Constancy of purpose often necessitates change of strategy

India dominated world hockey from the 1920s to the 1970s. Its success came from its wizard-like expertise in using the hockey stick. But after artificial turfs were introduced in the 1970s, success required strength and stamina more than stick wizardry. As India didn’t or couldn’t develop changed strategies to meet these new requirements, its position in world hockey soon declined from supremacy to mediocrity.

This example illustrates that achieving the same purpose – in this case, winning at hockey – sometimes requires adopting a changed strategy. This principle applies in spiritual life too, especially in making spiritual wisdom relevant and appealing for society.

The Bhagavad-gita reveals such resourcefulness when it expands Arjuna’s vision beyond the two strategies for spiritual growth known to him – the path of action, which he thought would keep him entangled; and the path of renunciation, which he thought would liberate him. Considering Arjuna’s context, he was poised to fight a war necessary for establishing dharma. Accordingly, Krishna harmonized spiritual strategy with dharmic necessity and introduced Arjuna to a third option: neither action, nor renunciation of action, but renunciation in action. The Bhagavad-gita (05.11) indicates that we can pursue purification and spiritual elevation by using all our resources, even our senses. The Gita’s thought-flow culminates in devotion, wherein absorption in the all-attractive Supreme Krishna is declared the best way for being renounced internally while performing action externally. Action with such devotional service attitude comprises the best way for both growing spiritually and contributing socially.

Applying this devotional spirit of inner renunciation and outer contribution, Gita exponents regularly devise strategies customized for their time-place-circumstance. For example, contemporary Gita teachers may use the latest social media to take spiritual wisdom to people’s homes and phones.

By similarly adopting tailor-made strategies, we can assist in fulfilling Krishna’s timeless purpose: sharing spiritual wisdom with everyone.

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.

Those who don’t hang together, hang separately

When we practice spiritual life, we engage in a war against illusion, which attacks us primarily by triggering our lower desires. Our fellow-devotees and we are comrades in the war against illusion.

In a war, comrades watch each other’s backs. In the spiritual war, our lower desires often ambush us by masquerading as our desires. Our spiritual comrades can protect us from such ambushes by reminding us of our higher values and aspirations.

Unfortunately, we sometimes let differences over relatively unimportant issues define our relationships with devotees. Overlooking the defining spiritual commonality that we are fighting the same enemy and serving the same Lord, we let minor differences distance us from devotees. Being thus isolated, we are left with no one to caution us when our lower desires sneak in. Beguiled by those desires, we unwittingly indulge in anti-devotional, immoral activities, thereby wrecking our spiritual prospects. Thus, by failing to hang together, we end up hanging separately.

On a positive note, association offers not just protection from our lower desires but also inspiration for our higher desires. And nourishing our desires to love and serve Krishna is the most effective way to immunize ourselves from self-centered desires. We can best nourish our devotional desires by associating with like-minded devotees whose definitions of spiritual success resonate with ours.

The Bhagavad-gita (10.09) states that devotees delight in discussing Krishna and enlightening each other about his glories. Such association helps us relish Krishna’s glories from various perspectives, thus strengthening our desires to serve him. Further, association helps us appreciate how other devotees are pressing on, despite obstacles and reversals, in their war for spiritual integrity. This appreciation inspires us to persevere resolutely in our war too.

When we subordinate our differences with devotees to our defining spiritual commonality, our devotional practices become safe, strong and fulfilling.

To reject reality because it is not found in the map is absurdity

Suppose someone uses a map to travel to a friend’s house. At each step during the journey, suppose the map guides them well, and their faith in it increases more and more. Finally when they reach their friend’s house and see him, they check their map, don’t find him there and declare, “You don’t exist.” Their friend would be right to retort, “Your intelligence doesn’t exist – the map is not meant to show people. It doesn’t show all of reality.”

Science acts like a map for navigating material reality. The scientific picture of nature enables us to reliably do things such as getting where we want to go. Being enamored by these navigational abilities, some people deem science the only reliable source of knowledge about everything. Thus, they become believers of scientism.

