Newsletter November 26, 2008

Past Events

Unitarian class visits Vedanta - Fri. Nov. 21
Sunday School children, from the Universal Unitarian Church on Benevolent St. Providence visited Vedanta Chapel on Friday afternoon (with parents and teacher) to learn basics of Hinduism and Vedanta and to ask swami questions.

Swami's visit to North Carolina - Nov.22-24
Swami Yogatmananda traveled to Greenville and Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday, Nov. 22 and conducted talks on 'Overcoming fear & poverty', 'Thank-you' and other Vedantic subjects. He returned Monday, Nov. 24.

Synopsis of Last Week's Classes

Friday - Bhagwad Gita - Nov. 21
Ch. 3 Verses 5-9 : If one forcibly tries to shut the external expression of work, then the mind, still full of desires, keeps on working. One thus keeps on working to 'cover up', essentially becomes a hypocrite. The proper thing to do is to work in the spirit of 'yoga', bringing the sensory and motor organs under control through mental exercise. 'Here is the special person, who is neither shunning the work, nor is doing it wrongly' - Lord Krishna says. We need to dot the work that we have got. Even the body cannot be maintained without working.
Now, it is not possible to be completely detached in a day - it is a process that needs to be learned gradually; it is a graded course that one has to take up. This will be discussed in the coming verses.

Sunday - The Ideal of Karma Yoga - Swami Tyagananda - Nov. 23
Freedom becomes the goal of life when one acutely feels the limitations imposed by death, illness, aging, stress and anxiety etc. Vedanta shows us different paths to reach this goal, broadly categorized into four - path of work, of love, of psychology and of knowledge. These paths are not exclusive of each other and in the end they converge and become one. The basis of everything, good or bad, that happens in the universe is - struggle towards freedom. Selfless work is the method that Karma Yoga teaches us to attain this. The stronger the idea of 'I' and 'mine', the more is the attachment to work and its results. Unselfishness brings infinite expansion to one's personality which is ultimately the goal that all religions preach. The idea of becoming infinite can be frightening, for that means to give up the 'I'. One needs to develop 'ripe I', the ego that connects to the divine through different relations as child, servant etc. Every selfish action takes us away from the goal and hence we must be vigilant about our thoughts and actions. Every moment of our life must be realization.
In an absolute sense no one can do good to the world, but by doing so one's mind gets purified. To the extent we change ourselves, the outside world changes for us. At superficial level there cannot be any equality in this world. The sustaining force of this world is - differences among the things. But at the spiritual level, not only we are equal, but we are One. Swami Vivekananda mentions Buddha as the greatest Karma-yogi who did not care various theories of God, but worked selflessly all his life and taught one doctrine - Do good and be good.

Tuesday - Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - Nov. 25

Sri Ramakrishna's words are from the compassionate consideration for the people. He's not that concerned with whether people like him. He is not like the politicians who need to please people. We all want to progress, but do not fully understand that 'progress' means we must give up our present condition. Perhaps the biggest stumbling block is the notion 'I am this body'. This 'I' breeds the "Mine": my wife, my child, my house, etc. Sri Ramakrishna speaks of a technique for transforming this ego, since he says it cannot be got rid of. The method is a process of substitution which loosens ego's grip. Instead of I belong to so and so, change it to I belong to God. God, Thou art my friend, mother, father, my all. This is not to be an addition to the existing worldly relationships, but substitution of the all. We're also reminded that in the spiritual life, it is either this or that, not this and that. There's yoga, which brings union and there is bhoga, which keeps us hankering for wordily satisfactions, and ends up in suffering.
Sri Ramakrishna cautions Naren not to go to Girish much, because although Girish has given up his old bad habits still the 'smell' lingers on.