Newsletter June 12, 2013

 

Newsletter Archives

 

Upcoming Events

 

Bhagavad Gita class in Middletown CT – Sunday, June 16
Swami Yogatmananda will conduct the monthly Bhagavad-Gita class at Sri Satyanarayana Temple, Middletown CT from 10:30 – 11:30 AM. All are welcome.

 

Annual General Meeting in Vedanta Society, Providence – Sunday, June 16
The Annual General (business) meeting of the Vedanta Society of Providence will be conducted immediately after the 5:00 – 6:00 PM lecture on Sunday, June 16. All are welcome to attend.

 

Sabad-Kirtan – Sunday, June 23
Amritpal Singh will perform ‘Sabad-kirtan’ on Sunday June 23 at Vedanta Society immediately after the 5:00 – 6:00 PM lecture. All are welcome.

 

Update: 1) In June, all Tuesday and Friday classes will be on Bhagavad Gita.

2) Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class will resume on Tuesdays in September.

 

Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)

Friday, June 14	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: study class on Bhagavad-Gita Ch. 18 cont.
Saturday, June 15	8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma yoga/cleaning 11:00 AM – 12 noon: Guided meditation and singing 7:00 – 8:00 PM: Aarati (devotional singing), a short reading and meditation
Sunday, June 16	5:00 – 6:00 PM: A talk on Doing Business by Swami Yogatmananda 6:00 – 7:15 PM: Annual General Meeting followed by soup supper 7:15 – 8:30 PM: Aarati (devotional singing), a short reading and meditation
Tuesday, June 18	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: study class on Bhagavad-Gita Ch. 18 cont. In June, all Tuesday and Friday classes will be on Bhagavad Gita.

 

Daily Programs

Morning :	5:45 – 6:45 AM: Meditation 6:45 – 7:00 AM: Chanting followed by a short reading from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vol. 3
Evening :	7:00 – 7:15 PM: Aarti (devotional music), with a short reading from Swami Chetanananda's book: ‘Mahendra Nath Gupta ‘M’' 7:15 – 8:00 PM: Meditation

 

Past Events

 

Swami's lecture tour – Huntsville AL, Saturday, June 08
Swami Yogatmananda  conduced   a retreat on ‘Karma Yoga’ and delivered  various Vedanta talks to about 50  devotees in Huntsville, Alabama (and nearby areas) over the weekend. He returned on Tuesday, June 11.

Synopses of Last Week's Classes

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

 

Bhagavad Gita class - June 07, Friday

Ch. 18, Verses 47-49: Each of us has the capability to convert work into worship by doing the work that comes our way, in a spirit of love and dedication. Work is a very important psychological necessity; without it the mind gets into a depressed mood and cannot maintain its sanity. If done in the right way, work has the potential to improve us. By offering our actions to that by which everything is pervaded, that divine reality, the work is converted into worship. Performing our work in the spirit of worship, our love and devotion is expressed and in so doing we get connected to God and our pettiness and ignorance gets erased. We should not harbor the idea that our work is terrible and that the work of others is better. Thinking of another's path prevents us from doing our work properly. In order to progress in spiritual life, we must do the work that comes our way. Although our path may have defects, it is the path that is available to us. Assiduously practicing karma yoga leads us to a stage where action is transcended and work is no longer a source of bondage for us. Externally we may be performing the same work, but the ego is gone and the work is transcended. In that state, the goal of life has been achieved.

 

Bhagavad Gita class - June 11, Tuesday

Ch. 18, Verses 50-53: Being established in knowledge means that the knowledge has percolated through our entire being and colors our every action.  The goal of life is to be established in the knowledge of God.  Sri Krishna is explaining to Arjuna how one can reach this goal through the different paths of yoga.  According to jnana yoga, the yoga of knowledge, we should keep the understanding of the goal of life at the forefront of our minds, even if we aren’t established in it quite yet.  To this end, it is important to avoid objects of enjoyment, since they will divert our attention away from this knowledge.  We should avoid being influenced by attraction or aversion for the same reason.  We should seek solitude, which gives us the chance to live in the company of God and encourages an inward turn.  In our daily lives, we are driven by an impulse to connect and communicate with others, often unnecessarily; in order to follow the path of jnana yoga, we must strive to control our speech, actions and thoughts. We should learn to meditate and devote sufficient time to this every day--casting off any excuses!  To avoid disturbing the mind, we should resist any impulse to show off -- show off special skills or powers, and we should avoid getting irritated or angry.  Finally, we should strive to give up false notions of “I and mine.”  When we do all these things, we will get the peace and bliss that we crave, because we will realize that we are one with the source of that peace and bliss!

 

Dance of Shiva - a talk by Pamela Dee – June 09, Sunday
Lord Shiva is among the most mysterious, complex, profound and compassionate conceptions of the One Supreme Being. Nataraj is the dancing Shiva, and means King of dancers. Shiva stands for reconciling the duality of teeming opposites into harmony. The ego has to get out of the way to make room for the new understanding. The positions of Shiva’s hands and feet, as well as the rest of the figures surrounding the Nataraj, are all meaningful and symbolic. Two of His hands portray destruction, and the concept of fear not, asking us to trust in Him. Shiva stands on the ignorance of the ego, or on the demon, which has forgotten the indwelling Self. Shiva’s dance is an act of grace that destroys ignorance. Shiva’s face portrays timeless serenity. His   dance is paradoxical because it begins in fierceness and ends in bliss. Without Shiva’s dance, the universe would not keep running. The Dancer and the dance are one and the same. The dance represents movement, which is the most primal act of existence, featured in throughout, including in light, thought, and atoms. Dance and yogic movement cannot coexist with depression, as they transform it. We are not different from Lord Shiva, who is never apart from us. Shiva destroys not for the sake of destruction, but for regeneration and spiritual transformation.

 

The talk ended with Shivali Gupta’s beautiful Bharata-naatyam dance in which she enacted both the gentle and fierce dances of Shiva.

 

Click here to see photos.