriches us far more than the best external acquisitions. The Gita (06.22) assures that the topmost yogis who relish the highest spiritual realization feel so satisfied that they don’t crave for any other gain. However, the same dissatisfaction that dogs us in our material life can distract us in our spiritual life too. To gain the intellectual conviction for focusing on Krishna, we need to recognize our real problem, the root cause of our dissatisfaction: our inability to see what we have, both materially and spiritually. Materially, if we contemplate the talents and assets we do have and look not at those who have more, but the many who have less, we can curb our dissatisfaction. Spiritually and more importantly, we can contemplate our immeasurable spiritual treasures: Krishna’s indwelling presence, and the opportunities to practice bhakti-yoga for relishing that presence. Dwelling on what we have will engender contentment and enable us to work with a higher motive – not the insatiable craving for more, but the aspiration to do justice to our God-given gifts and to share the process for inner enrichment.

Nothing distracts us as much as we ourselves

We live in a culture of mass distraction. Worldly things around us try to catch our eye in myriad ways. And with us lie devices that are potentially universes of distraction. No doubt, in today’s work environment, devices are often indispensable. Still, even when we are using a device for our work, we may get distracted on the device itself to social media, net surfing, emails and what not. We may chat here, read there, watch somewhere else — forgetting what we intended to do and forgetting even that we have forgotten. Even if we put our phone in silent mode, disconnect ourselves from the internet and move away from chat boxes and chatterboxes — all conditions conducive for undistracted work — we may give in to some wayward impulse and seek out some distraction. Such incidents show that outer distractions are not as big a problem as our inner distractibility. Such distractibility stems from our dangerous inner distractor: the mind. The Bhagavad-gita (06.26) acknowledges the mind’s restlessness, but still exhorts us to focus it on spiritual reality. This exhortation implies that we have the capacity to focus our mind. Though our capacity for mental focus is presently under-developed, we can boost it by practicing bhakti-yoga. This time-honored yoga links the mind with the supremely pacifying and satisfying object of thought, Krishna. When we relish the serenity and joy of absorption in Krishna, we get convinced that we can do better than wander off wherever the mind wishes to wander. This conviction inspires within us the resolution to no longer pay heed to the inner distractor, but to focus on Krishna as our object of service in all our activities. By this devotional resolution, we gradually get empowered by divine grace to detect, neglect and reject distractions, both external and internal.

There’s no need to be confidently pessimistic

To achieve anything challenging, we need to be optimistic. Bhakti can boost our optimism by helping us realize that we are not alone; Krishna is always with us – he loves us and wants the best for us. However, during our bhakti practice, our mind subtly and sinisterly shifts our focus from Krishna to the hurdles between him and us: our conditionings. When they cause us to slip and fall, we become disheartened, thinking, “I can never overcome these conditionings.” Such a feeling, while understandable, is not reasonable. How, after all, can we know the future so surely? Have we mystically developed the power of precognition? No, our confident pessimism comes not from our precognition, but from our mind’s deception. Our mind is presently ruled by our conditionings, so it often acts as our enemy. It wants to keep us in its control – control that is threatened by our practice of bhakti. So, it takes us away from Krishna by attacking with temptation, and then keeps us away from him by attacking with pessimism. We may fall to the attack of temptation, but we don’t have to stay fallen by letting pessimism paralyze us. Gita wisdom assures us that no matter how strong our conditionings may be, they are no match to Krishna’s omnipotence. The Bhagavad-gita declares that even if devotees succumb to misdeeds, they are still well-situated as long as they keep practicing bhakti (09.30). And by that diligent practice, they will soon become virtuous (09.31). By remembering Krishna’s omnipotence, we can replace our confident pessimism with confident optimism. Energized thus, we can strive to remember and serve him to the best of our capacity. Being pleased by our sincere endeavors, he will purify us by his omnipotent mercy, gradually empowering us to rise to levels of freedom that had earlier seemed impossible.

Discipline is the fusion of intention with action

We may sometimes lament: “I could do so much more in my life if I were more disciplined.” To cultivate discipline, we can break it into its essential components, which can be said to be inner contemplation and outer execution. When either of these is missing, our attempts for discipline flounder and falter. Suppose we do something externally because others want us to do it – not because we ourselves are convinced about doing it. For example, if we begin dieting because our well-wishers tell us to, we will soon give in to eating binges if we still believe that dieting isn’t all that important. Conversely, we may feel inspired to do something worthwhile, but may not act tangibly on it. For example, if we aspire to write a book, our aspiration will languish on our unfulfilled dreams list if we don’t make any time for it in our schedules. Once we understand discipline’s inner and outer dimensions, we can boost ourselves with aids at both levels. Internally, we can read inspiring wisdom about that discipline, prepare and verbalize our statement of purpose, and revisit it regularly to solidify our intention. Externally, we can associate with those aspiring to be similarly disciplined and connect with friends who can act as our accountability partners. Gita wisdom helps us to fuse intention with action especially when we strive for spiritual discipline. By illumining our inner territory with philosophical wisdom, it reminds us that we are souls, parts of the omnipotent supreme, Krishna, and are meant for everlasting devotional fulfillment. And the Gita guides us towards spiritually-minded people, thereby helping us start and sustain spiritual actions. The Bhagavad-gita (02.64) indicates that when we regulate outer sensory engagement and cultivate inner restraint, we attain purity and mercy – the harbingers of unending spiritual satisfaction.

