Newsletter February 29, 2012

Weekly Classes

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

Bhagavad Gita class – Feb. 24, Friday

Ch. 13 Verse 7-10: The virtues to be acquired in order to ‘know the knower’ are being discussed. he or she forbears the vicissitudes of life, deals in a straightforward manner with people, exemplifies purity of thought, and is clean in body and mind. One must be steadfast. If the spiritual aspirant fails to remain steadfast in his devotions to God, the benefit of those devotions is lost. To acquire the virtue of steadfastness, the spiritual aspirant needs to keep the modifications of the mind under control. Sri Ramakrishna implores spiritual aspirants to cultivate renunciation towards the objects of senses, which naturally bring both pleasure and pain. To counter desire to enjoy a sense-object Pantajali advises the aspirant to cultivate the opposite desire. The development of good tendencies, and the corresponding renunciation of sense-objects, requires systematic cultivation. When the spiritual aspirant receives all happiness from within, the tendency to seek happiness from outside will no longer remain. Also, feeling of self-importance has to be renounced. After giving some such key virtues, the Lord concludes the discussion by telling that if the spiritual aspirant inculcates the aforementioned virtues, he will become a knower of the truth; if he fails to cultivate these virtues he will not have the knowledge of divine. Swami Vivekananda emphasizes that spiritual knowledge is “Being and Becoming”—it is a transformation of the spiritual aspirant’s life through which the aspirant becomes Divine.

Symposium on Sri Ramakrishna - February 26, Sunday
Ben Baker examined Nonduality within duality, as evinced in three aspects of Sri Ramakrishna's life: his practice of religion, his marriage, and his living of a human life.  While religion is a symbolically dual enterprise, Sri Ramakrishna practiced it as Nonduality. Both conceptually and in its context (of further commitments to children and kin), marriage would seem dualistic, but Sri Ramakrishna practiced it as Nonduality by not holding his wife, Sri Sarada, as an object of desire, but as the embodiment of Divinity and Mother of all.  In relationship to humanity, our locus of subjectivity creates a dualistic framework, yet Sri Ramakrishna attained the state of losing recognition of the particular self. This is the purest example of Nonduality within duality.
Dorothy Abram brought the wisdom of Sri Ramakrishna, as the embodiment of Leela, the Divine Play, to the forefront of attention. Reflecting on George Harrison's song, "Brainwashed," she conveyed that we are each playing various roles. As Aldus Huxley put it, only from the inside can we understand the experience of the mystics.  Sri Ramakrishna's teachings came to life through play, as he became the various characters that he was enacting, starting with his playing the role of Shiva at age 9; in which he entered the state of Samadhi and the audience experienced him as Shiva incarnate. Through Sri Ramakrishna's Leela, the suspension of disbelief makes the expansion of consciousness possible.
Chris Sparks discussed how Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated the essential unity of all religious paths, preached that all religions are True, and taught that Realization of God is the same in all religions. Sri Ramakrishna practiced each spiritual path and religion to its culmination and found that each path is harmonious yet different.  Importantly, he told spiritual aspirants to stick to one religion. The aspirants' efforts should be pointed and deep, yet we should also cultivate a respect for all religions. As Sri Ramakrishna stated: "Dive Deep. . . . You cannot pick up the gems if you only float on the surface."  
In conclusion, Swami Yogatmananda summarized the three talks.

Click here to see photos.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna class – Feb. 28, Tuesday

Master told Nanda that one receives respect and honor due to special manifestation of divine power. When Nanda said ‘all have same power’, Master emphasized that all are same at spiritual level but there are differences in manifestations. Training or nurturing plays an important role in development but the difference at the seed-level cannot be denied. Then Sri Ramakrishna goes to the grief-struck devoted Brahmin lady. She made all the arrangements to receive Master She was beside herself with the extreme joy of seeing Master at her house. Due to her ecstatic state, she could not help her sister in serving Master. A similar incident happened in Jesus’s life when he visited Martha and Mary, Mary forgot to do her work as she was overwhelmed to see Jesus. When tremendous love for God comes to a person, it sets aside all the other protocols and formalities. The other things are required to develop love for God. Once that is developed, there is no more need of further such formalities.
After taking some refreshments, Sri Ramakrishna took her leave.