Newsletter February 20, 2013

 

Newsletter Archives

 

Upcoming Events

Salutations! – Mon. Feb. 25

On Monday, February 25, the birth anniversary of Swami Adbhutananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, will be observed with a morning chant, and in the evening with a song, reading of his biography and prasad.

 

Swami to visit CA & IL– Wed. Feb. 27 - Tues. Mar. 05
Swami will visit & deliver talks at various So. CA Vedanta Societies (Hollywood, Santa Barbara, San Diego, etc), conduct a weekend retreat at the San Diego Vedanta Society, and visit the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago IL before returning to Providence on Tues. Feb 05 daytime.

 

Monthly announcement of CT Class schedule change:

The Middletown CT monthly Bhagavada Gita class (at Sri Satyanarayana Temple) will be conducted on Sun. Feb 24 (regular 10:30AM time) instead of Sun. Feb 17 listed in the monthly announcement.

 

Vedanta Society Blog

The blog of Vedanta Society has interesting posts and comments. All are invited to post and comment on this blog. Please read here the rules and regulations for this blog.

 

Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)

Friday, Feb. 22	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Class on Bhagavad Gita Ch. 17
Saturday, Feb. 23	8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma yoga/cleaning 11:00am – 12 noon: Guided meditation and singing 7:00PM – 8:00 PM: Aarati (singing two devotional songs, a reading and meditation)
Sunday, Feb. 24	5:00 – 6:00 PM: ‘United We Win’ by Swami Yogatmananda 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Soup Supper 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM: Aarati (devotional music) and meditation
Tuesday, Feb. 26	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study class on The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - Ch. 45, p. 851

 

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
Evening :	7:00 – 7:15 PM: Aarti (devotional music), with a short reading from Swami Chetanananda's book: ‘Mahendra Nath Gupta ‘M’' 7:15 – 8:15 PM: Meditation

 

Past Events

On Thursday, February 14, the birth anniversary of Swami Trigunatitananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, was observed with a morning chant, and in the evening with a song, reading of his biography and prasad.

 

Synopses of Last Week's Classes

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

 

Bhagavad Gita class – Feb. 15, Friday

Chapter 17, Verse 12-17: Sri Krishna has been expounding on the three psychological “types”--tamasika, rajasika, and saatvika, and how these influence how people perform spiritual practices.   These types are like expressions on a face: they can change, and we can “wear” these different psychologies at different times.  Whatever our psychological state when we perform an action, that mood affects the action and becomes part of it.  We should remember that we are a combination of these different psychological effects will not always be “only” tamasika, rajasika, or saatvika.  When performing sacrifices, the saatvika person performs sacrifice with an intense focus; the rajasika person shifts this focus towards the thought, “what will I get out of this?”; and the tamasika person thinks, “What’s the use, nothing will come out of this.”  The attitude with which the sacrifice is performed determines what spiritual benefits will result from the practice. Another part of religious practice is the performance of austerities.  Before describing how the three psychological types approach austerities, Sri Krishna explains that austerity has three layers: the layer of the body, the layer of speech, and the layer of the mind.  The austerity of the body includes the worship of gods, guru, and wise men, the practice of ahimsa (non-injury), and bodily control (like fasting, sleep deprivation), which helps us control of the physical aspect of our being.  At the level of speech, austerity takes the form of truthful speech and the study and recitation of scriptures.  Control of the body and speech are comparatively easy for us, but it is more difficult for us to bring the mind under our control.  Concerted effort is required if we want to get a handle over the mind.  With control over the mind, we can maintain serenity in any situation. In the next class, we will see how the three psychological types perform austerities.

 

Putting Everything on the Altar - Feb. 17, Sunday

Everything given to us in life has a price.  This applies to spiritual life as well. We keep heckling for the price of spiritual life. In spiritual life the price is not fixed by a person and the price is non-negotiable. To gain knowledge in spiritual life we have to sacrifice all of our worldly desires at the altar of God.  If we give up everything with name and form we will receive complete fulfillment. In the biblical story (Genesis), Abraham was asked by The God to offer his son in sacrifice. The son represents ‘all that one gets attached to in this world’. Abraham obeys the will of the God and thus eventually gets the ‘Promised Land’ – the abode of ultimate bliss and peace.  In Chhandogya Upanisad also, the king seeking the highest knowledge, was given the that only when he was ready to give his ‘daughter’ – a symbol of all that is held as dear in life. Things in the world are fake and our attachments keep us away from the Kingdom of God. If we give up the land of appearance and take up the land of truth, the Promised Land – where life is fulfilled, will be bestowed upon us. Bhagavad Gita tells ‘whatever you do, eat, put as oblation, or give as gift and whatever austerities you perform – give all that to Me, the Lord’.

In putting everything on the altar of sacrifice, you actually do not lose anything. Just as losing fake notes is actually no loss at all. But you get everything.

 

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – Feb. 19, Tuesday

Dr Sarkar arrived with his son Amrita and another man Hem. Master asked Amrita, if he does meditation and then said meditation is continuous thinking about God like oil is poured from one container to other in a continuous and unbroken way. Master told Dr. Sarkar that his son does not believe in God Incarnations but he is a nice boy as the spiritual consciousness has been awakened in him. For such person, God alone is real and the world is illusory. But this is a process of evolution. When the hold of world is very strong, the God is just an idea; gradually the concept of God becomes more and more real and the world starts to lose its hold. At this time one can say that spiritual awareness has been awakened. Once this concept is established in our mind, automatically the life gets centered around God. As this journey progresses the divine awareness and qualities start manifesting.
This world is manifestation of God but true essence lies in the Divine and not the manifestation. Master gives an analogy of Bel Fruit. In this fruit the flesh is useful but to have the flesh one has to accept the hard shell and the seeds. Similarly, to understand the Divine we cannot discard the idea of relative manifestation of the divine in names and forms. One must understand that the relative and absolute coexist. One has to transcend the relative to reach to the absolute. As long as the idea of I and the world remains, a man cannot go beyond the Relative. It is impossible to define the separation between I and the world. This topic will be discussed further in detail in the next class.