Newsletter February 27, 2013

 

Newsletter Archives

 

Upcoming Events

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.

 

Sri Ramakrishna Puja/Worship Day – Sun. Mar. 17
Worship: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM; Prasad-lunch: 1:00-2:00; Video: 2:00-3:30; Music: 4:00-5:00; Symposium: 5:00-6:00; Music & Meditation: 6:00-7:00 PM. All are welcome to any or all of the program.

 

Day-long Retreat – Sat. Mar. 30 : Click here for more details.

 

Weekly Programs (in addition to Daily Programs given below)

Friday, March 01	7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation 7:30 – 8:30 PM: A video of 'Spiritual Evolution and the Time Factor' by Swami Adiswarananda (68 minutes).
Saturday, March 02	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, March 03	5:00 – 6:00 PM: ‘The Cloud of Unknowing-1’ by Bishop Paul, Celtic Orthodox Church 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM: Soup Supper 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM: Aarati (devotional music) and meditation
Tuesday, March 05	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

1) On Monday, February 25, the birth anniversary of Swami Adbhutananda, 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.

2) Swami Yogatmananda conducted the Middletown CT monthly Bhagavada Gita class, Ch 13 continued, at Sri Satyanarayana Temple on Sun. Feb 24.

 

Synopses of Last Week's Classes

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

 

Bhagavad Gita class – Feb. 22, Friday

Chapter 17, Verses 17-23: In the 17th chapter of the Gita, Sri Krishna explains that satvica, rajasica, or tamasica shraddha, or a faith, of a person shapes the life of that person at all the various levels. As sincere spiritual aspirants, we must practice austerities of body, speech, and mind with great faith and with no desire for results in order to gain the self-control which can be practically oriented towards God-realization. Austerities performed in this way are said to be satvica in nature. Through austerity one gains control, and with control power is generated; therefore, we must carefully avoid the temptation to use that power to fulfill desires, and instead use the control and power obtained to achieve the serenity, faith, and absence of desires we truly seek. Performing austerities to gain the respect of others or to generate power to fulfill desires in the world are rajasica. The austerities practiced out of a foolish notion, in a non-methodical way, torturing the indwelling God or to hurt others are tamasica. Giving donations is an important spiritual practice which devotees perform in order to expand their personality. The three attitudes of saatvica, rajasica, and tamasica play their role in the performance of this too. A satvica donation is given to the right person, at the right time, and at the right place without expecting any result. The rajasica donation is given grudgingly and with the expectation of some form of return. The tamasica donation is given by the wrong person, at the wrong time, and at the wrong place without the proper respect or thought. No matter what action we undertake, these three attitudes-saatvica, rajasica, and tamasica-will play a role. As spiritual aspirants we must, therefore, take great care so that the saatvica attitude becomes stronger and stronger and ensures that are actions increasingly contribute to our spiritual progress.

 

United We Win - Feb. 24, Sunday

We gain strength when we unite. Yoga entails spiritual unity of intellect, emotions, actions, sense organs and motor organs. The spirit is the center of our being. When we have an ideal, we can overcome obstacles by tuning all our faculties to it. Bhagavad Gita (6th ch) tells us about having a good balance between our food intake, work, relaxation, sleep and wakefulness to become Yogis. The Kathopanisad uses the analogy of a chariot, where the chariot is the body, the charioteer is the discerning faculty or intellect, the horses are the ten organs (five sensory and five motor organs), the reins are the emotions. All need to be united and aligned in the proper order. Swami Yatiswarananda, in Meditation and Spiritual Life, says that even physical forms are integrated, and integration can lead us to a perfect whole. We need to integrate thinking, feeling, and willing. When we meditate on divinity, the whole becomes more real than the individual consciousness. In Durga Saptasati (700 verses to Mother Durga) we see how the unification of all gods becomes the Goddess Durga and this unity really kills the demon. When we unite all our faculties in pursuit of the ultimate goal, we can gain strength and attain ultimate fulfillment.

 

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – Feb. 26, Tuesday

Master was trying to explain the concept of Absolute and Relative to Dr. Sarkar and the other devotees present there. It is described in Vedas that God - the absolute existence is perfect and the world - the relative existence, is perfect too. The relative does not have any existence of its own it just a manifestation of the Absolute. Spiritual practice helps the aspirant to travel from relative to Absolute. Till the time one has relative awareness he/she must look upon the world as various names and forms of Divine. If one follows the process of negation without this understanding, then it imparts some reality to the illusory world which is being negated. Master commented that one must realize both Nitya- the changeless absolute and the Lila - the changing appearance of the absolute - and then live in the world as a servant of God, who is the true controller of everything. This attitude of service to God purifies the aspirant and leads to dissolution of individual ego and submission to Divine Will. M thought to himself, that mere intellectual understanding of these ideas is not enough. One must implement them in life by renunciation. Master always recommended practice of complete renunciation. According to Dr. Sarkar, all human beings are equal; and everyone must do infinite progress. Vivekananda has shown at various instances how this idea of infinite progress is an absurdity. Vedanta teaches the same equality but at the core. There are variations in the manifestations.