Lectures

World Religions – From Bhakti Universal to Bhakti Confidential

Understanding who is the doer – Analyzing instincts, impulses and intelligence

Once we slip down a slope, we can’t control how far we slip down Gita 03.36

The mind can make a soldier into a deserter or even a betrayer Gita 05.22

Meta-thinking is vital for fruitful thinking Gita 14.23

Light to see the world – Science, Spirituality and Life’s Big Questions

Don’t waste your mental energy on people on whom you won’t waste your time Gita 11.55

Address misery first by recognizing its fundamental cause then its circumstantial cause Gita 09.33

Don’t give your enemies weapons to beat you with Gita 03.36

Ask not how could he have done that – ask what is to be done next Gita 03.39

World Religions 3 – Islam – Beyond the politically correct and the politically incorrect to the philosophically correct

World Religions 2 – Christianity – Beyond authoritarian and humanitarian religion to transcendence

World Religions 1 – Appreciating religious diversity amidst spiritual universality

Analyzing Social Media 1 – What it does for us and what it does to us

Devotion, renunciation and aversion are differentiated by the direction of emotion

Dumbness is not inability to understand gibberish – it is inability to see gibberish for what it is Gita 18.63

Gita 14.11 Don’t chase the objects in perception – clean the doors of perception

Gita 16.08 Materialism strips not only the other world of reality but also this world of meaning

Gita 08.20 Those who reject a world beyond this world sentence themselves to pointless business in this world

How to cultivate positive thinking in bhakti

Gita 18.58 Devotion brings the inner morale to combat outer problems

Gita 16.11 Technology is not just the provider of facility – it is also the shaper of mentality

Gita 14.04 Dialogue requires methodological humility

Gita 14.11 Our mind can be a transmitter, distorter or reflector of our consciousness

Gita 01.46 – When emotions block our consciousness, Gita wisdom removes the blockage

Gita 16.24 Religious tolerance is better fostered by deeper religious adherence than by greater religious indifference

Gita 09.14 The claim – religion is an agreeable illusion – is atheists’ agreeable illusion

Gita 16.09 Developing better HD streaming may be individually meaningful but consuming what is streamed is hardly ever so

Gita 14.04 Social reform needs to be founded in spiritual reform

Gita 18.63 The call to the heart complements the call to the head

Gita 15.10 The scientific torchlight shows matter clearly, consciousness hazily and God not at all

Gita 16.24 Absolute Knowledge doesn’t have to be dogmatic and open-mindedness doesn’t have to relativize everything

Gita 18.37 Freedom without framework is paralyzing, not liberating

Gita 18.38 Don’t be so caught in choosing the right seat as to fail to choose the right train

Gita 17.01 Worldviews are meant to be vision-enhancers, not vision-diminishers

Gita 17.16 Purity has to be cultivated as an austerity before it can be savored as a state

To change vision, change intention by study and association

Gita 16.11 Use developed human consciousness to decrease material fears, not increase them

Understanding Destiny 2 – Destiny determines the scope of our free will, not our free will

Understanding Destiny 1 – What is pre-determined and what isn’t

Kali Yuga predictions – Superficiality, Audacity, Anxiety, Spirituality

Gita 18.22 – Rise from tunnel vision through funnel vision

Krishna is our protector, even when he seems to be the afflictor

Bhagavatam study 1.13.1-7 – The detachment that fosters attachment to Krishna

Spiritual Perspectives on Material Beauty – 2 – Should we be disgusted with the body?

Gita 13.13 Bhakti wisdom frames our knowledge and our need for knowledge within our aspiration for eternity

Bhakti-yoga is the balancer of our emotional and rational sides

Managing stress coming from disorganization, disposition, destiny and decision

Spiritual Perspectives on Material Beauty 1 – Bring out each other’s higher side, not lower side

Appreciating bhakti as a spiritual science

Gita 13.08 – Disrespecting ourselves doesn’t make us humble – respecting something bigger than ourselves does

From Maya to Lila 2 – The desired may be an illusion, the desirer isn’t

From Maya to Lila 1 – Illusion originates not in the object, but in the subject

How to develop our relationship with Krishna

How hurt people hurt people 2 – Learning to process our emotions before acting on them

How hurt people hurt people 1 – Karna Character Analysis

From Grudging to Gratitude QA 2

From Grudging to Gratitude QA 1

From Grudging to Gratitude 4 – Forgiving internally and externally by focusing on Krishna

From Grudging to Gratitude 3 – Learn to re-interpret reality devotionally

From Grudging to Gratitude 2 – See beyond the immediate cause of suffering

From Grudging to Gratitude 1 – Grudging is like driving with brakes pressed

From will and power to willpower

Gita 10.6 See genealogy as an arena for manifesting Krishna,s actions in this world

SIMHA acronym – Glories of Prahlada and Narasimha

Gita 18.38 Contact of senses and sense objects is not just physical but also visual

Reincarnation – Myth or Reality with Spanish Translation

The Karma Conundrum – Does our destiny make us or do we make it?

Select emotions with intelligence – Hindi

Cultivating the strength to let go

Gita 02.08 Don’t let comforts lure you away from life’s purpose

Gita Essence 3 – The transformational power of love – World-knowledge as the vehicle for love

Attitude in outreach 2 – Explain the philosophy before the morality – Be respectfully compassionate

Attitude in outreach 1 – Present the product before the process – Be a role model

Gita Essence 2 – The transformational power of love – God-knowledge as the fuel for love

Gita 18.78 Human excellence and divine omnipotence herald victory

Gita 01.42 Today’s war against family increases self-centeredness and obstructs spiritual growth

Gita 18.22 – A truncated representation of reality is not reality

Gita Essence 1- The transformational power of love – Self-knowledge as the basis of love

Gita 16.24 – The transition from description to prescription requires discretion

How free is our free will?

Meditation on Niagara Falls

Science-Religion QA

From mindless accumulation to mindful realization

Being religiously spiritual in a multi-cultural world

Gita 02.58 Inevitable exposure to sense objects is different from initiated or instigated exposure

Gita 16.09 All truth-claims are power-claims – This is also a truth-claim and a power-claim

9 forms of devotional service part 1 – Shravanam Kirtanam Smaranam

Why spirituality matters – scientific, ethical and relational perspectives

Baahubali – A Spiritual Perspective

Focus on life’s big why, not everyday’s small whys

Gita 14.26 – Bhakti is both a state and a process

Gita 18.63 – Don’t sway others – inspire them

Gita 14.05 – The modes comprise objective reality and color subjective perception

Understanding how Krishna is everything and controls everything even amidst worldly sufferings

Cultivate aversion to faultfinding

Seek not a pleasure-filled life; seek a purpose-filled life

Seek not a problem-free life – seek a purpose-filled life

Lessons in love from Krishna-gopis relationship

Knowing when to endeavor and when to surrender