Before we can understand whether God is male or female, we need to clearly understand that we ourselves are neither male nor female. We are at core spiritual beings, souls, whereas our gender refers only to our shell, our physical bodies. Our spiritual identity is eternal, our gender is transient. According to the law of last thought described in the Bhagavad-gita ( 8.5), we attain in our next life a body as per the thought that predominates our consciousness at the last moment of this life. So a male in this life may become a female in the next life, if the person ...

Many people think of a villain as a person who enjoys by exploiting and harming others. Though not wrong, this conception of evil is incomplete and naïve as it ignores a fundamental reality: our supremely responsible and loving father, God. Probably most of us never got spiritual education to realize that it is God who selflessly provides us our daily food. It is true that we have to work hard to earn our living, but our effort is secondary; its like the hard ...

One of the important legends associated with Diwali is Damodara lila, a pastime in which mother Yashoda tried to tie Krishna with a rope. The rope turned out to be two fingers short. So she tied more rope, but, no matter how many ropes she tied together, the combined rope remained two fingers short. This pastime signifies that no matter how much we try, we will always fall short in our attempts to understand God with our intelligence. Modern science is finding the same about the unive...

These mental viruses infect us when we let ourselves become overwhelmed by excessive material desires for either the gross pleasures like smoking and drinking or the subtle gratifications of the ego. When we forget our spiritual identity and glory as beloved children of the Supreme Lord, we start thinking of such unnecessary material desires as necessary, resulting in a variety of negative emotions. All negative emotions are just permutations and combinations of s...

Obesity and all other indulgence-induced problems originate from the presumption that material enjoyment is the only enjoyment available to us - and so we must have it, whatever the cost. But the Vedic scriptures - and indeed all the great spiritual texts – inform us that this presumption is a misconception. We are intrinsically spiritual beings. Our deepest fulfillment comes from having a satisfying relationship with God. The unlimited inner happiness the...

Once a person prayed to God, "Please give me a flower and a butterfly for my garden". When he opened his eyes, he found a cactus and a caterpillar instead. He was dismayed and wondered why God had misunderstood his request. "Maybe God has too many people to care for," he rationalized and decided not to complain. After some time, when he went back to the garden, he found, to his surprise, that the unsightly caterpillar had transformed into a charming butterfly and the thorny, ugly cactus had a beautiful, fragrant flower on it.

Modern society has devised ingenious ways of attempting to somehow forget this emptiness of the heart. Typical is the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. Dubbed as the boredom industry, it provides people an escape-way from the frustrating grind of daily life to a celluloid world. There, they vicariously become a dream character, who speaks smartly, behaves flawlessly, fights heroically, wins invariably and enjoys erotic fantasies unlimitedly. But all that the entertainment provide...

This ultimate defeat in the form of death is just not acceptable for our minds, filled as they are with dreams and schemes for enjoyment. Consequently despite periodic reminders of death through disasters, accidents and attacks, we live primarily by the denial of death. Actually death is an indirect reminder of eternal life, just as pain is an indirect reminder of good health.

Krishna as God is a mesmerizing blend of greatness and sweetness. For the demoniac, Krishna’s sweetness gives way to his greatness… But for the devotees, Krishna’s greatness gives way to his sweetness.

Statistical surveys have shown that the religiously committed are less likely to succumb to seeking perverted pleasures. Adopting religious principles rigorously also sometimes helps addicts to free themselves.

By the power of the latest technology, humans can now fly in the sky like the birds and swim in the water like the acquatics?

Most people decide what they eat based mainly on taste, cost, habit, nutrition and convenience. But for those who are a little more thoughtful, here are some other points worth considering.

Television is not run by social workers interested in the benefit of the audience. T.V. is run by businessman who are ready to do anything and everything to maximize their profits.

One of the most significant scientific developments of the last century was the discovery of the mind - body connection

The silly point is that we protest about the star shown as a smoker, but not about the same star being shown as a drug-dealing gangster or an underworld don. When movies blatantly exhibit sex, rape, addictions, crime, violence and murder, and when movie stars are today’s perverse role models, isn’t it silly to be shocked when the same happens in society?

The modern media with its vivid depiction of violence portrays anger as a heroic quality, as the quintessential psyche of the macho man. But is it really? Most people recognize that in real life anger is not a pleasant emotion, yet they savor the violent scenes in the movies.