Newsletter March 05, 2008

Swami first met with students at U/MASS Dartmouth (3-4 PM) and then led a study group open to staff/public on Thursday afternoon, February 28.

Synopsis of Last Week's Classes

Friday - Bhagavad Gita Class - Feb. 29

Ch. 2 Verses 39-43: Practicality is discussed in length. The means are as important as the goal. If the means are faulty, the goal will be far away. We have to employ the right means. You have a recipe. Now you need to cook and eat. Lord Krishna lets us know that in Yoga, no effort is wasted or in vain. There are no bad side effects of yoga either. The more you practice, the more peace and happiness is derived. The life will become fearless.
Spiritual life is a life of determination and should be viewed as a professional might view his or her job. Take a receptionist. She may have a headache, but when focused on her work, she has to smile and be pleasant to everyone. It's part of her job. The same tact should be applied to spiritual disciplines. It will pay dividends. We have to learn to control the mind, which by its very nature is restless. Through Yoga we can do this. Patanjali defines Yoga as "controlling the scattering of the mind". All faculties need to be focused on the goal. All other useless talk, even if it is flowery and from Vedas, has to be given up.

Sunday -The Christian Vedanta - Father Paul of Jesus - March 02
Although Christianity is considered to be a dualistic religion, in its history we find quite a few Christian saints who experienced the ultimate Truth, the non-dual supreme reality that Vedanta speaks of. Meister Eckhart, St John of the Cross are good examples of that. Swami Abhishiktananda (Henry Le Saux) was one such spiritual personality of 20th century. Born and brought up as a Catholic, he joined the Benedictine monastery at a very young age, but soon found himself dissatisfied with the regimentation devoid of spiritual growth. In 1948, propelled by a mysterious urge, he came to India. He was much influenced by Raman Maharshi and Swami Gnanananda and embarked on a spiritual journey consisting of hours of meditation, prayers and study of scriptures of both traditions. His mystical awakenings bridged the gap between his deeply-rooted Christian faith and non-dual philosophy of Vedanta. Soon he experienced Advaita (non-dualism) as the true foundation of Christianity - that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three things but One. He saw the Holy Spirit, the divinity within and in everything around. He experienced the things which were far beyond mental and verbal expressions. In latter part of his life, he traveled in North India and participated in symposiums, wrote books and articles. Many of his ideas were accepted by the Vatican Church. In 1973, in the midst of his mystical illuminations, he was struck down by a heart attack that ended this blessed life.

Tuesday - The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Class- March 04

Sri Ramakrishna was a man in appearance, divine in awareness; we can relate to him and learn from him.
"So I'm saying you are Kha (space or nothingness) …". He told Naren that it is not enough to have the intellectual idea that 'I am The Brahman' but one has to reject all the occult powers; for they are obstacles in the path of realization. The main advice given is 'go beyond all duality'. Knowledge and ignorance, light and darkness, good and evil are all relative pairs of opposite. Ask for one in the pair and you get the other too. The only Absolute Good is God.
How does the One without a second appear as many? It's because of ignorance. It gets divided by our minds. We become programmed to see things in a certain sequence. That makes for the arrow of time - no going back in time.
Q: If all the duality is gone, then there will be no variety and no beauty - just drab, dull oneness! Is it desirable? A: Beauty is seeing the oneness in variety. Only 'many things' do not have beauty unless and order (=oneness) is found in them. The more we discover the oneness at deeper and deeper levels, more will be the beauty too. When the ultimate ONE-ness is discovered then the Ultimate beauty too is found there.

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