Newsletter March 12, 2014

 

Newsletter Archives

 

Upcoming Events

Bhagavad Gita class at Middletown, CT – Sun. March 16, 10:30 -11:30 AM

Swami Yogatmananda will conduct the monthly Bhagavad Gita (Ch.14 cont.) at Sri Satyanarayana Temple (10 Training Hill Rd, Middletown, CT) from 10:30 - 11:30 AM. All are welcome.

Sitar-Tabla Concert –Sun. March 16
Immediately following the 5:00 - 6:00 PM Sunday Service lecture, Chirag Katti (Sitar) and Amit Kavthekar (tabla) will perform in the Lower Level (LL) from 6:00 – 7:30 PM. All are welcome. $15.00 Donation suggested.

 

Walk-in Hatha Yoga Begins – Sun. March 16
Hatha Yoga classes, from 10:00 – 11:00 AM, conducted in the Lower Level (LL) on every Sunday, by a Vedanta devotee. Walk-in rate is $5.00 per class. For details, contact Pat only at:  pat.blake8-AT-gmail.com.

 

Sanskrit Class Begins - Sun. March 16

Sunday Sanskrit lesson will be held 3:00 - 4:00 PM at the Vedanta Society premises. This will be the first of an eight-week series of lessons focused on Sanskrit grammar. Deepro Chakraborty, a Sanskrit-Studies PhD student from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Sankrit instructor at St Stephens College, New Delhi, will be conducting the lessons remotely. Fees: $50 for the entire 8wk series. Contact only Srikanth (srikanth-AT-gmail.com) OR Abhijit (a_sarcar-AT-yahoo.com) for specific details.

 

Bharathnatyam Dance Classes – Sundays 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
To learn traditional South Indian Classical dance, taught by classical dancer Anuradha, please call her only at 704-707-5430 for complete information.

 

Day-Long Spiritual Retreat - Sat. April 26, 9:30am - 7:00pm

Subject: ‘Let us be Spiritual’

Speaker: Swami Ishatmananda, Minister-in-charge, Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago

Prior registration required. Registration fee: $20.00 per person. For online registration: $21.00 per person.

Click here for more information and to register online. (Schedule subject to change)

 

Check out some of the archived Sunday Lectures (from Jan. & Feb. 2014) on our website:

http://vedantaprov.org/lectures.html

 

To read the latest post on our blog (a poem about Unity), please visit:

http://vedantaprovidence.blogspot.com/2014/03/unity.html

 

Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)

Friday, March 14	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study Class based on the book, ‘Karma Yoga’ of Swami Vivekananda
Saturday, March 15	8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma yoga/cleaning 11:00 AM – 12 noon: Guided meditation and singing 7:00PM Aarati (devotional singing, a reading and meditation)
Sunday, March 16	5:00 PM – 6:00 PM: 'Exploring Connections,' by Swami Yogatmananda 6:00 PM– 7:30 PM: Sitar-Tabla concert (with Chirag Katti and Amit Kavthekar), followed by singing Auspicious Mother Divine, and dinner
Tuesday, March 11	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Vedanta Study Class on the book, 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna,' Ch. 47, pg 886

 

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' 7:00 – 7:25AM – A short ritual worship/Puja. Open to all.
Evening :	7:00 – 7:15 PM: Aarti (devotional music), with a short reading from 'Swami Brahmananda: As We Saw Him: Reminiscences of Monastic & Lay Disciples' (compiled/edited by Swami Atmashraddhananda) 7:15 – 8:00 PM: Meditation

 

Past Events

Students visit Vedanta Society - Thu. March 06

A senior level, world religion class visited Vedanta to learn more about Hinduism and Vedanta from Swami. With some pre-study reading, they asked several thoughtful and insightful questions.

 

Swami to Indianapolis – Sat. - Sun. March 08 & 09
Swami Yogatmananda gave a retreat on Kena Upanisad to about fifty devotees on the 8th, and gave a lecture on ‘WORK AS WORSHIP’ to about one-hundred fifty attendees at the Hindu Temple in Indianapolis IN, over the weekend. He returned about midnight on Sunday.