What’s wrong with scientism? It misrepresents science. Mainstream science doesn’t show all of reality. Operating on the premise of methodological naturalism, it looks for material explanations for material phenomena while saying nothing about any nonmaterial factors. In principle, the map of naturalist science isn’t meant to depict nonmaterial realities such as consciousness.

When believers of scientism encounter consciousness, especially its irreducible subjective dimension, they deny its existence by deeming its locus – our sense of self – a neurochemical illusion. But it is only because they have consciousness that they can say anything about it, either its existence or non-existence. Put another way, only because consciousness is real can they make the absurd claim that it is not real.

The Bhagavad-gita (16.09) indicates that people destroy their soul because of buying into a fanatically materialistic worldview (16.08). If instead we study the Gita’s wisdom, we can intellectually grasp the reality of the soul and gradually by the practice of yoga realize it to be our essence.

Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

We can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, but we can avoid pursuing themby Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 02

We live in a world filled with tempting sense objects, yet spiritual growth requires us to resist temptations. Are we being asked the impossible?

No, but abstinence can seem an impossible demand if we don’t understand the vital difference between perceiving sense objects and pursuing sense objects. Though we can’t avoid perceiving sense objects, we can avoid pursuing them if we don’t let our imagination transform perceptions into obsessions.

The Bhagavad-gita (02.70) points to the subtle but critical difference between pursuing and perceiving through its enigmatic usage of the alliterative compound word kama-kami, desire of desire. Here the second desire refers to the inward flow of desire, that is, the flow of alluring sensory impressions into our consciousness. And the first desire refers to the outward flow of desire, that is, the flow of our intention to indulge in those objects.

Urging us to not become a desirer of desire, the Gita verse offers us the metaphor of an ocean staying undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it.

The ocean stays undisturbed despite the flow of rivers into it because the water in the ocean is far greater than that in the rivers. Similarly, we can stay undisturbed when we have within us a reservoir that offers far greater happiness than what is promised by the sense objects. The best such source is Krishna, the all-attractive supreme person who loves us eternally and who can fill us with oceanic love and the resulting happiness if we just open our heart to him by the diligent practice of bhakti.

When we start seeking and savoring devotional happiness, then we can perceive sense objects without being goaded to pursue them because we won’t feel deprived by not indulging in them, for we will feel fulfilled in Krishna.

Our connection with Krishna is reinforced, not restricted, by the guru by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Some people find the idea of a guru difficult to digest, “Can’t I have a relationship with God? Why do I need to restrict my approach to God through a guru?”

The guru doesn’t restrict our relationship with God – he reinforces it.

We all have an innate and inviolable relationship with Krishna. That relationship can, however, be obscured or covered when we turn away from him. Turning to him is not just a matter of intention – it is also a matter of redirection.

A lost person doesn’t just need to desire to go home, but also needs to know the way to go home. Similarly, all of us are lost souls being disconnected from Krishna due to our desires to enjoy material things.

These desires have created an inner darkness within us that prevents us from both seeing Krishna within our heart and seeing the contours of our inner territory in our journey back to him.

The spiritual master provides us guidance that illumines the inner territory. By pointing out based on scripture the pitfalls and the pathways, the guru helps us perceive spiritual truths culminating in Krishna, as the Bhagavad-gita (04.34) exhorts.

Being told to choose a particular path may seem restrictive for those who don’t want to go where that path leads – and even for those who don’t have any particular destination to go to. But once a destination is finalized, sticking to a path is not restrictive – it is productive.

Similarly, once we understand that Krishna is our ultimate destination, then the guidance of the guru, far from restricting our connection with Krishna, reinforces it. By the expert mentoring of our spiritual guides, we learn how to overcome the obstacles that keep us away from Krishna and how to make decisions that take us to him.

