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If you have questions regarding spiritual life, Vedanta, Hinduism etc, you can email us at answers ATvedantaprov.org
Newsletter September 23, 2015
Notice:
Sunday Service Lecture Program - Some Changes
Beginning Sun. Sept. 20, the Sunday Service Lectures will be from 5pm to 5:45pm, FOLLOWED by a 10-15min Question-Answer session. Evening Aarati (Vesper Service) will be from 6:00 – 6:15 pm. This will be followed by soup supper and then meditation, until 8:00pm.
Upcoming Events
DAY-LONG RETREAT - Sat. Oct. 03, 9:30AM –7:00PM
Topic: ‘Spiritualizing Our Relationships’ by Swami Arupeshananda, Ramakrishna Monastery,
Trabuco Canyon, CA. Prior registration required Fee: $20/person.
Register by mail or at the Vedanta Society or online.
Click here to download reg. form or to register online.
Hatha Yoga classes:
1) ‘Walk-in’ ($5.00) Hatha Yoga class will resume on Tues. evenings from 6:00pm – 7:00pm with Hannah Resseger, beginning: Tues.15. Contact Hannah only AT: key2life-AT-gmail.com
2) New 6-Weeks Hatha Yoga Course - Sept. 30 - Nov. 04, 5:00 - 6:30PM
Beginning Wednesday, Sept. 30, a six-week ‘Mindful Flow’ Hatha Yoga class will be conducted at the Vedanta Society by Ellen Schaefer of One Yoga Center, RI, from 5:00 - 6:30PM. The 6-week course will be $30.00 Pre-paid; and $10.00 per class walk-in. Contact Ellen at 401-368-9647.
Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)
| Friday, Sept. 25 |
7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study Class #2 by Swami Yogatmananda on 'Jnana Yoga’, a book by Swami Vivekananda |
| Saturday, Sept. 26 |
8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma yoga/cleaning |
| Sunday, Sept. 27 |
5:00 – 6:00 PM:A talk on - ‘Understanding Pranayama’ by Swami Yogatmananda and Q/A |
| Tuesday, Sept. 29 |
7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study Class by Swami Yogatmananda on 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna', Ch 49, pp 937 |
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. 6' 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
Worship of Lord Ganesha - Thurs. Sept. 17, 7:30-8:30PM
About eleven students of Brown Hindu Students Association sang devotional songs and participated in Ganesha Puja, with one student performing puja under guidance of Swami Yogatmananda. This was conducted at Vedanta Society, from 7:30-8:30PM.
Day-long Meditation - Sat. Sept.19, 2015, 12noon – 8:00PM
About thirteen people participated in the ‘long-day meditation’, starting at 12 noon, after the ‘guided meditation & music’ from 11am – 12noon. Simple Veg. lunch-food & snacks were provided.
Swami Participating at the Peace Walk and Speaking at Shelton, CT to a group of devotees - Sat. Sept. 19
On Sat. 9/19, during the International Peace Week, Swami attended the program from 3 to 4 pm and participated in the Peace walk with other religious leaders and citizens, at the Burnside Park, Providence. Then he travelled to Shelton, CT and spoke to a group of devotees from 7:30-9:00 pm.
Bhagavad Gita class, Middletown CT – Sun. Sept. 20, 10:30 - 11:30AM
About fourteen devotees attended monthly Bhagavad Gita Class (Ch.18 verse 45.) at Sri Satyanarayana Temple, Middletown CT, that Swami Yogatmananda led.
The Monthly Children's program - Sun. Sept. 20, 4:00-6:00 PM
After a chant to Ganesha, a short parable and some discussion on several topics, the group went to the garden and made pencil sketches of a flower of their choosing. The garden --nicely lit by the late summer sun-- provided many beautiful subjects to inspire the artists. The pencil sketches are the first step of a multi-step project. The sketches will be colored and decorated at the next meeting.
The Children's program under the direction of Professor Dorothy Abram
meets on Sundays from 4PM to 6PM. The next meeting will be Sunday October 4th.
