Author: Chaitanya Charan

Why does ISKCON stop its devotees from associating with Gaudiya Math devotees?

Do you need a break from our mind? Bhagavad-gita insights for inside-out change

What makes relationships unsteady – and how to make them steady

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 21 – 10.4.1-10 Heartless Kamsa rejects Devaki’s heartfelt plea

Learning from Dhritarashtra – Does destiny make us or do we make it – 2?

If we feel inspired to do a service other than what we are instructed, what should we do?

Gita 18.64 Krishna’s tone rises from informational analysis to impassioned advocacy

Can you explain the ladder of abstraction through practical examples?

Can practicing bhakti too seriously cause mental health problems?

Learning from Dhritarashtra – Does destiny make us or do we make it – 1?

Gita 18.63 Knowledge guides our free will by showing us the consequences of our actions

If someone is in great pain and can’t understand philosophy, how can we help them?

From exploration to realization to absorption – our devotional journey

Gita 18.62 The deepest peace comes by not an external serene situation but by an internal spiritual connection

Why has the zeal for outreach gone down in our movement?

Gita 18.61 Though we are controlled by material nature, we are still within the control of our Lord

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 20 -10.3.47-53 Just as the ocean gave way to Rama, Yamuna gave way to Krishna

Faith in Krishna’s existence, relevance, benevolence, intelligence and remembrance

Don’t take others’ actions personally – they are dealing more with their mind than with you

Gita 18.60 How we act is determined by our material nature but for what purpose we act isnt

How can we be absorbed in Krishna?

Understanding Krishna’s love 2 – Experience

Understanding Krishna’s love 1 – Knowledge

When our environment is filled with sexual temptations, how can we stay unaffected?

Gita 18.59 Ego means to think that we know better than God

Gita 18.58 The destructive voice can’t be tuned out unless we tune in to the divine voice

Is thinking too much unhealthy?

When spiritual life gives poison instead of nectar – PURE acronym – 2

Gita 18.57 Take shelter of the intelligence to convince yourself of the need to take Krishna’s shelter

When spiritual life gives poison instead of nectar – 1

How spirituality fosters unity in diversity and individuality in unity

Can science free us from the evils of religion, as atheists argue?

Are religious people intellectually lazy and atheists more intellectually responsible?

Gita 18.56 The bhakti university takes seekers from any level to the summit of spiritual perfection

WITH acronym – We may have to live with pain, but we don’t have to live in pain

If we should be purpose-driven, not goal-driven, why do we set goals for new devotees to increase their rounds?

Devotion is not just emotion – it is conscious continuous cultivation

Gita 18.55 Don’t divorce the literal reading of one word from the overall context of the text

3 attitudes for becoming steady in life

Gita 18.54 Devotion doesn’t culminate in liberation, liberation culminates in devotion

No price is too high to possess ourselves – RECAP acronym

How the pre-modern, modern and post-modern ages respectively stressed the spiritual, physical and mental

If our mental software is corrupted, should we try to counter it or rise above it?

How practical is it to reach enlightenment in today’s fast-paced world?

Gita 18.53 Determined disconnection from the material paves the way to the spiritual

What is Krishna consciousness? – Talk to multi-faith group in Australia

Gita 18.52 Take shelter of renunciation to cultivate inner absorption

Karna character analysis – Are we doomed by destiny or by our own decisions?

Ashwatthama character analysis – Just because we are empowered doesn’t mean that we are right

Duryodhana character analysis 2 – If we don’t want help, even God can’t help

Duryodhana character analysis 1 – Are some people innately evil?

Gita 18.51 Use intelligence to counter the mind’s centrifugal force

Krishna is close to us, but we are far away from him

Dhritarashtra character analysis 2 – Do we need to lose everything before we lose our attachments?

Dhritarashtra character analysis 1 – Attachment makes us stone-hearted

Understanding the mind and how it makes us unconscious

The search for happiness – how bhakti pacifies, purifies and satisfies us

How to choose our thoughts wisely – Science, Spirituality and Wellness

Gita 18.50 The Gita’s purpose is not to describe spiritual paths but to analyze them for making an informed choice

Gita 18.49 Our spiritual evolution goes through multiple levels of perfection from engagement through disengagement to devotion

Has science replaced philosophy?

How to become peaceful and purposeful

Gita 18.48 See beyond the unpalatable to the essential to pursue the transcendental

What love is and what love isn’t

Where does our personality come from?

SELF acronym – The self that is missing in the selfie

Gita 18.47 Acknowledging our present diversity is essential for realizing our spiritual commanality

Our emotional wounds can’t be healed by technology – we need spiritualty

The world of science is not the world we live in

Gita 18.46 See work as an offering the divine’s gifts to the divine

Does becoming fully conscious make it difficult to connect with others who are not that conscious?

Committing is not limiting – it is elevating

From ritual to spiritual 3 – Analysis of Krishna’s pastime with the ritualistic brahmanas – The brahmanis selfless devotion

Dhruva pastime analysis 3 – DHRUV acronym – Realization and reconciliation result from devotion

Dhruva pastime analysis 2 – DHRUV acronym – Humility and honesty leads to authentic bhakti

Increasing willpower – by increasing the distance between us and our feelings, and our feeling and our actions

Gita 18.45 Inclusive spirituality centers on rejection of work, but on its reconceptualization and redirection

How can we help people who have dementia?

3 principles for spiritual community building – Session 3 – Balance & Commitment

3 principles for spiritual community building – Session 2 – QA

3 principles for spiritual community building – Session 1 – Authenticity

From ritual to spiritual 2 – Analysis of Krishna’s pastime with the ritualistic brahmanas – Understanding the brahmans

Gita 18.44 Protecting cows protects the cow protectors from greed

Do animal species have no intelligence?

Gita 18.43 Kshatriyas control in service of the supreme controller

Dhruva pastime analysis 1 – Everyone faces distress, the fortunate find the right direction – DHRUV acronym

From ritual to spiritual 1 – Analysis of Krishna’s pastime with the ritualistic brahmanas

Gita 18.42 Brahmanas cultivate material material regulation and spiritual redirection by intellectual conviction

Gita 18.41 Varnashrama provides customized spirituality for elevating people from where they are

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 19 – 10.3.39-46 Omnipotent Krishna can act through transcendental or normal means

PAST acronym – 4 reflections to go past your past

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 18 – 10.3.32-38 How past life connections make sense of present-life situations

Gita 18.40 To attain harmony with our spiritual nature, we need engagement that is in harmony with our psychophysical nature

QA at Bhakti Lounge, Wellington, New Zealand

Are destiny and God the same thing?

What is the subconscious mind as explained in books such as “The power of the subconscious mind”?

Is the world like a programmed algorithm of numbers?

Gita 18.39 Pleasure in ignorance begins in ignorance and ends in increased ignorance

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 17 – 10.3.26-31 Devaki acknowledges Krishna as the provider of the supreme safety and strives for his safety

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 16 – 10.3.20-25 The divine’s complexion is sometimes a description and sometimes a signification