Personality is neither a pointer to nor a portion of the Absolute Truth – it is the pinnacle by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Many Gita commentators treat Krishna as a pointer to an amorphous non-personal Absolute Truth. They consider that the less intelligent need a form to stabilize their meditation till it becomes strong enough to focus on the impersonal light that the form is meant to point to. That the Gita(07.24) speaks exactly the opposite, deeming as unintelligent those who consider the personal a temporary manifestation of the impersonal absolute, doesn’t seem to matter to them.

Some such commentators think of themselves as being especially charitably disposed towards the devout when they grant personality more than provisional existence – they deem that personality is also a feature of the Absolute Truth, which essentially is an infinity of idealized, universalized perfection. That their conception of perfection is stripped of personality, reciprocity and vitality doesn’t seem to matter to them. That theGita (07.07) speaks the opposite, declaring that there’s no higher truth than the personal manifestation of Krishna, doesn’t seem to matter to them.

It should if what matters to us is the import of the Gita and not the impressiveness of the intellectual gymnastics of its commentators.

Significantly, the Gita doesn’t need such gymnastics from self-appointed arbiters of its meaning. It declares that personality is not just a pointer to some higher impersonal Absolute Truth. Rather, everything else, including the impersonal manifestation, is a pointer to the personal Absolute Truth, as the Gita (10.41) emphasizes. This subordination of the impersonal to the personal is evident also in the Gita’s declaration (18.54) that those who attain impersonal realization thereafter graduate to personal devotion.

The personal manifestation is thus the pinnacle of the Absolute Truth – and that pinnacle sustains all the other manifestations of the Absolute Truth, including the impersonal, as the Gita (14.29) indicates.

When the mind makes the irrational seem rational, catch it in its irrationality by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

When we do something irrational, we may wonder, “Why did I do such a thing?”

Because the mind may have stupefied us by using some specious, often almost subconscious, argumentation.

For example, the mind may prompt us to do something wrong by arguing, “Everyone is doing it.” If our child used that argument saying, “I want to ride superfast on my bike because all my friends do it,” we would forbid, replying, “That doesn’t make it safe.” Similarly, just because everyone does something doesn’t make it right. Yet when our own mind makes the argument, we sometimes tamely acquiesce. Thus, the mind often uses flimsy arguments to make the irrational seem rational.

We can objectively retrace the trajectory of our fall by recollecting our thoughts when we were clear-headed and when we started becoming fuzzyheaded.

Whenever we fall for the mind, we can objectively retrace the trajectory of our fall by recollecting our thoughts when we were clear-headed and when we started becoming fuzzyheaded. By noting what caused the shift in our thoughts, we can identify what argument the mind used to rationalize the irrational. Then we can prepare scriptural and logical counter-arguments to expose the fallacies in its argument – and keep those counter-arguments readily available always. Thus we apply the Bhagavad-gita’s instruction (06.25) to restrain the mind with the intelligence.

Next time when the mind starts rationalizing the irrational, we can catch it in its irrationality with our prepared counter-arguments. This will not only protect us from relapse, but will also increase our ability to catch the mind.

Of course, for ultimately controlling the mind, we need to adopt the supreme scriptural guideline: absorb yourself in Krishna through devotional service. And our training in catching the mind’s irrationality will help us expose it when it tries to irrationally dishearten us in our devotion. By thus practicing bhakti consistently, we will gradually convert the mind and attain Krishna’s eternal shelter.

The impersonal stereotype of impersonalists militates against personlism by Chaitanya Charan Das

An impersonal stereotype of impersonalists refers to the notion among some neophyte personalists that all impersonalists are blasphemers of Krishna.

However, the Gita itself differentiates among impersonalists. It (09.11-12) declares that those impersonalists who minimize Krishna’s form as materia, known as Mayavadis, l are deluded and ill-fated. In contrast, it (12.03-04) indicates that those impersonalists who simply seek the impersonal Absolute, without condemning the personal, known as Brahmavadis, eventually attain their desire – but only after great labor (12.05).

