Newsletter November 12, 2008

Past Events

On Monday, Nov 10 and Wednesday, Nov 12, the birth anniversaries of Swami Subodhananda and Swami Vijnanananda (direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna) were observed in the morning with a chant and in the evening with a song, a biography reading and Prasad.

Synopsis of Last Week's Classes

Friday - 'Understanding Life through Yoga' - Gita Desai - Nov 07
Producer and videographer of the previously viewed DVD 'Yoga Unveiled' briefly discussed the travels, interviewing, personal reflections of the guest speakers, and 'happenstance events'/ process that occurred during the two year interval of creating this documentary, which is also being shown on PBS. She also briefly discussed interviewing process and timely imperativeness of an upcoming DVD on history of Indian classical music and the senior-ranking Indian classical musicians, many of whom are the last in their specific musical lineage.

Sunday - Karma, Me and the World - Swami Tyagananda - Nov. 09
In Vedanta the word 'Karma' is referred to as secular work as well as religious work (involving rituals). Every religion has three parts: Philosophy (essence of religion), Mythology (stories etc.) and Rituals (concretized philosophy in the form of symbols, images etc.). These three are interconnected with each other. Symbols are not simply the creations of human mind but they have emerged from a deeper level of awareness. Symbols, images and other paraphernalia of rituals help us grasp the abstract spiritual truths and hence becomes an important part of Karma-Yoga. Another aspect of Karma-Yoga is to understand the relation between thought, word and sound. Power of words is a great force in common life as well as in higher philosophy.
This World is a mixture of good and evil and will always remain so. The world is perfect as it is and does not need anyone's help; but by doing good to the world, we do good to ourselves. All good acts when done without selfish motive make us pure and perfect. While helping others, a spiritual aspirant always sees himself/herself as an instrument and feels privileged for getting that opportunity. Fanaticism creates hatred and is a great impediment on the path of progress. Karma yoga teaches us to work with love and unselfishness.

Tuesday - Renunciation for the Householders - Vrishali Pal - Nov. 11

Renunciation means disppassion for the world and longing for God. A householder cannot renounce the world externally but s/he has to practice mental renunciation - renunciation of lust, greed and ego. Renunciation is the basic requirement of spiritual life. It brings fearlessness and helps to control the restless mind. Existential anxieties of life can be overcome by asserting one's true Self and that is possible only when we renounce our limited self. Giving up all other desires is nothing but identifying our real desire - the desire to transcend the limitations of body and mind and to realize the supreme Truth. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna teaches us how to strive for God-realization while leading a family life.