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What the Gita is meant to show
The Bhagavad-gita is meant to show how one can understand his spiritual existence and his eternal relationship with the supreme spiritual personality and to teach one how to go back home, back to Godhead. Bhagavad Gita As It Is 11.55 purport
11.26 – Confront reality before reality confronts us
Gory scenes of mangled flesh, spattered blood and distorted corpses may be a stable in horror movies, but still they cause most people’s stomachs to roil in shock and revulsion. And we wouldn’t expect to find such narratives in wisdom-literature. Yet we find them in the Bhagavad-gita’s eleventh chapter as a part of the mystical…
11.32 – Time makes the unpalatable unavoidable; Krishna makes the unavoidable palatable
Tick, tick, tick. The ticking clock, or in this digital age the changing figures on a timer, are a common icon of the passage of time. Whatever be the way we measure time, the fact remains that time is passing away constantly, relentlessly, irreversibly. The passage of time forces us to undergo things that we…
11.33 – We need mountains to conquer ourselves – and bhakti offers us the best mountains
Seasoned mountaineers know that successful mountaineering is about much more than the achievement of conquering the mountain – it’s about the fulfillment of conquering themselves. The external challenges in mountaineering force them to confront and conquer their own fears, flaws and blind spots. Thus, they conquer themselves, or more precisely, their weaker self. Gita wisdom…
11.08 – Bhakti renders the metaphysical physical and the physical metaphysical
Can we know the metaphysical nature of things (how they actually are) as contrasted with their physical nature (how they appear to us)? Modern science is caught in a metaphysical dead-end; its two fundamental branches, relativity and quantum physics, postulate theories that paint pictures of reality that are violently contradictory. Both can’t be true, yet…
11.33 – After we win the battle, our real battle begins
Life regularly forces us to fight battles – battles to thrive and even battles to survive. When we start practicing spiritual life, we want to do justice to our god-given talents and use them in the service of Krishna and for the good of others. For that we have to confront numerous hostile forces that…
11.54 – Krishna is beyond the range of the head, but not beyond the reach of the heart
Krishna is infinite, whereas we are finite. The finiteness of our head prevents us from intellectually grasping Krishna completely. No doubt, Gita wisdom helps us understand the fundamental truths about Krishna and our relationship with him. Still, the Bhagavad-gita (11.53: naham vedair) categorically asserts that Krishna is forever beyond the range of the head. The…
11.33 – We are never too small to do a big service and never too big to do a small service
“I am not qualified to do that service.” Such thoughts may hold us back when the opportunity to render a significant service presents itself. It is true that none of us are qualified to serve Krishna. He is supremely pure, whereas we are pathetically impure. Due to our contaminated cravings and perverted passions, we frequently…
11.32 – A Sage Look at Time Management
“Time management” is a trendy word. The trend, though, is to focus on management, not on time. People value time for its utilitarian worth, as a resource to be managed so as to get things done. Viewing time as a resource naturally elicits its comparison with money. Time is more precious than money, say people…