Newsletter December 07, 2011

Weekly Classes

Bhagavad Gita class – Dec. 02, Friday

Instead of the regular class there was a symposium on the 9th chapter; Participants were Abhijit Sarcar, Donna Maurer and Srikanth Srigiriraju.

A. Sarcar: Chapter 9 in Bhagwat Geeta is called "the supreme knowledge, the supreme secret," which brings liberation from the cycle of birth-and-death. Once human life is oriented towards that goal, the practicing and realization of this knowledge becomes really easy. Lord expounds that He pervades through the entire world, but is not confined in any particular being. This world arises in God, yet the world is transitory, thus God is the only permanent reality. Nature, under His supervision, cyclically manifests this world out of Him, maintains it, and destroys it back into Him. Lord says, He himself is unattached and indifferent to all the actions in the world. Consequently, all beings do not have any free-will and are helplessly under Nature's control. This truth cannot be realized in the limited body-awareness.

D. Maurer: In verses 12-22, Lord tells us that we want to fulfill our desires because we mistakenly assume that having and fulfilling them will "make" us happy. Yet the path toward happiness is actually connecting with the Source of happiness. When love is turned towards God, it increases, because God is the Source of Love and through the experience of loving, one is actually going towards that Source. To connect with God, we can express love through various forms of worship. As everything is contained in God, God is the ultimate goal of whatever we are seeking. Lord takes care of those who devote themselves to attaining that goal.

Srikanth S.: "Sri Krishna extols devotion to one's ideal in the last few verses of Chapter 9. The Lord assures that His devotee's sustenance will be taken care of thereby enabling him/her to focus only on his/her spiritual pursuits. We must not generate false hopes in another person's ability to fulfill us as God alone has the power to bestow happiness upon us. The Lord also says that worshiping Him is very simple: all it demands is sincere devotion, the ritualistic paraphernalia is secondary. If a devotee takes Him as the only refuge presently, his/her sinful or evil past should be completely disregarded by the world just as He Himself does so. The Lord also assures to takes care of the all-renouncing ascetics and all others who are ever devoted to Him but cannot fully pursue their goals due to the situations they find themselves in. The chapter concludes with the Lord's commandment exhorting us to fix our minds on Him, be devoted to Him and take Him as the Supreme Goal that will definitely lead to fruition of realizing Him."

Story of Creation - Swami Tyagnananda - Dec. 04, Sunday

Almost all cultures have one or more stories of creation, many of which are represented through mythology.  It is a natural desire of the human heart to want to know how this world came about.  Although stories about the nature of the world differ across cultures, they share several common themes:  (1) a desirable physical environment that relates to current environmental conditions (what is lacking tends to be projected onto ideas of heaven); (2) superiority of the storyteller's people; (3) omitting or condemning women (as in the story of Adam & Eve); (4) justification of the human exploitation of nature; (5) beginning in darkness and moving into light; and (6) humans being created out of clay.  Other stories of creation are expressed through science, for example, the Big Bang Theory and String Theory. (Science too just provides ‘stories’, which someday may seem to be just myths). All of these stories assume that the world actually DID come about, but perhaps it did not. The Vedantic perspective elaborates this approach.  Just because we see the world, it doesn't mean that it's actually there. There are many examples of seeing something that's not there, as in the case of a coiled rope in an insufficiently lit room appearing as a snake. Until a light is turned on, the snake is very real. The ignorance of the rope makes it possible to see the snake; knowledge of the rope eliminates the snake.  In the Vedanta story of creation, we have fallen asleep, and our current state is part of a large cosmic dream that will go away only when we wake up. Our forgetfulness of our true nature created this world. If we can separate ourselves from this world and watch it as a witness, then we can enjoy it like a movie, while neither getting identified with it nor getting caught up in the drama.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class – Dec. 06, Tuesday

The discussion was going on regarding various devotees of Master. About Narendra –(Swami Vivekananda), Master said that he belonged to a very high plane- the realm of Absolute- Akhanda. Narendra was very intelligent and full of many blessed virtues. It is commonly seen that people want to practice religion at an old age when they are free from their so called worldly duties and responsibilities. At a younger age, when the body is full of zest and vigor they want to indulge in the world. But in spite of Narendra’s all the blessed qualities, his only desire was to realize God for which he went to Sri Ramakrishna. 
After this the conversation turned to younger Naren  He said “Is it easy to cry for God?” People complain that they can’t experience God but who really wants to see God? They cry for all the things except God. God realization is the Goal of life. The person who understands this and act accordingly is the most intelligent fellow. Intelligence lies in setting the right priorities in life and then acting accordingly. 
Master was told that Hari (Swami Turiyananda)- commented on Master’s extra-ordinary knowledge about Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta philosophy. Master replied he had never studied those. Then he said that pure knowledge and pure devotion are one. The discussion on this will continue in the next clss.