Many spiritualists frequently self-identify as impersonalists not due to intention but due to misinformation.

Nowadays, most people, even those who self-identify as spiritualists, are not serious seekers. Such dilettante spiritualists usually gather their spiritual conceptions from random readings or common cultural depictions. As such sources often portray that the personal manifestation is for non-intellectual sentimentalists and the impersonal for intellectuals, these fledgling spiritualists fancy themselves as impersonalists. They don’t usually have any envy towards Krishna’s personal form – to the contrary, they may even have some devotion for him. They frequently self-identify as impersonalists not due to intention but due to misinformation.

If explained properly based on Gita wisdom how the highest manifestation of the Absolute Truth is personal, such spiritualists often become personalists. We ourselves may have been such nominal impersonalists before our spiritual mentors rescued us from our misconceptions.

If we are to be similarly considerate in helping other nominal impersonalists, we need to avoid stereotyping them as blasphemers. Such stereotyping actually militates against our own philosophy. After all, personalism holds that not only Krishna but also all living beings are persons. So impersonalists are not a homogenous collective of blasphemy – they are distinct persons with individual conceptions and aspirations. By not judgmentally condemning them all as blasphemers but by cautiously yet open-mindedly offering them on a case-to-case basis opportunity for spiritual elevation, we honor our personalist philosophy and also reflect the compassionate desire of our personal Lord to benedict everyone, even impersonalists.

The best translation of the Gita is its translation into life by Chaitanya Charan DasBased on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 04

People interested in the Bhagavad-gita sometimes ask, “Which is its best translation?”

The best translation is its translation into life. That is, the Gita’s best translation will come from those who live it in their lives.

Mastery over a language doesn’t automatically imply mastery over everything written in that language. Just as English expertise alone wouldn’t qualify one to explain an English book on advanced quantum physics, so too Sanskrit expertise alone doesn’t qualify one to explain a Sanskrit book on advanced philosophy: the Gita.

The Gita is a book for healing – healing the human heart from the wound caused by its fracture from the divine heart.

What makes linguistic mastery further inadequate is that the Gita is not a theoretical book for abstract analysis; it is an action-calling book for practical living. It is a book for healing – healing the human heart from the wound caused by its fracture from the divine heart. This healing can fulfill forever our longing for love and happiness. For such healing, the Gita endorses bhakti-yoga as the best process.

In fact, the Gita (04.03)

declares that devotion is the qualification for comprehending its message. To access its healing wisdom, we need to learn it from the great bhakti exponents who are themselves healed and have healed others.

Suppose an ancient Chinese medical book that contains cures for many deadly diseases was available in two English translations: one by a linguist adept in both Chinese and English and one by a doctor with a basic grasp of both languages who has practiced that medicine for decades and healed thousands.

Which translation would we choose?

If we were interested in its medical insights, we would choose the doctor’s translation. Similarly, if we wish to go beyond linguistic technicalities to the Gita’s life-transforming potencies, then the translation by those who have translated the Gita into their lives and the lives of others would be the best translation.

Worry not about falling into illusion – worry about staying in devotion

Serious seekers often worry, “Will I fall back into the illusions of material existence?”

Yes, if we keep worrying about falling into illusion. No, if we worry about staying in devotion.

Illusion allures us by promising material happiness. What protects us from its lure is not just the knowledge that its promise is false, but also the knowledge that there’s real happiness elsewhere, and, better still, the experience of spiritual happiness.

Dwelling on various dangers makes us feel paranoid. And dwelling on various prohibitions makes us feel cramped.

We can access spiritual happiness most easily by devotionally connecting with Krishna. In the middle of its section on sense control (02.54-72), the Bhagavad-gita underscores that we succeed in sense control when we fix our consciousness on Krishna. If we don’t, the preceding (02.60) and succeeding (02.62-63) verses outline our fall trajectory. When we don’t think of Krishna, we fall out of devotion and lose access to higher spiritual happiness. Our innate need for happiness makes us seek it elsewhere, usually at the illusory material level to which we are habituated. Though we may intellectually analyze how such pleasure is illusion, our need eventually blunts our analysis and we fall into illusion.

