Newsletter April 23, 2008

Past Events

Swami's lecture at Boston - Sunday, April 20
Swami conducted Sunday Satsang on 'Plotinus: Good and Evil' at Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, 58 Deerfield St Boston, MA on April 20 from 11:00 AM - 12:00 noon.

Sikh Devotional Music (SABAD) - Sunday, April 20
From 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM, after the Sunday lecture, Amritpal Singh, singer and tabla player at Milford MA Gurudwara Temple, performed and sang SABAD music, accompanied by Chris Pereji on Tabla. Pushpen Dey, noted sarod player and teacher at Learnquest Academy MA, also performed classical sarod ragas. About sixty persons attended.

Click here to see photos of above events.

Synopsis of Last Week's Classes

Friday - Bhagavad Gita Class - April 18

Ch. 2 (Verses 54-56): The Bhagawad Gita is the unique sacred text preached on a battlefield. Life is a battlefield where many opposite tendencies in us are fighting with each other and Lord Krishna has told Arjuna to stand up and fight with the attachments, likes-dislikes etc upholding the banner of righteousness and doing one's duty and that will gradually make him established in wisdom.
Arjuna wants to know about the life of an illumined person. How is it different? How does an illumined person act, walk, talk, etc. For, life is the actual test of wisdom. Lord Krishna replies that there is ONE difference and it is not in external appearance but in internal awareness. An illumined person or the one established in wisdom has gotten rid of all desires. It's not like he becomes lifeless or joyless when that happens. Actually just the opposite is true. This individual finds complete happiness and is completely satisfied, for he has found the source of it. He is happy in the Self by the Self! The ordinary person is propelled by desires. He is not propelled by desires and achieves peace, harmony, and satisfaction. That sage is said to be of steady wisdom.

Sunday -Do I Contradict Myself? -Swami Yogatmananda April 20
Our lives and all its expressions are full of contradictions. If we see analytically, we know that it is impossible to make a statement without contradicting it too! In his profound poem 'Song of Myself', Walt Whitman, mystic American poet whom Vivekananda calls a 'Rishi' (=seer) asks, 'Do I contradict myself?' and answers 'Well, then I contradict myself' explaining in the parenthesis, 'I contain multitudes in me'. The purpose of a statement is to clearly express something, but one cannot do it without limiting it and without using words which have numerous conflicting meanings. 'The letter killeth' - as the Bible says. 'To live' is contradictory and yet strangely synonymous to 'to die', same with 'knowledge' and 'ignorance', 'light' and 'darkness'. 'Silence' between the words tells more than (& different from) the words. The 'precision' in science has to hide in the inevitable shadow of 'uncertainty', every step at relative security brings the enhanced fears too.
In his sublime poem 'PEACE' - Vivekananda writes that It is 'The light that is in darkness, the shade in dazzling light….' The ultimate peace and bliss comes thus by going beyond the duality; there alone all contradictions are resolved. So, Vedanta teaches to go beyond the 'dual throng' to the pure consciousness of the all-pervading ONE Self, there is no 'second' there but all apparent opposites harmoniously coexist without creating contradictions. In the 13th chapter of Gita Lord Krishna tells about this ultimate knowledge that steers clear of the contradictions like existence and non-existence', 'inside and outside', 'moving and stationary' etc and emphasizes that THAT is the Goal. 'The Man of Tao' - says Chuang Tzu, lives the life unruffled by the contradictions.

Tuesday - The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Class- April 22

What is cause and effect is not always obvious in the spiritual life. Some people progress very fast and others struggle. So many people came in contact with Sri Ramakrishna. Some got illumined and others did not. Mere external association will not necessarily guarantee realization. The master said, "Know that I'm only an instrument. All happens by the will of God." It is important to practice spiritual disciplines. By practicing, our life becomes more disciplined and this paves the way to removing obstacles. Spiritual practices are not logical causes/explanations, but rather psychological explanations of God realization.
Just as a guileless, self-surrendered person is one to see the Truth, some types of persons cannot see It. Hypocrites, fastidious persons who overdo notions of external purity, and finally doubting persons they will not realize God.