Author: Chaitanya Charan

How can we know that our service is pleasing Krishna?

Do emotions come from the heart the soul or the subtle body?

If Krishna is God why is Vishnu widely considered to be God and Krishna his incarnation?

Is the universe heliocentric or geocentric?

Understanding what is our quota in material life – 2

Resist the temptation to be discouraged

Learn to see the material and the spiritual as cumulative not competitive

Understanding what is our quota in material life – 1

How can we avoid forgetting in real-life what we learn in classes?

How can we prevent our faith from flickering amidst problems?

When guidance is not easily available how can we make good choices?

How can we assess our service when we are not pure-hearted?

How can we avoid over-controlling the things that are in our control?

In the practical-philosophical categorization where does the emotional fit in?

When we face problems we need practical solutions not philosophical solutions – how can scripture help?

What is the best way to monitor our mental habits?

How can we help those who are suffering but are still imagining that they are enjoying?

If someone rationalizes their wrongdoing by saying that Krishna loves us unconditionally how do we respond?

Doesn’t Krishna feel bad when we do something wrong – doesn’t that make him unwilling to shelter us?

If our mistakes have got us into trouble how can we overcome the guilt that disheartens us while taking shelter of Krishna?

Can followers of other religions who don’t follow the regulative principles go back to Krishna?

Is Vedic philosophy confusing because it has so many holy books unlike Christianity and Islam that have only one holy book?

Changing the default settings of our mind

You have gone through a lot of pain in your life – what is your realization?

How can we prevent sense enjoyment from depriving us of Krishna’s shelter?

How can we know that the Gita hasn’t changed over the centuries?

When we don’t feel like surrendering what should we do?

How can we overcome inconsistency in deity worship caused by our wavering feelings?

If our material life takes us temporarily away from our spiritual life how can we later regain our spiritual enthusiasm?

If our material activities interfere with our spiritual life how can we see those activities as spiritual?

If our family members don’t support our bhakti, what should we do?

Was the Mahabharata war predestined?

How can we spiritualize our work without disturbing our colleagues?

How did Krishna as Shanti-duta use sama dama bheda and danda?

If bhakti practice makes us less emotional is that good?

How does repetition in bhakti lead to attraction when normally repetition leads to satiation?

Is our affection for Krishna to be cultivated as between wife-husband or spontaneous as between child-parent?

How can we know that deceased devotees go back to godhead?

Redirecting our desires and our speech towards Krishna

Do we make our destiny or are we made by our destiny?

Lord Chaitanya demonstrates that the heart is higher than the head

“Have you had a near-death experience?”

Relishing Shikshashtakam – Appreciating how meditation on the holy name blossoms to meditation on Krishna

Spirituality in the age of science – The hard problem of consciousness

Constructive response to destructive criticism

Shouldn’t bhakti be a natural evolution in our love not an imposition based on being told whom to love?

Is obsession with spiritual things ok?

What is the difference between attachment and obsession?

How to balance attachment and detachment in daily life?

The Pandavas could have won a kingdom anywhere by defeating someone else – why did they win it by killing their own relatives?

How can we focus on our spiritual advancement without becoming selfish?

If we can’t stop overeating how can we control ourselves?

How can Vedic concepts be explained in scientific terms?

Balancing intensity and sensitivity in bhakti – Learning from HH Radhanath Maharaj’s example

१२. इन्द्रियों की अग्नि में ईंधन न डालें

११. केवल सोच को नहीं दृष्टिकोण को बदलिए

१०. मूर्खताभरे कार्य करने से अच्छा अपनी मूर्खता स्वीकार करना है

९. शल्यचिकित्सा हिंसा नहीं है हितकारी है

८. नरक सदा के लिए नहीं रहता भगवद्प्रेम रहता है

७. श्रीकृष्ण का मार्गदर्शन बिगाड़ता नहीं सुधारता है

6. पहले रास्ता देखो फिर चलो

5. भावनाओं की अभिव्यक्ति है स्वस्थ मन की ओर पहला कदम

४ . दुखों को दुर्भाग्य मानने वाले लोग आध्यात्मिक विकास का अवसर गँवा देते हैं

3. उत्कृष्ट सेवा द्वारा भक्ति की अभिव्यक्ति

2. पैसा दुनिया चलाता है और चलाते-चलाते चला जाता है

१. परिवर्तन का सामना करें उससे प्रभावित न हों

When we become responsible in our material life our employers may exploit us – how to avoid?

Is starting spiritual life because of frustration undesirable?

Accepting that we are beyond the brain, how can we know whether we are the mind or the soul?

How can we make our wandering consciousness more connected to the body?

Is the brain the generator of emotions or the responder to emotions?

Can we get to higher consciousness only through near-death experiences or by other means?

Are the mind and the brain interchangeable?

Overcoming our mental energy drainers

Why does the Gita begin with Dhritarashtra not Krishna?

Upcoming Schedule of Chaitanya Charan

Can those undergoing near-death experiences choose not to return to their body?

During near-death experiences is everything that happens predetermined or can the experiencer choose?

How do we balance our fundamental and functional identities?

If we understand that we are souls do we need to reject the whole life we have built on our bodily identity?

Who were the vanaras in the Ramayana – what happened to them?

As devotee-students do we have to lead two lives?

Is a woman’s unchaste dressing responsible for a man’s misbehaviour?

How much of traditional culture needs to be replicated to practice bhakti today?

Is all the archaeological evidence wrong – did cavemen not exist?

Are scripture and evolution contradictory?

While understanding scripture according to time-place-circumstance which factors need to be considered?

Isn’t ISKCON sectarian that it stops devotees from hearing from other Vaishnava groups?

The ninth canto contains many stories of shocking debauchery by sages such as Brihaspati – what is their point?

When the Gita Mahatmaya talks about Gita recitation countering various sinful reactions is that karma kanda or is it bhakti?

QA session with Dallas congregation

QA session with Dallas youth

Devotion as sentiment commitment and attainment

When a devotee does bhakti activities for someone else what actually happens?

If it doesn’t work get out – is such a utilitarian attitude in bhakti towards things like marriage justifiable?

How can we reconcile contradictions between knowledge from science and knowledge from scripture?

Shouldn’t modern science be renamed as so-called science?

The more scientific people become the more atheistic they become – is this true?

Is Vedic apara-vidya a better painkiller than modern knowledge?

When we face mental health issues how can we deal with them spiritually and what can we learn from it?