And such relapse can’t be prevented merely by worrying, “From where will illusion attack next?”

Why?

Because dwelling on various dangers makes us feel paranoid. And dwelling on various prohibitions makes us feel cramped. Overall we feel de-energized and over time illusion overpowers us.

Instead, we can worry about somehow staying in devotion, “How can I serve Krishna now?” Such worry channelizes our energy, provides us divine security and keeps us on the path to happiness. Significantly, this devotional worry is our constitutional worry, the worry that animates our eternal life in Krishna’s abode. Therein we worry about how best to serve him, and that worry intensifies our contemplation on him, thereby increasing our ecstasy eternally.

Focus not on being known – focus on knowing by Chaitanya Charan Das

We want to be known. Living in a world filled with nameless masses in its mindless metropolises, we sense subconsciously the threat of obscurity looming constantly – anonymity threatens to reduce us to a cipher.

The prospect of walking into a crowded boardroom that contains no familiar faces can be unnerving. When heads turn and nod in recognition, we feel affirmed.

The endless processions of meaningless interactions that often go on in the name of socializing, either physically or digitally, can blind us to our real need

Yet this natural human need for affirmation can degenerate into an obsession when we tie our self-worth to how many heads turn. In a culture that equates people’s value with the number of likes on their Facebook page, being unknown can sound like death.

Yet the endless processions of meaningless interactions that often go on in the name of socializing, either physically or digitally, can blind us to our real need – the need to know. And what we need to know the most is who we really are, what makes us actually tick and what will make us truly happy.

We may think that we know who we are: “I am an extrovert who thrives in socializing.” But extroversion is a characteristic of the psychological layer of our being. Beyond our physical and psychological layers lies our core identity, the real me.

To help us know ourselves, the Bhagavad-gita holds an introspective mirror in front of us. Therein we see that we are immortal souls, parts of the all-attractive Supreme, Krishna. We are spiritual persons who have within us the potential for life and love eternal. Such self-knowledge, theGita (02.29) states, cannot but amaze us.

And we don’t have to give up being known; we just need to put knowing first. When we know ourselves, we can put being known to the best use – not to pacify or gratify our ego, but to share with others the amazing joy of knowing.

Devotion centers not on renouncing the material, but on reclaiming the spiritual

Some people ask, “Do I have to renounce everything material to gain devotion?”

No – the essence of devotion is reclaiming the spiritual, not renouncing the material.

Reclaiming the spiritual means regaining our right to spiritual existence and enrichment – a right we have unwittingly forfeited due to our infatuation with material enjoyment.

We are at our core spiritual beings, souls. And as souls, we are eternal parts of the supreme spiritual being, Krishna. In our relationship of spiritual love with him we find everlasting fulfillment. When we learn to love him by practicing bhakti-yoga, we regain access to that fulfillment.

The flame of a selfless service attitude burns away all material contamination and lights the heart with spiritual illumination.

Krishna is the source and master of everything, spiritual and material. So, even material things can be used in his service. TheBhagavad-gita (04.24) indicates that by internalizing such a spiritual vision of existence, all our activities become spiritualized, akin to a sacrifice. The flame of a selfless service attitude burns away all material contamination and lights the heart with spiritual illumination.

Then the material resources we use for serving Krishna become tools that connect us with him. Let’s see how this happens with two things often considered material: wealth and the senses.

Devotion helps us see wealth not as Maya, but as Lakshmi; not as the illusory energy that binds us, but as the Goddess of Fortune who blesses us when we re-unite her with her Lord – as did Hanuman in the Ramayana.

Bhakti-yoga is sensory spirituality. It uses the very material senses that are normally the pathways to illusion and bondage to connect us with Krishna’s manifestations such as the Deity and the holy name, thereby paving the way to illumination and liberation.

