Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

Monthly eMagazine of the International Vedanta Mission Year 16

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Issue 11

In This Issue

1.

Vedanta Section:

Atma Bodha - Shloka-30

2.

Letter Section:

Dhyana & Vedanta

3.

Devata Section:

Sri Adi Sankaracharya

4.

Katha Section:

Indra and Virochana

5.

VM Programs:

Mission / Ashram Progs

From Poojya Guruji

Vedanta Sandesh

Hari om!

Spreading Love & Light

Monthly eMagazine of the International Vedanta Mission Sharing the message of Vedanta and Sanatan Dharma

May 2011 On the Net since 1995

Started by:

Poojya Guruji Sri Swami Atmanandaji

Editor:

Swamini Samatananda

Published from:

Vedanta Ashram E/2948-50, Sudama Nagar Indore-452 009, India

Web:

www.vmission.org.in Email:

vmission@gmail.com

India saw a unique four days movement last month - no arms, no violence, no war, yet the gargantuan surrenders. Corruption has indeed become a terrible scourge in India. It has become very rampant, and nothing moves without greasing the hands of someone. Leaders & govt officials seem to have got license to loot the tax-payers money, and at times become the licensed extortionists too.

Privitisation made sense because anything associated with govt was a guaranteed low-quality stuff & service. Naxalism & separatism are in fact a helpless last resort of poor people, because the men in power are rarely seen as friends, but more often as foes alone. It is mind-boggling to hear the amount of black money stashed in Swiss Bank accounts by Indians. All the national debt can be repayed many times over. No wonder the infra-structure of all those countries is world-class. India has indeed lot of wealth, but alas it is a wealthy country of poor people. A milking cow. Indeed there is something fundamentally wrong with the system, and we need to go into all this thoroughly. The very objective of independence is lost if our own people dont have food, water & clothing, and are neither empowered to do anything about it. The proposed Lokpal will be a new constitutional authority in India to go into any complaint of corruption againgst any govt authority, including PM & judiciary, and hopefully the men in power will have something to fear, but a more fundamental question is whether fear is the real deterrent for stopping us to lead a truly conscentious & ethical life, or will such hanging swords help invoke ingennuity to discover better ways of corruption. It is all a matter of intention and faith, about which there is a terrible deficit. What if the Lokpal himself becomes corrupt? We had earlier thought that elected representatives will assure honest governance, but that was not to be. Today our tragedy is that we are being looted by our own people.

History has proved us time & again that deterrents are never the best motivator to lead an ethical life, that is why communism with all its noble intention failed. Purity of intention has to come from within, then alone it sustains, inspite of anything. If we 'really want’ to lead a noble & ethical life, then we know that nobody can stop us, but how do we assure that everyone really 'wants' that & that alone. What are we doing at the level of law & education to assure this? What is the role of visions & values? What role philosophies & religion played for this? It should not be too difficult to discover such systems, after all history tells us that so many earlier visitors to our country were amazed at the purity & nobility of the people of this land. We will win such wars only when we can assure 'sincere noble intentions' in our leaders & people. Real revolutions are possible only by subjective transformations, and not by just external checks & pressures. Such realization is yet to come.

Love & om,

Swami Atmananda

Atma Bodha - Shloka 30 Vedanta Section

Mahavakya’s reveal Identity In the previous sloka the Acharya explained the Atman is Self-luminous. It does not need another light to illumine it. The sense organs, the mind and the intellect cannot illumine the Atman but the Atman is the illuminator of all things. If this is the case then a question arises how then can the nature of the Atman be known. If it is said that the Atman is known by the scriptures then it implies that the Atman is objectifiable and if something can be objectified it means that it is inert and dependant on another source of light for its existence and also to be known. The following sloka answers this query and reveals how the scriptures are the only valid means of knowledge and how the Upanishads beautifully reveal the Atman even though it cannot be known as an object.

30 Nishiddhya nikhila upadhin neti neti iti vakyatah Vidyataikyam mahavakyaihi: Jivatmanah paramatmanoh: Nishiddhya: Negating; nikhila upadhin: all limiting adjuuncts; neti neti iti vakyatah: with the expression not this, not this; Vidyat: know or come to realise; aikyam: identity; mahavakyaihi: with the help of the Great Statements; Jivatmanah paramatmanoh: of the individual and the Supreme Self .

Eliminatining all limiting adjuncts with the expression ‘not this, not this’, one should realise the identity of the individual and the Supreme Self with the help of the great Mahavakyas.