Purification means changing the mind’s default programming

While practicing spiritual life and striving for purity, we may become disheartened: “Today’s culture fills me with so many impure desires. And my mind too goes off on so many impure fantasies. Will I ever become pure?” Yes, definitely. In fact, purity is our eternal natural state. We are at our core pure – we are souls, who are eternal parts of the all-pure Supreme, Krishna. To reclaim our innate purity, we just need to change our mind’s default programming. Suppose we have a computer with some undesirable default programming. We don’t need to blame or discard the computer. Nor do we need to berate ourselves or dismiss our chances of using it. We just need to get down to work for changing its programming. Similarly, even if we find ourselves getting caught in impure thoughts, we don’t need to blame the world, thereby casting ourselves into the role of a helpless victim. Nor do we need to blame ourselves, thereby burdening ourselves with unhelpful guilt. We just need to get down to work for changing the mind’s default programming. Indeed, the whole process of yoga is meant for bringing about this change in the mind. TheBhagavad-gita (06.15) assures that the mind becomes calmed by sustained yoga practice, thereby facilitating the seeker’s progress towards liberation. Bhakti-yoga purifies the mind most expeditiously because it offers the most satisfying object for contemplation: the all-attractive, all-pure supreme spiritual reality, Krishna. Though our mind may wander during our devotional practices, still the effort to focus it on Krishna gives it a glimpse of higher reality and deeper fulfillment thereof. By repeated experience of this higher sweeter reality, the mind gradually becomes inclined to focus on Krishna instead of worldly objects. When the mind accepts Krishna as its default source of happiness, purity becomes ours.

The word will change the world by changing the will

When we study the Bhagavad-gita, some people ask, “How is a book written thousands of years ago going to make any practical difference amidst the many problems that the world faces today?” The Gita’s relevance comes from its timeless essence – an essence that has the power to activate within the human heart the transformational power of love. By its original narration, the Gita transformed a confused and disheartened warrior to an enlightened and determined warrior, as is evident in Arjuna’s first-person testimony (18.73). And this transformation came about not just by some circumstantial pep talk, but by transcendental wisdom that can even today change our self-conception and our motivation for action. The Gita helps us understand that we are at our core spiritual beings. And all that we do is at its root animated by a core aspiration: the longing to love and be loved. This love can be fulfilled forever when directed towards an eternal object. The Gita reveals the highest eternal object to be Krishna, the all-attractive, all-loving Supreme Person. And we all can direct our love towards him by the practical process of bhakti-yoga. While bhakti-yoga centers on directly devotional activities such as chanting, hearing and worshiping, it also includes in its scope our entire life with all its activities. Thus, bhakti inspires us to act in a mood of devotion in whatever we do in this world. The world’s problematic state of affairs arises ultimately because people use their will wrongly. And they misuse their will because of ignorance, ignorance that makes people believe that their short-term material infatuations matter more than their long-term spiritual interests. Gita wisdom raises our vision to the spiritual level, thereby changing the human will and laying the foundation for the most sustainable change in the world. 

Love is not just feeling – it is giving

Love is commonly used to refer to the strong emotion that one person may feel for another. Yet love is not just a feeling; it is giving – a giving of oneself for another’s sake. Consider a mother’s love for her newborn. She certainly has strong feelings for her baby, but what defines her relationship with the infant is giving. If the baby starts crying at midnight, the mother doesn’t bother about whether she herself feels good or not. Instead, she strives to calm her baby by giving herself – her milk, her soothing words, her comforting caresses, her reassuring presence. In any relationship, the more we focus on giving instead of feeling, the more we stabilize and strengthen that relationship. This same principle applies to our devotional relationship with Krishna too. This giving aspect of devotion is conveyed in a three-verse sequence in the Bhagavad-gita (09.26-28) that describes the performance of bhakti-yoga at advanced and not-so-advanced levels. Advanced devotees offer Krishna their heart and their entire being. Even if constrained circumstances compel them to make their practical offering very simple – a leaf, a flower, a fruit or just a glass of water – their mood of giving still pleases Krishna (09.26). Not-so-advanced devotees can cultivate that giving mood by offering to Krishna whatever work they do (09.27). If they steadily offer him the things dear to them at their level of consciousness, they gradually rise to life’s supreme perfection: eternal love for Krishna (09.28). When we cultivate this giving aspect of devotion, we can transcend the unsteadiness that characterizes our spiritual practice when it is driven primarily by feelings. Rather than bothering about how we feel while practicing bhakti, we focus on giving ourselves in committed service to Krishna. The resulting connection with him gradually makes us feel spiritually fulfilled – deeply, transformationally, perennially fulfilled.