Author Archives: Chaitanya Charan das

16.16 – When desires crowd the mind, dilemmas cloud the intelligence
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We sometimes feel overwhelmed by the number of things that we need to get done. No doubt, we do have a lot to do, but we often put unnecessary loads on ourselves by our unregulated desires. The mind is the place where desires crowd. These desires may come from outside, entering through the doors of […]

Train the mind to make it unable to remember anything other than Krishna
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At the time of death, the mind and intelligence of a living entity create the subtle form of a certain type of body for the next life. If the mind suddenly thinks of something not very congenial, one has to take a corresponding birth in the next life. On the other hand, if one can […]

01.01 Will we have to lose everything before we lose our blindness?
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Attachment makes us blind – blind to everything other than the object of our attachment. The Bhagavad-gita (01.01) indicates this blinding power of attachment through its starting question, its only verse spoken by the blind Dhritarashtra. His biased enquiry about the fate of his forces reveals that his blindness went far deeper than the physical. […]

06.26 – Let’s not renew what we need to remove
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The nature of the mind is to wander unsteadily and unstoppably. During its wandering it frequently goes to memories that are emotionally potent. These may be positive, that is, pleasure-giving or negative, that is misery-causing. However, if the mind is left to itself, it usually revisits memories that are disempowering, not empowering. For example, it […]

09.28 – Liberation is not just about what we are released from but also about what we are released to
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Patients admitted in a hospital long to be discharged so that they can return home and be with their loved ones. Even while staying in the hospital for as long as the treatment necessitates, they long for the release date, looking forward to all that they will be able to do thereafter. Gita wisdom compares […]

01.08 – Attachment makes the absent present
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Attachment has the power to take our thoughts away from our surroundings to our dreams. It can make those to whom we are attached seem to be present even when they are absent. This perception-transforming power of attachment is demonstrated at the start of the Gita. Therein, the arrogant prince Duryodhana assesses the comparative strengths […]

Krishna consciousness is the path of light and liberation
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Maya means forgetfulness of Krishna, and forgetfulness of Krishna and Krishna consciousness stand side by side like light and shadow. If one remains in shadow, he cannot enjoy the facilities offered by light, and if one remains in light, he cannot be disturbed by the darkness of shadow. By taking to Krishna consciousness, one gradually […]

02.14 – Tolerance fosters not impotence but perseverance
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In spiritual life, tolerance is an important virtue. Internalizing this virtue may present us a dilemma: “If I just tolerate the things that happen to me, won’t that make me weak, lethargic, impotent?” Not at all, answers Gita wisdom. Far from making us impotent, tolerance will make us persistence. To understand how, let’s look at […]

03.39 – When a wildfire appears to be the cure for a burn, a wildfire is burning our head
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When a fire burns us, we immediately move away from it towards something cooling and healing. Yet when the fire of lust burns us, we imagine that moving closer to that fire will cool and heal us. That’s how lust covers and perverts our intelligence. The Bhagavad-gita (03.39) indicates that lust is like a fire […]

False shelters perpetuate the struggle for material existence
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This world of maya is called durasraya, which means “false or bad shelter.” One who puts his faith in durasraya becomes a candidate for hoping against hope. In the material world everyone is trying to become happy, and although their material attempts are baffled in every way, due to their nescience they cannot understand their […]

06.08 – Let research reinforce, not replace, search
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The essence of the spiritual journey is not research, but search. Research refers to an academic, intellectual quest for information, whereas search refers to a personal, all-consuming quest for transformation. Gita wisdom provides us an exciting and fulfilling arena for both research and search. Its philosophy incorporates and integrates different schools of thought in a […]

Imitation of a good thing is desired
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We are sending sankirtana parties all over the world, and they are experiencing that even in the remotest part of the world, where there is no knowledge of Krishna, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra attracts thousands of men to our camp. In some areas, people begin to imitate the devotees by shaving their heads and chanting […]

05.23 – As long as we mistake the irresistible to be essential, we deprive ourselves of the essential
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Sometimes worldly desires, especially immoral and anti-devotional sexual desires, seem irresistible. No matter how much we try to resist them, they seem to keep returning again and again till we become too exhausted to resist and give in to them. The Bhagavad-gita (05.22) provides the intellectual impetus for continuing the resistance: worldly pleasures are sources […]