Lecture Series

​Make your own destiny 2

Make your own destiny 1

Gita 15.17 Liberation is not just elevation out of illusion but also connection with the supreme reality

Gita 15.16 Purification means to change our emotional center

Gita 15.15 The purpose of perceiving the spiritual through the material is to perceive the spiritual in its own right

Gita 15.14 The world’s origin and operation points requires something beyond the world

Gita 15.13 The existence of multiple factors congenial to our existence points to transcendence

Gita 15.12 We need the eyes to see what our eyes need to see

Gita 15.11 What we see depends on what we want to see

Gita 15.10 We need knowledge to see our vulnerability in material existence

Gita 15.09 The mind makes chasing mirages the soul’s tragic habit

Gita 15.08 The essence of growth is evolution in our conception of life

Gita 15.07 Even when the mind is directed by the senses, it still directs the senses

Gita 15.06 The spiritual world is self-luminous and its luminosity is malleable to Krishna’s will

Bhakti Shastri – Nectar of Devotion (13)

Bhakti Shastri – Nectar of Instruction (19)

Bhakti Shastri – Sri Isopanisad (22)

Bhakti Shastri – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 – 18 (33)

Bhakti Shastri – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 07 – 12 (30)

Bhakti Shastri – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 01 – 06 (48)

Gita 15.05 Surrender means to give up everything for Krishna – even the feeling of hopelessness

Gita 15.04 The Personal Absolute is not a way to transcendence – he is the summit of transcendence

Gita 15.03 Detachment cuts not the world but our own attachment to the world

Gita 15.02 We are bound by action and knowledge can guide us to action that leads to liberation

Gita 15.01 The metaphor of the upside-down tree points to the reality beyond the reflection

Gita 14.27 Brahman refers not just to the impersonal spiritual but also the generically spiritual

Gita 14.26 Health is a product of medication but it is also a precondition for medication

Gita 14.25 As long as we are materially motivated, we will be materially agitated

Gita 14.24 To be equipoised, be situated in the self, not in the world

Gita 14.23 We are not our scars, be they physical or emotional

Gita 14.22 Be a non-judgemental non-committal observer of your emotions

Gita 14.21 When the disease is subtle, we need education to perceive the symptoms of sickness and health

Gita 14.20 Those who transcend the modes transcend miseries

Gita 14.19 Seeing that our actions are impelled by the modes inspires us to resist the desires induced by the modes

Gita 14.18 Goodness leads to elevation, passion to stagnation, ignorance to degradation

Gita 14.17 Different modes foster different emotions, dispositions and destinations

​Rama: Fact, not Fiction

Gita 14.16 Piety purifies, craving torments and intoxication stupefies

Gita 14.15 The modes are not just psychological constructs, they are also post-mortem destination shapers

Gita 14.14 A disposition of knowledge and purity elevates to the destination of the knowledgeable and the pure

Gita 14.13 The mode of ignorance block us in both contemplation and action

Gita 14.12 Desires that drive us with the lure of pleasure are insatiable

Gita 14.11 Illumination of knowledge regulates the input and output through the doorways of the senses

Gita 14.10 The modes are neither in segregation nor in integration but are in competition

Gita 14.09 The longer a pleasure lasts, the greater its lure

​Near Death Experiences – Where science points to spirituality

Gita 14.08 The mode of ignorance begins with not knowing and leads to false knowing

Gita 14.07 Passion is composed of attachment, gives rise to craving and binds us to work

Gita 14.06 Anything that keeps us away from realizing our spirituality is binding, even if it is illuminating

Gita 14.05 Modes are a combination of matter that trigger emotion which matter in isolation doesnt

Gita 14.04 The seed-giving father is also the soul-attracting liberator

Gita 14.03 We determine our bodies and our bodies determine us

Gita 14.02 Death can’t be avoided, but affliction due to death can be

Gita 14.01 The Gita uses diverse frames of analysis to reiterate its consistent conclusion

Understanding the many forms of surrender

Understanding karma dharma and destiny

From dharma to prema

Gita 13.35 Knowledge helps us perceive and achieve spiritual reality

Gita 13.34 Consciousness can be the channel to illumination – and to illusion too

Gita 13.33 The soul is not entangled, but the mind is

Gita 13.32 The soul is situated in the body, but its consciousness doesn’t have to imprisoned in the body

Gita 13.31 See variety not as illusion above the unity but as emanation from the unity

Gita 13.30 The soul is not the doer of the activities impelled by the body

Gita 13.29 See beyond people’s particular actions to Krishna’s universal positive intention

Gita 13.28 To see that which is critical to see is to really see

Gita 13.27 See beyond functional categorization to philosophical comprehension

Gita 13.26 Hearing directs us to destination immortality

Gita 13.25 The many ways to see within are meant to show the same truth within

Gita 13.24 Sankhya and bhakti are different in form, but similar in essential content and ultimate purpose

Gita 13.23 One purusha is controlled by nature, the other is the controller of nature

Gita 13.22 Our desire to enjoy matter subjects us to material distress

Gita 13.21 Material causality is not complete causality

Gita 13.20 Matter is eternal, but material forms are temporary

Gita 13.19 Subtle spiritual truths are comprehended through devotion, not intellection

Gita 13.18 All objects of knowledge are meant to direct us to the objective of knowledge

Gita 13.17 The all-round glory of the Absolute includes its glory as the destroyer

Gita 13.16 The Gita’s Absolute reflects not naive anthropomorphism but profound sophistication

Gita 13.15 The Absolute’s paradoxical attributes underscore its transcendental inconceivability

Bhagavatam study 35 01.7.52-58 Law codes alone aren’t enough for justice – an expert judge is needed

Gita 13.14 The knowable’s all-pervasiveness points to its transcendence of our capacity to know

Gita 13.13 That which grants the immortal is the most vital knowable

Gita 13.12 Knowledge means to what is the most important to know

Bhagavatam study 34 01.7.44-51 Differences in opinion arise from differences in focus of perception

Gita 13.11 The way of devotion is different from the way of the masses

Gita 13.10 Detachment is not meant to make us hard-hearted

Gita 13.09 To cultivate detachment from matter, contemplate the distresses of material existence

Bhagavatam study 33 01.7.38-43 Ashwatthama’s actions were inexcusable and punishable

Dining with a monkey

Gita 13.08 The Gita is not a glorification of war, but a delineation of dharma

Gita 13.07 Consciousness is shaped, not sourced, by changes of matter

Bhagavatam study 32 01.7.30-37 The protector from provocation tests by provoking

Gita 13.06 The subtle points towards the spiritual

Bhagavatam study 31 01.7.22-29 Krishna relieves from the dangerous fire – literal and metaphorical

Gita 13.05 Study matter for functioning and transcending

Gita 13.04 Use your sphere of influence for bringing about the ultimate change

Gita 13.03 Knowledge means to know both matter and spirit

Gita 13.02 Our field reflects our sphere of influence

Gita 13.01 The meanings of words exist not just in dictionary but also in context

Gita 12.20 The concluding verse reiterates and reinforces the starting verse

Gita 12.19 Seek satisfaction not by horizontal improvement, but by vertical advancement