When we thus use the material in Krishna’s service, we progressively reclaim our lost right to a life of eternal spiritual love with him.

http://www.gitadialy.com

The soul is metaphysical, but not metaphorical by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

The idea of a soul is found in the metaphysical ruminations of almost all traditions. But few traditions explain clearly what the soul is. They frequently use the term as a metaphorical reference to our non-material essence.

Such metaphorical usages often extend to the essence of anything. For example, ‘the soul of Japan was shattered by the atom bomb attacks.’ Usages like these are not semantically wrong. But when coupled with the prevailing fuzziness about the notion of the soul, they tend to reduce the soul to a metaphor. It then becomes all too easy for materialists to banish the soul into non-existence, leaving occasional references to it ontologically meaningless.

That the soul is beyond fragmentation, incineration, dissolution and desiccation emphasizes the ontological actuality of the soul.

Such degeneration to meaninglessness is graphically illustrated in the phrase ‘the soul of materialism’ used by some materialist philosophers. Materialism’s central dogma is that matter is the only thing that exists; so the soul being non-material doesn’t exist. Therefore, the phrase ‘the soul of materialism’ makes sense only when the usage ‘soul’ is stripped of all ontological import.

Gita wisdom pre-empts such fuzziness and meaninglessness by explaining that the soul is a concrete higher-dimensional entity, a being that animates the body with consciousness. Its assertion (02.24) that the soul is beyond fragmentation, incineration, dissolution and desiccation emphasizes this ontological actuality of the soul.

How?

Breaking, burning, dissolving and drying – these apply to things that really exist. By applying them to the soul, the Gita communicates that the soul is just as real. And by simultaneously asserting that the soul is not destroyed by the actions that destroy physical things, it conveys that the soul exists at a level higher than the physical – the metaphysical level.

When we grasp the reality of the soul, we infuse our quest for self-realization with clarity, gravity and urgency, thus accelerating our attainment of lasting spiritual happiness.

The use of force to convert doesn’t expand faith – it reduces faith By Chaitanya Charan Das

Some religious groups force others to convert to their faith, “Convert or die.”

But faith is a choice of the heart that can’t be forced. Though force may compel some to mouth a faith-pledge, that doesn’t constitute the change of heart at the heart of true faith. Brute force reduces faith from a matter of the heart to a matter of the lips.

That fanatics celebrate as religious victories converting others to such reduced faith shows that they grossly overrate the externals of their faith. Might they have never known the essence of faith: its security and sweetness? Might they be masking their inner emptiness by outer aggressiveness? Sadly, all traditions have been guilty, to greater or lesser degrees, of such superficiality.

Might fanatics be masking their inner emptiness by outer aggressiveness?

Can faith be shared while respecting people and their God-given free will? Yes, the Bhagavad-gita demonstrates how faith transmission can be respectful and successful: through education and experience.

The Gita’s narrative aims to persuade Arjuna to have faith in Krishna and do his duty. Rephrasing according to our context, Krishna wants to convert Arjuna. Yet he doesn’t resort to force, though he being God commands all the force in all of existence. Instead, he appeals to Arjuna’s reason by outlining a majestic worldview that makes faith the natural and desirable choice. And he offers Arjuna a divine experience by demonstrating his universal form. After making his case, the Gita (18.63) states that Krishna leaves Arjuna free to deliberate and decide. When Arjuna voluntarily chooses to do Krishna’s will, that choice demonstrates an authentic conversion, a triumph of faith.

The truly faithful similarly share with others scriptural wisdom to illumine their intelligence and yogic processes to help them experience the divine. Those who instead resort to force to convert simply expose their intellectual and experiential bankruptcy.

The essence of the fire-sacrifice is not lighting a fire without but lighting the fire with in by Chaitanya Charan Das

Fire-sacrifices seem quaint or queer to many: “What’s the point of lighting a fire and putting ghee, grain and fruits in it?”

