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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

Why was Ekalavya treated so unfairly?

How can renunciates sublimate the need for sexual pleasure?

Gita 18.38 The pleasure of titillation leads to the agony of tribulation

To think or not to think – 4 reflections for a happy mind

3 ways to look for blessings amidst problems

3 roles of intelligence in bhakti

How Krishna can be seen – and how he can’t be seen

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 15 – 10.3.11-19 Krishna’s appearance dissipates the darkness without and within

Why does Shiva Puarana say that Shiva is the source of Brahma and Vishnu?

Gita 18.37 Spiritual knowledge gives us the purpose to persevere through the poison till the nectar

Why are Krishna and bhakti not mentioned in the Vedas?

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 14 – 10.3.1-10 The celestial, terrestrial and psychological characteristics that celebrate the Lord’s appearance

Don’t let your expectations of life come in the way of life

If all religions come from God, why do they have contradictions?

How can bhakti wisdom help us to become more forgiving?

Gita 18.36 Some pleasures are the start of sorrow – and some the end of sorrow

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 13 – 10.2.37-42 Why the unborn Lord is born is both inferable and inconceivable

Gita 18.35 To hold on to thought-patterns that hurt us is to abuse our determination

Does causeless mercy have any cause?

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 12 – 10.2-31-36 Krishna’s lotus feet make the insurmountable material ocean insignificant

Selfie – Self = IE – Two things that technology provides and two things that spirituality provides

Bhagavatam tenth canto study 11 – 10.2.25-30 The devatas glorify the true nature of the Absolute Truth

Gita 18.34 When one worldly desire trumps all other material desires, what results is determination in passion

Why is Islam the most violent religion?

Bhagavatam study 109 1.19.34-40 When God remains anonymous through coincidences devoteees identify and glorify him

Does the teaching that we shouldn’t over-endeavor impede our career growth?

Gita 18.33 What intelligence discerns, that determination sustains

When people are so confused that they can’t discern their own material inclinations, how can we engage them in bhakti?

Make a life, not just a living – LIFE acronym

If sense objects seem more attractive than Krishna, what to do?

Bhagavatam study 108 1.19.25-33 Devotee’s attractiveness attracts people to Krishna’s supreme attractiveness

Gita 18.32 Intelligence in ignorance mistakes the binding to be freeing

Effective Leadership of spiritual communities

Debunking the mind’s fake news – 4 points

Worry not whether your path is genuine – worry whether you are genuine

Maturity in relationships – Four principles – QA

Will all our anxieties take us towards Krishna?

Should we fast on every acharya’s appearance and disappearance – how important is austerity in bhakti?

Bhagavatam study 107 1.19.19-24 Knowledge comes alive thorugh those live that knowledge

Gita 18.31 Confusing between long-term purposes and short-term pleasures characterizes intelligence in passion

Maturity in relationships – Four principles – 3. Appreciate 4. Act

Maturity in relationships – Four principles – 2. Ascertain

Maturity in relationships – Four principles – 1. Accept

Three factors that determine what we see – Knowledge, Desire, Commitment

Gita 18.30 Intelligence means to see beyond appearance to consequence

How can we maintain our momentum in devotion?

For seva if our svadhyaya and sadhana go down, then are we going into Maya?

Bhagavatam study 106 1.19.13-18 Our personal deliberation and our mentor consultation can be complementary, not contradictory

If temple management uses philosophy to explain away wrong actions of devotees, what should we do?

Gita 18.29 To drive purposefully, we need to know the destination, the path and the vehicle

Bhagavatam study 105 1.19.7-12 The universal sages come to see of the royal sage

Can forgiveness be a negative attribute?

Are some sections of the scriptures outdated? – Understanding the compassionate intent of the Vedas 2

Bhagavatam study 104 1.19.1-6 If sinful reaction rectifies sinful mentality, then the reaction is auspicious, not inauspicious

Should we correct devotees and become a bad guy in their eyes or just turn a blind eye to their wrongdoings?

Gita 18.28 Doers in ignorance act destructively for others and even for themselves

If demons are devotees descending for mausala-lila, will they go to brahmajyoti on being liberated?

Understanding the compassionate intent of the Vedas 1 – Are the Vedas agnostic?

Krishna’s presence is more precious than his presents

How devotion makes the insurmountable ocean of material desires insignificant

Bhagavatam study 103 1.18.44-50 Abuse of power by those representing God makes people godless

For building a big temple, should a community’s focus shift from preaching to fund-raising?

Gita 18.27 Our actions reflect our self-conception and our world-conception

Who is the source of all incarnations – Vishnu or Krishna?

Is everything insentient in the universe deterministic?

Gita 18.26 The doer is not a non-doer but is a component in doing

Who is to be purified – mind or soul?

Bhagavatam study 102 1.18.36-43 Avoid offenses carefully and avoid getting offended easily

Gita 18.25 To see our actions disconnected from the past and the future is to see in illusion

How can we explain UFOs?

Should we not do good to others because to get the good reaction we will have to take birth again?

Bhagavatam study 101 1.18.31-36 Presuming that we know God’s will and are doing his work is presumptuous and dangerous

With our current knowledge of the material world, what can we understand about the spiritual world?

Gita 18.24 Disconnection from our Lord leads to the consumption of our consciousness by passion

If a couple has to divorce, do they keep getting the other’s karma even after divorce?

Bhagavatam study 100 1.18.24-30 An annoyed response to annoying non-responsiveness is not malevolent

Bhagavatam study 99 1.18.18-23 The unlimited has unlimited potency to purify us of our unlimited sins

How is atheism self-refuting?

Gita 18.23 To gain knowledge, we need basic knowledge about where to seek knowledge

Might we have been created by some higher civilization instead of God?