Marriages do not work out as we expect them to do because of the gap between the ideal and the strength and sacrifice needed to realise it. This is very much missing today in the fast food and utilitarian culture imported largely from the West. But the Divine is always willing to help us realise the Ideal. He is not the spoilsport to our happiness but the helper and guide and it is only rarely that he does not grant a sincere prayer, and only when He sees the harm that may accrue through it. The reason why relationships end up badly is not God but our incapacity to love. A love full of demands, expectations, wishes and desires based on the need for pleasure or happiness is not so much love but emotional and vital hunger. So too a love calculating gain and loss is a business and a marriage based on social benefits is a transaction. These are as good as failures even if it succeeds by outer standards. So grow in love and try to make it beautiful and sincere. That is all that is needed.
As a psychiatrist, you certainly possess profound insight into psychology. There is a strong reason for saying this: the essays you have written on the Bhagavad Gita transcend the mere label of “spirituality.” Although psychology and the Bhagavad Gita may seem to deal with contrasting subjects, my understanding is that the Gita serves as a treatise on duty—delivered by Sri Krishna to dispel Arjuna’s mental frailty. I would be grateful if you could kindly answer the following question.
July 14, 2026
Thank you for your kind words. The Gita is a most wonderful gospel of works ever written. But the idea of works, as far as the Gita is concerned goes beyond the conception of duty. Duty is primarily a Western concept which, put in the language of Indian spiritual thought would mean, doing whatever work falls to our lot with a Sattwic …