 

Day-long Meditation – Sat. March 08, 11AM – 8:00PM
The monthly long meditation session began with the 11:00 AM 'guided meditation/music hour.' Eleven devotees attended. Doors opened at 6:30 PM for the 7:00 – 8:00 PM Aarati (singing, a reading & meditation).

 

Children’s Sunday ‘Spiritual-Arts & Storytelling’ Class – Sun. March 09
Eight children participated in the 'first-Sunday-of-the-month Kids Only!' children’s program conducted from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM under the guidance of Prof Dorothy Abram.

 

Synopses of Last Week's Classes

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

 

'KARMA YOGA' (based on the book by Swami Vivekananda) class - Mar. 07, Friday

As we saw in the last class, there are two ways of going beyond the world: the negative path, or jnana yoga, which involves giving up attachments, and the positive path, karma yoga, which involves working through attachments.  For most of us, the jnana yoga path may seem alluring, but it proves to be too difficult.  The better choice for the vast majority of people is the karma yoga path.  When we are faced with work, it may appear like an obstacle.  But the science of karma yoga converts this obstacle into a means for our liberation. 

The goal of life is to realize Truth, to know that everything is God.  We may pay lip service to this, but this truth can be difficult to really “see” in our daily lives.  We should try to keep this truth in the back of our minds.  Although we may not be directly experiencing it at this moment, we should continue doing our work in light of this truth.  If we do work in this way, those works will not be a bondage to us; they will in fact be the means to us liberation.  All work has the power to enhance the feeling or spirit in which the work is being done. When we work with a desire for money, or fame, or for our near and dear ones, we are inadvertently connecting our work to that which is unreal and to fleeting and become even more caught into the unreal.  But if we connect our work to that which is real (God), our work will take us to this reality.  Thus, karma yoga leads us ultimately to non-attachment and saves us from the whirlpool of “I and mine.”

 

'Practical Renunciation: Learning from Sri Ramakrishna' – a talk by Donna Maurer – March 09, Sunday

Swami Vivekananda said that a real sannyasin lives in the world but is not of it, and is not chewing the cud of unsatisfied desires. The monk Thomas Merton said that a humble man is not disturbed by praise, because praise belongs to God. Sri Ramakrishna was an exemplar of humility, whose focus was serving God in everyone. The line of separation between himself and others was either thin, or totally nonexistent when he was in samadhi. Renunciation has four aspects: 1) Not running after things: Sri Ramakrishna told the story of the Jar of Desire, about great wealth that could not be spent, but only hoarded, making the owner miserable. 2) Not running away from things: In the Gospel, Sri Ramakrishna told Adhar to live like the mother tortoise who lives in the water, but whose mind is on its eggs in the sand. 3) Not possessing anything: There is a story about how Lord Krishna blessed a miserly man that his wealth should multiply, and a poor woman that her only cow should die, because the miser with additional wealth would become attached to the Lord, and attachment to her cow was the only obstacle to the poor woman attaining liberation. 4) Taking care of whatever is entrusted to us: Sri Sarada Devi encouraged giving leftover food to someone else, or even to an animal. Sri Ramakrishna said that it is not possible to practice renunciation all at once, but that hearing about it, going into solitude from time to time, being in Holy Company, and other spiritual practices will help bring it about.

 

'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' class - March 11, Tuesday

Narendra sang some devotional songs. His singing led a number of devotees present to experience divine ecstasy. Dr. Sarkar, a man of science, was observing this phenomenon. The scientific method is primarily based on explaining the universe of observations. As various observations come into our awareness, we try to provide a scientific law to explain these observations. Having seen so many people experience ecstasy Dr. Sarkar accepted that this was a natural phenomenon and not a hoax. However, reason has its limitations and can be applied only to the worldly phenomena. Life of the incarnations, spiritual phenomena, love etc. are areas where reason does not apply.

Dr. Sarkar also expressed to Sri Ramakrishna that he could control his emotion only with great difficulty as he heard Narendra singing. Sri Ramakrishna praised Dr. Sarkar’s efforts and said that this indicated his spiritual strength. Too much titillation with divine emotion shows weakness. One should not lose balance even as one has divine experiences. Sri Ramakrishna explains this with the story of Radha, who was extremely agonized due to her separation from Krishna but did not produce tears. This was due to her spiritual depth. The devotees then shared each other’s spiritual experiences and concluded that a Divine presence is always with them.