Vocal Concert – Sept. 20, Sunday
Following the 5PM – 6:15PM Sunday Service & Aarati, about sixty music enthusiasts listened to a vocal performance, from 6:15 – 7:45pm, performed by Apoorvaa Deshpande, (vocalist & Brown Univ. PhD student ); accompanied with Ramchandra Joshi on Harmonium and Nitin Mitta on Tabla. Ramchandra Joshi also gave a vocal performance with some devotional songs.
Click here to see the photos of this event.
Synopses of Last Week's Classes
(All classes given by Swami Yogatmananda, unless otherwise stated)
Study Class - 'Jnana Yoga’ (a book by Swami Vivekananda) - Sept. 18, Friday
Class #1: We all seek, the all-pervading, impersonal, universal Existence. Human beings have been putting in a lot of effort over time immemorial to get to the ultimate truth behind the shifting, apparent multiplicity in the universe. There is also another very strong drag in us, and that is for happiness. The sages assert, in the opening chant, that the ultimate existence is also the ultimate bliss and it is gotten through the purification of understanding/awareness. We ARE actually The Existence and The Bliss, but are wrongly thinking/believing that we are these little bodies; and are pitted against the forces of nature. When the understanding is purified, this erroneous belief goes away. The process of purification is called Yoga. There are various Yoga-s; the four prominent of these, as mentioned by Vivekananda, are 1. Karma-Yoga, 2. Bhakti-Yoga, 3. Raja-Yoga and 4.Jnana Yoga. They represent the training of the four faculties – 1. of action, 2. Of emotion, 3. Of concentration and 4. Of discernment. Everyone needs to follow a harmonious blend of these, as per one’s psychophysical constitution. Jnana Yoga pertains to understanding and practicing the discernment between permanent and impermanent. The book was not compiled during Vivekananda’s lifetime. His 16 lectures are included in the book, first ten are serially given at London (UK), remaining six in America.
Catching the Train at Platform 9¾ - Sept. 20, Sunday
We want everything to be rational but most things we value, like love, peace and joy, cannot be quantified. So we take recourse to such things as poetry and fiction, because the imagination shows us truth beyond logic. Harry Potter has to catch a train at platform 9¾. Logic is limited by the use of whole numbers. We go from step 1 to step 2, and so forth. Harry’s uncle, who is a muggle (a regular man, without the wizard-abilities), doesn’t believe there is such a thing as platform 9¾, just like scientists may not believe there is such a thing as God. The senses can see only the outer cover and not the inner reality. Like a child, who is engrossed in toys, we are caught up in the pleasures of the senses. Arthur Eddington compared the capabilities of science to a scientist who studies aquatic animals with a net with a 2-inch mesh, and discovers that all aquatic animals are at least two inches long. We can learn to live in the spiritual world by training our faculties through meditation. Swami Vivekananda, in the poem Peace, talks about the silence between two utterances or two notes, and says that this peace is our only home. We can use logic and reason in their own domain as instruments, but be not governed by them. We all feel the divine, because we feel that I am – which we cannot observe through the senses or prove by logic. There is no peace in the mundane world, so we need to learn to catch the train on platform 9¾.
Study Class - 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' - Sept. 22, Tuesday
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is titled, in Bengali original, as Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita which means nectar, something that makes one immortal. We think we are mortal because of our identification with the body. Our body is bound to die. It is not the body that becomes immortal. Sri Ramakrishna’s words remove this ignorance, very powerfully inject the wisdom in us that we are not the body, and thus not subject to death. Because He can clearly see the truth, He can clearly see our ignorance and help us remove it.
Our identification with the body makes us seek pleasure from external things like friends, relatives etc. – things that are related and pleasurable to the body. But as the wisdom enters that we are not the body, we find these things as binding and a source of immense suffering. Thus we run away from these things – just as we would run away from venomous snakes, as demonstrated by Sri Ramakrishna’s monastic disciples. One such object of attraction is money. Our attraction for money makes us its slaves and makes us do irrational things. E.g. we may not find time or inclination to meditate and seek what is true but we helplessly work towards accumulating more money even when we have no real need for it.