Go beyond both negative thinking and positive thinking - Life is filled with binaries of ups and downs. In the world outside, we encounter binaries such as heat-cold, health-sickness, prosperity-poverty. And in the world inside, we encounter mental binaries such as pleasure-pain, love-hate, anticipation-apprehension. These dualities are like waves in the ocean — they are [...] The post Go beyond both negative thinking and positive thinking appeared first on Chaitanya Charan Das, Bhagavad Gita ISKCON.
In today’s fast-paced world characterized by sudden and massive changes, we often appreciate people who stay cool-headed. How can we too develop such equanimity? Do we need to give up all emotions? But aren’t emotions such as love what bring meaning and fulfillment to our life? Addressing such concerns, Gita wisdom offers us a way [...] The post How to cultivate equanimity? appeared first on Chaitanya Charan Das, Bhagavad Gita ISKCON.
Suppose we are forced to go through certain experiences that we just didn’t want to go through. When such things happen, it’s natural to feel hurt, frustrated, resentful. But letting ourselves stay stuck in those feelings is undesirable. How can we go past our past? By looking up with the faith that the universe moves [...]
Suppose our phone rings. Some ringtones are soothing; some, jarring. However, how the ringtone sounds is not as important as what it indicates: that someone is calling us. If we get caught in the ringtone, delighting in its sweetness or ranting at its harshness, we miss the call. If someone were calling us to convey [...]
When life’s adversities push people down, they often feel so dejected that they desperately seek something to lift themselves. And often they turn to chemicals such as drugs. Drugs can raise their drooping spirits, but that rise lasts only as long as the chemical surge in their brains. Thereafter, their spirits go low, in fact, [...]
In our competitive world, comparing is almost universal. In schools with any kind of assessment, who gets higher grades and who lower will be inevitably seen. Similarly, in workplaces, who earns more than who will naturally be noticed. All such unavoidable comparison is functional. Significantly different from such contextual comparison is the comparing mentality, wherein [...]
Suppose we are driving on a road to a destination. If the road is filled with traffic moving at a snail’s pace, we may find it tiresome to move on, but if our destination is important for us, we won’t turn away just because of the difficulty in driving. Conversely, if we see an attractive [...]
When we fail at anything, we feel disheartened. Some people, however, become so disheartened as to become chronically depressed. Some youths, on failing in an exam or in a relationship, even kill themselves. How can we deal with failure without succumbing to extreme negativity? By re-envisioning failure, which happens best when we re-envision life itself. [...]
During life, we all fail sometime or the other. How we respond to a failure depends on how we see that failure. Suppose a student… The post See failure as a practical problem, not as an existential problem first appeared on Begin each day enriched with nuggets of timeless wisdom Article By Chaitanya Charan Das.
When we fail in something important for us, we naturally feel disheartened. If we don’t process this feeling intelligently,… The post Focus not on the pain of failing – focus on the pleasure of learning first appeared on Begin each day enriched with nuggets of timeless wisdom Article By Chaitanya Charan Das.
A cow, after eating all the grass in a row on a uniformly green pasture, can choose whether to eat the grass on the left or the…
Sometimes people ask spiritualists, “What do you gain in this life by your spiritual practices? You too face the same …
Our mind often makes problems seem worse than what they actually are. Suppose someone fails in an exam. Their mind may tell…
Suppose, while we are walking, our shoulder touches a wall, and we find ourselves wincing. Our over-reaction indicates…
Suppose we were watching a movie and suddenly discovered that it is a horror movie filled with ghastly scenes. We would naturally…
The world is inevitably a place of duality – something that we can’t avoid just as a boat can’t avoid being moved up …