Newsletter April 17, 2013

 

Newsletter Archives

 

Upcoming Events

Vedanta Center Washington DC Inaugural Program– Fri. Apr. 19 - Sun. Apr. 21

Swami and devotees are attending the 3-day building expansion-inaugural program of the Vedanta Center of Washington DC/Silver Spring MD.  They will return Monday, Apr. 22. Center activities will continue as usual. See information below.

 

Blog Posts:

We have two new posts on our blog.... You can read about - becoming a spiritual scientist and dreaming on danger at http://vedantaprovidence.blogspot.com . All are welcome to submit posts for our blog. See the blog site for guidelines on how to do so.

 

Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)

Friday, Apr. 19	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Talk on:'Swami Vivekananda and the Bhagavad-Gita', by Al. Vishwanatha.
Saturday, Apr. 20	8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma yoga/cleaning 11:00am – 12 noon: Guided meditation and singing 7:00PM – 8:00 PM: Aarati (devotional singing, a reading and meditation)
Sunday, Apr. 21	5:00–6:00 PM:: 'The Ideal of Rama', by Sukalyan Sengupta(lecture interspersed with songs and classical dance) 6:00PM – 7:00PM: Soup Supper 7:00 – 8:00PM – Aarati (devotional singing) a reading and meditation.
Tuesday, Apr. 23	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study class on The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - Ch. 45, p. 856

 

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 to St. Louis, MO & Kansas City, Fri. Apr.12-Mon. Apr. 15

Swami Yogatmananda delivered four lectures on various Vedanta topics at Vedanta Societies of St. Louis, MO and Kansas City over the weekend. Swami returned Monday afternoon.

 

Synopses of Last Week's Classes

Video Lecture - Apr. 12, Friday

Instead of regular Bhagavad Gita class, a Video Lecture by Swami Adiswarananda on 'The Path to Direct Knowledge' was shown.

 

The Point of No Return - a talk by Chester Boncek – April 14, Sunday

The point of no return is a term used when one is on a journey and cannot turn back. We may ask: Why have we come to Vedanta? Why do we stay with Vedanta? Science and technology have shaken our religious foundations, and made economic interests the measure of our lives. Religions have been involved in wars and scandals. All of this results in a spiritual crisis. Swami Adiswarananda points out that this in turn results in new movements, such as fanaticism, atheism, agnosticism, and humanism. Fanaticism results from religion not being able to meet the needs of science. Humanism views God as a moral ideal, and religion as service, but “human” is not defined as other than our animal nature. Vedanta has four parts: mantra, ritual, philosophy, and the Upanishads. Critics view Vedanta as otherworldly, pessimistic, and abstract. Swami Vivekananda, by stressing service aspect in Vedanta, linked mysticism with humanism. Experience is considered more important in Vedanta than philosophy, mythology, and ritual. Vedanta encourages honest doubt. Only spiritual realization can silence our doubts. Philosophy teaches us to be unhappy in an intelligent way. The four yogas purify the heart and the mind. The psyche and Ishvara are ultimately illusory when we take the path of neti, neti. In meditation, we try to forget the body and our thoughts. This is difficult to achieve because of our attachments to the world. So we need to ask of everything: Is this myself? The answer is: “Not that, not that”, even for our thoughts, which are constantly changing. The truth is extremely subtle so it takes practice to realize it. We need a pure mind, so we may “shun the objects of the senses as poison”. A song says: “God bless this broken road.” Experience is the goal, and God is driving us ever forward.

 

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: Study Class by Swami Yogatmananda - Apr. 16, Tuesday

Sri Ramakrishna advises Dr. Sarkar to fix the mind on God. The mind tends to spontaneously go towards the world and it requires some effort to keep it on God. A spiritual aspirant develops some rational understanding of the need to realize God but cannot do so naturally. Such aspirants should take small initial steps – perform a little of meditation and other spiritual practices.

He also emphasizes that the same teaching cannot be given to everyone. While everyone is equal in essence (our inherent God-hood), we tend to superimpose this equality on the expression as well. The expression of the spirit through all of us is not equal. Hence, the spiritual medicine should be given according to the capacity and need of the recipient.

In contrast to spiritual aspirants who make efforts to keep their minds on God, worldly people are busy with sense enjoyments. These enjoyments are like thorns - they make the senses lose their vitality and lead to suffering but we still crave for these enjoyments and continue to suffer – just as a camel doesn’t let the thorn go despite bleeding from eating them. Not only do we want to enjoy the world but we also want to be an object of enjoyment and admiration for the world. This makes us slave to public opinion and it is hurtful for our spiritual life.