Newsletter April 11, 2012

Weekly Classes

(All classes given by Swami Yogatmananda, unless otherwise stated.)

Bhagavad Gita class – April 06, Friday

Ch. 13 Verses 22-25:

Lord emphasized that the sameness of the Self in all is unseen because of our attachment to the body-mind complex. In the normal course of human life, our inherent unsatisfied desires make us take birth again & again. The cycle of birth and death is broken only with the knowledge that you are not the body. The life of ignorance and all of its ramifications disappears with the knowledge that you are divine, you are infinite, you are beyond time and space.
Knowledge of the unchanging Self may be realized by everyone, no matter his or her particular mode of life; a person of wisdom may live like a most ordinary person. And how can one attain this knowledge? Lord Krishna explains that there are a variety of ways; the paths differ according to a person’s constitution. Some, if they have a meditative temperament, will realize the Self through meditation. One following this path must strive so that all of his or her activities have the touch of meditative awareness. Some will realize the Self through reasoning and discrimination, by discerning what is real and what is not real. Lord Buddha, Sri Sankaracarya, and Swami Vivekananda had a very strong sense of discernment; each could easily distinguish between the real and unreal and could choose the real over the unreal. Some aspirants will realize the Self by emotionally connecting themselves to that Reality. That reality is the source of all love and all of the emotions we have. And so instead of squandering the love over this object or that object, the follower of this path will strive to give his all love to God, who is the source of all love. Others will realize the Self by performing unattached, selfless actions, keeping the mind fixed on God and not on the results. A spiritual aspirant can use any or all of these paths to move forward in spiritual life. Many who have not been taught these paths explicitly still practice these various forms of yoga.
In verse 24, Lord Krishna explains that everything in this universe—without exception—is a combination of matter, or object, and the perceiver of it, the subject. They come together, and thus what we see is a mixture. It is good to understand this and to keep it in the back of our minds so that we will never make a judgment about the world or any person because all we see is the result of the mutual intermingling of subject and object and not the reality in and of itself.

True Resurrection - April 08, Sunday
Easter is considered the most important day for Christians, yet it is an important day for us all, as it holds the promise of immortality that we seek. The fact of resurrection needs to be seen with a deeper understanding.  Jesus' message to the world is that we all have an Eternal Life. A part of the person comes and goes; it has no permanence. Yet, the other aspect, which is unchangeable, does not die. Crucifixion is necessary for resurrection, as a person must die to the life of flesh to experience Eternal Life.  This is like an image that depending on how one sees it, appears either as a vase or as two men's faces looking at each other:  It isn't possible to see both the vase and the faces at the same time. Similarly, one cannot live a life of flesh and have Eternal life at the same time. To develop this spiritual awareness, we should learn to imagine that the body is already in the grave and think: What next now? This is akin to what the German mystic Meister Eckhart called "potential intelligence": intelligence that gives a prevision of what is to be done in the next situation. When we get a Divine glimpse of Eternal Life, we cannot hold it along with holding the heavy burden of identification with the body: We can discard this heavy body or discard this Divine Vision, but we cannot have both. As the mind tends to stick to earthly life, we continually struggle.  To remedy this, the Kena Upanishad tells us to meditate on this Divine glimpse as a lightning strike that one cannot hold, but we can think it of again and again, and gradually we will realize it. As Swami Akhilananda wrote in his sermon, "The Spirit of Easter," "We can defy death only by realizing the Truth."  The goal of life is to no longer be caught in this human body and to be resurrected in the Knowledge of Eternal Life.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – April 10, Tuesday

Sri Ramakrishna was conversing with Mahima and a few others about the experience of Samadhi. That experience is beyond words. It is a process of transformation of one’s awareness. One travels from the state of divided perception to the undivided perception. The difference between ‘I and world’ completely disappears and then the soul experiences the Samadhi. The soul progresses from physical space – Jada-akasha to mental space – Chitta-akasha, then to even subtler level – Chid-akasha where the boundaries are not completely dissolved. Ultimately the soul reaches – Maha-akasha, where no division exists anymore. The ego vanishes completely. This process is an evolution of awareness. During spiritual progress, the awareness moves from gross level to subtler and subtler levels. Kundalini is a mystic description of latent spiritual power in each one of us. Spiritual progress is not quickened unless kundalini is aroused. The spiritual current rises through the spine in five different ways. That movement is felt like an ant, a fish, a monkey, a bird or a serpent. The animals represent the mode and the pace of the upward movement of the awareness.
Spiritual life begins when the awareness travels up from the level of navel - Manipura, where the introspection begins about the own self. There is a continuous struggle for higher knowledge which brings higher power too. Then Kundalini travels to Anahata- heart level where the spiritual life is developed. Later the awareness travels to Vishuddha-the throat level, to Ajnya- between the eyebrows where one goes very close to the God but still the fine distinction is. Ultimately, it goes to head - Sahasrara where it culminates into Samadhi.
This vertical movement of awareness from one level to the next is achieved through spiritual practices. The struggle continues till one reaches the ultimate level of complete Oneness.