The point is to light the fire of selflessness within. In principle, fire-sacrifice centers on giving up for a higher purpose the things enjoyable for oneself. That selfless spirit when directed towards the divine burns away the impurities in the sacrificers’ hearts.

In principle, fire-sacrifice centers on giving up for a higher purpose the things enjoyable for oneself.

Such a principle-centered understanding of sacrifice explains why the Gita (04.25-29) deems as forms of sacrifice various activities that have no fire literally in them. These activities range from worship of the gods to impersonal meditation, from regulated householder life to renounced life, and from scriptural study to social charity. In fact, the Gita repeatedly gives a metaphorical reading of sacrifice by conceiving, say, the impersonal absolute as the sacrificial fire and the soul as the oblation (04.25) or the senses as the sacrificial fire and the sense objects as the oblations (04.26).  By thus infusing various spiritually dovetailable activities with the imagery of sacrifice, the Gita extends the sanctity of sacrifice beyond the fire to the world.

Taking this sanctity into the inner world of consciousness, the Gita (10.25) exalts mantra meditation as the sacrifice that specially manifests Krishna. In mantra meditation, practitioners sacrifice their most intimate possession, their consciousness, to offer prayerful attention to their beloved Lord instead of letting it wander to any of the myriad enjoyable worldly objects. Krishna reciprocates with their devotion by manifesting his all-attractiveness as the holy name. The resulting experience of Krishna is so enriching that it causes the flame of longing for him to blaze into a conflagration that burns to ashes all selfish desires and rouses fully the sacrificer’s dormant devotion, ultimately elevating them to the world of endless love.

Reposition the mind as the object of observation instead of its subject

Seekers often question: “My mind keeps getting distracted from Krishna. What can I do?”

Make the mind the object of observation, answers Gitawisdom.

Usually, the outer world is our object of observation. But our observation of external objects is colored by the mood of our mind, just as our observation is colored by the color of our lens. Thus when the mind is infected by lust, our observation gravitates towards sexually alluring forms wherever we see.

Instead of readily joining the mind as a co-subject in its petty curiosity, we can strive to observe the mind itself.

To counter such distraction, we need to reposition the mind as the object of our observation instead of its subject. That is, when the mind wants to observe something mundane, instead of readily joining it as a co-subject in its petty curiosity, we can strive to observe the mind itself. By evaluating its mood, we can decide whether it and whatever has caught its fancy deserve our attention.

How can we remember to do this when the mind is distracting us?

By prior steady philosophical education and devotional meditation.

These twin tools will convince us of the futility of pandering to the mind’s fancies and the glory of contemplating on Krishna. Equipped with this conviction, we will no longer remain naïve subjects of the mind’s manipulation. When it starts distracting us from what we know we should be doing, we will see through its shenanigans and resume our focus on Krishna and our service to him. The Bhagavad-gita (06.26) recommends such a purposeful reorientation of the wandering mind.

Though such conscientiousness may seem demanding initially, it will soon become fulfilling as we relish the joy of connecting with Krishna and of seeing the connectedness of things with him. As higher, sweeter vistas of devotional awareness open for us, the mind’s distractions will lose their charm and fade to insignificance.

Be not allured by the blame game or the claim game – stay focused on Krishna

Blame game usually involves pointing the blaming finger outwards to others whenever things go wrong.

The blaming finger can also point upwards or inwards. When it points upwards, we blame God for being unintelligent or uncaring or even non-existent. When it points inwards, we beat ourselves down with self-recrimination, “I am good-for-nothing,” ending up unnecessarily with inferiority complex.

To solve the problem, we need not a blaming finger, but a helping hand

Whichever way the blaming finger points, it doesn’t help in solving the problem. For that, we need not a blaming finger, but a helping hand. Krishna being forever present in our heart is always ready to offer us that hand, even when we are to blame and even when we blame him. But we don’t accept his hand because the ego keeps us seduced in playing the blame game. Even if we succeed in pushing off the blame elsewhere – and there’s no guarantee of that – still we end up having done nothing tangible to rectify the situation or to even learn from it.

