Newsletter February 15, 2012

Weekly Classes

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

Bhagavad Gita class – Feb. 10, Friday

Ch. 13 Verse 3-7: Our true nature is Divine, but due to ignorance, it gets covered.  We must remember that the divine Self is the same in all beings.  Confusion between the perceiver and perceived make us see that the self too is different. For example, we may think, “I’m such a nice person; how can the self in me be the same as in a villain?”  Sri Krishna assures us that He is the one knower in all the changing names and forms that we see around us.  While we should strive to see that the Lord is the same in all various manifestations, we should beware of superimposing the Oneness of the Self onto its manifold forms which ARE different.  Devotees often make this mistake and think, “Should I be friends with an evil person because we are the same Self?”  The answer is, “No,” because there is difference at the level of the manifestation; as soon as we transcend the manifestation, we will transcend the difference also.
Verses 4-6 describe in detail that which falls under the category of “the perceived.”  That which is perceived includes the five elements, the “I” sense (ahamkara), the intellect (buddhi), the unmanifest (prakriti), pleasure and pain, and our emotions.  All these things are the seen, not the seer.  In Verse 7, Lord Krishna starts telling the qualities one must acquire to experience “the perceiver”. Since the knower cannot be known and is therefore indescribable!  Though the Self cannot be described in words, if we practice spiritual disciplines assiduously, we will acquire the virtues necessary for the realization of the Self.

Placebo Effect - Feb. 12, Sunday
Since ancient times, there has been much talk about the connections between our perceptions/beliefs and the external reality.  Reality is dependent on what we perceive, and therefore, it is important to see how we perceive things. As perceptions can be generated by beliefs, later perceptions can differ from earlier ones, potentially leading to conflict. If our perceptions keep changing, an important question arises: What is actually Real?  A placebo, meaning "pleasant talk," is that which alters one's disposition so that the defenses are reduced. Sugar pills are given as placebos: The patient is under the impression that they are medicine, and simply from the belief, pain is often greatly alleviated. According to studies conducted at the Harvard University Program in Placebo Studies (PIPS), even when a person knows that a pill is a placebo, it has a positive effect, as the act of treatment itself can change a person's perception. The teachings of Vedanta assure us that the world we perceive is in our mind alone.  As Patanjali expresses in the Yoga Sutras, what one perceives is nothing but the mind vibrating.  If there are no vibrations in the mind, then there is only the Self alone. Achieving this state involves three phases: (1) information inducing beliefs, (2) beliefs inducing convictions, and (3) convictions altering perceptions. This brings the state of ultimate Truth, Happiness, and Peace.  The technique of induced belief is used as a spiritual treatment.  First, know that you are Divine.  As this belief strengthens through physical/mental practices, the knowledge that "I am Divine" also strengthens.  Meditation will then work as a medication changing the perceptions.  Some might call meditational techniques placebos.  Indeed they do act as placebos, but in the form of de-hypnotization, where one gradually sees the changing forms as imaginary and the Changeless as Reality.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class – Feb. 14, Tuesday

Sri Ramakrishna dissuaded Nanda Bose from the thoughts of after-life. He asked not to waste the energy in such unnecessary details. Then he quotes from the Bhagavad-gita to elucidate the importance of concentrating on God all the time. One will take up the next life based on his/her thoughts in the hour of death. He mentioned about King Bharat, who renounced everything in search of God. But then he got so attached to a deer that he was thinking about him all the time, even at the time of his death. As a result he took the body of a deer in his next life. This is our experience too. We get attached to the things around us and focus of our life only on them.
Nobody knows when death will come and hence Master said that one must think of God all the time. By virtue of this practice, will he be able to think of God in the hour of death. One must do all his work and duties, thinking about God alone. Sri Ramakrishna gave a simple trick to achieve this objective. He asked to give the work to the world and love to the God. That way one will definitely realize God. In the beginning the world appears to be very real and God unreal. Gradually, world and God both will appear to be real and ultimately, world looks unreal and God is the only reality. Until then one has to be born again and again.
Sri Ramakrishna asked Nanda to give something to eat. It is harmful for the householders not to offer something to holy persons. It was an interesting experience to see the Master eating. There was no sense of enjoyment in that process. Master refused to eat the betel leaf which was already offered to others. Nanda objected this behavior. Master told him that unlike followers of knowledge, followers of devotion have to keep such little distinction.