When things go right, the ego makes us play the claim game, seeking all the credit. Though the claim game seems pleasant, it too disappoints. Even if we are praised for the success – and there’s no guarantee of that because others too are playing the claim game and competing for praise – still the ego is insatiable. It always finds whatever praise it gets inadequate, thereby leaving us dissatisfied.

Pertinently, the Gita (18.58) urges us to ignore the ego and instead stay focused on Krishna. If we strive to serve him to the best of our capacity, then he will guide us from within, amidst both failures and successes, to choose the best course of action. We will learn and grow from every situation, progressing steadily towards life’s ultimate success: eternal ecstatic love for Krishna.

Don’t just battle over your choices – choose your battles by Chaitanya Charan Das Based on Bhagavad Gita

Battling over our choices refers to struggling to make the right choice while staying in the face of temptation.

Choosing our battles refers to deciding which temptation to face and which to flee.

Suppose we have trouble resisting the temptation to access inappropriate sites on the net. Then battling over our choices would refer to having unfiltered Internet access and straining to restrict our net surfing. Choosing our battles would refer to deciding that such a battle is unnecessary and restricting our net access using an Internet filter. Such restriction is a contemporary application of

Avoiding avoidable danger is not cowardice – it is common sense.

the time-honored cultural principle of restricting free mixing between the genders to minimize the possibility of wrongdoing, accidental or intentional. The Bhagavad-gita (02.58) recommends such a safety-first approach by urging us to withdraw our senses from the sense objects, as a tortoise withdraws its limbs within its strong shell.

Of course, we can’t always choose our battles; some temptations may come upon us unavoidably, forcing us to fight against them. But in our war against temptation, more often than not, we get disheartened because we thrust ourselves into battles we don’t need to fight and then get battered.

Avoiding avoidable danger is not cowardice – it is common sense. While walking, we don’t walk in the middle of a road and struggle to evade vehicles; we walk on the footpath and do something productive, maybe converse with a friend.

From the point of spiritual productivity, we don’t grow in our devotion just by saying no to temptation; we grow by saying yes to Krishna. And we can’t say yes to him wholeheartedly if half of our heart is constantly considering the option of saying yes to temptation. Best to not leave that option open so that we can more easily choose the best option: Krishna.

Don’t treat a game like life or life like a game

Many people treat games as if they are as important as life itself. Human culture has always featured sports as a form of recreation, but today’s culture has whipped up for spectator sports a mass mania. And this mania is not harmless – it often leads to corruption and destruction, as when people are swindled through match-fixing or when frustrated fans destroy their TV sets or tragically even commit suicide. Such suicides manifest the worst equation of a game to life – when a game is lost, life no longer seems worth living.

The suicides of sports fans manifest the worst equation of a game to life – when a game is lost, life no longer seems worth living

Conversely, many people treat life like a game. No doubt, game metaphors can illumine some aspects of life. But games have an undercurrent of frivolity that undermines the gravity of life. Essentially, life centers on attaining the fulfillment of love – we all want to love and be loved. When people reduce love (actually lust masked as love) to a game, they find pleasure only in the chase and the conquest, not in the commitment that makes relationships lasting.

The widespread equation of a game to life and life to a game represents the general distortion of perspective in today’s world. TheBhagavad-gita (18.32) states that such a topsy-turvy perspective typifies intelligence in the mode of ignorance.

Gita wisdom shows the way out of such ignorance. It informs us that by directing our love towards the all-attractive Supreme Person, Krishna, we as eternal souls can find everlasting fulfillment. Intriguingly, life in Krishna’s abode is an endless lila or love-play, wherein participants relish purely the excitement, exhilaration and enjoyment that attracts us to games.

So, if we regulate our attraction for games in this temporary world and focus on cultivating devotion in our life, we will gradually find the perfect fulfillment for our attraction to games.