Nishiddhya nikhila upadhin The kowledge of Vedanta or Self knowledge is a very tricky knowledge. Usually we are conditioned to know something as an object, that which is seperate from the knower. So there is a knower and an object of knowledge and this knowledge too takes place in the mind. Anything that is known by the mind becomes an object of the mind and anything that can be objectified becomes inert and is seperate from the subject, the knower. But in case of knowing the Self, it is the very ‘I’, the knower which is to be known. The ‘I’ or the Atman is ever existent and therefore it is only to be seen in its true essence. It is not to be attained. Attaining something implies its absence at one time and then being attained at another time. We are the pure effulgent and blissfull truth even now. So the only valid means Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

of knowledge here is the ‘word’, which is communicated by a Preceptor who has seen it for himself and is also able to communicate equally effectively.

Hence the role of the preceptor and the scriptures becomes a very delicate affair where the Master unlocks the meaning behind the word without giving rise to any imagination or new conditioning.

The role of the scriptures and Teacher is to awaken one into the truth that which already ‘is’. It only has to be realised. Although all of us do have a general awareness of the Self. I am aware of my existence. I know ‘I am’. So there isn’t a total ignorance of the Self. But surely we are ignorant of the real nature of the Self as being the limitless, eternal and blissful. Not only are we ignorant of the reality of the Self but we have superimposed various limited adjuncts and identities of the body, mind and

intellect on the Self. The nature of awakening thus implies negating all such super-impositions like I am the body, mind and intellect and all that is born of this identification. Today our identity is based on our association with the manifested form of our existence, the BMI. The scriptures reveal, know this identity to be relative, ephimeral and limited and negate all that is limited at the level of time, space, and object. The process of negation is the art of the scriptures to reveal that which already ‘is’.

Neti neti iti vakyatah: The process of negation under discussion is brought about by discriminating between the Real and the Unreal. That which is the ‘Real’ is the eternal, unchanging, lifegiving factor, whose very nature is bliss.The ‘Unreal’ engulfs all that is other than the Self and hence can be objectified by the Self.

Everything begining from the objects of the world, the gross physical body, the subtle bodies of the mind and intellect, the causal body of ignorance, in short all that comes into the realm of objective knowledge. All these things and the various experiences born of them are constantly changing and dying.

They are inert because they are dependant on ‘Me’ for their existence. They are born at one particular time, are limited to space and are bound by specific attributes. A student of Vedanta aspiring for self knowledge drops all these by seeing them as Unreal. He eliminates all that which is seperate from the Self. Although it is also significant and interesting to understand that negation does not imply physically negating manifested forms but it implies casting off the undue and excessive importance of reality that we have given to that which is unreal. Such negation reveals to us the divine nature of the Self, just as the Sun is revealed as the clouds move away from the Sun. Vidyataikyam mahavakyaihi: The Acharya further goes on to prescribe having done the discrimination between the Real and the Unreal now come to see the truth by seeing the unity between the jiva (the individual) and Ishwara (God). A spiritual aspirant begins his journey by seeing the insignificance of that which is

unreal. He also sees the existence of a divine power who is the creator and controller of this universe. An individual jiva’s life is a continuous blessing of this divine entity whom we refer to as God. In the begining an individual lives a life of a devotee offering all his actions and desires as a humble service to God. Having established such a divine relation a jiva lives a life of peace, contentment and selfless happiness. But the fact still remains that this Jiva is seperate from Ishwara. There is not only a duality between Jiva and Ishwara but also a sense of limitation that the Jiva is small and limited and Ishwara is the one with infinite power and knowledge. Ultimate liberation comes when the Jiva sees the unity between himself and Iswara by negating the manifested form of the individual Jiva and the magnanimous form of Iswara. This truth is revealed in the great statements called the Mahavakyas like ‘Tat Tvam asi’ i.e. That Thou ArtYou are that, implying there is no duality between Jiva an God. This may come as a shock for many a sadhakas who have humbly seen themselves as devotees of God , God who is omnipotent, whereas myself as an indiviual limited in every way. Although this mind set is iportant to purify the mind of various ego-centric attitudes and negativities but liberation comes by seeing the unity between jiva and Iswara.

Hence the journey then begins to realise this unity.

This process is brought about by negating the manifested form of the individual body, mind and intellect and also by negating the manifested form of Iswara which was invoked by his Maya. Once the manifestations are negated what then remains is pure existence and pure consciousness that simply ‘is’.

Jivatmanah paramatmanoh: This realisation of oneness frees an individual of his sense of limitation and continuous seeking. The jiva or the Individual becomes one with the Supreme.

In the state of ignorance there is the existence of individuality and totality where consciousness manifests at the level of the individual and totality known as the Jiva and Ishwara. Once this manifestation of individuality and totality i.e. the Jiva and Ishwara are both negated what remains is pure consciousness. This is the oneness between the Jiva and Ishwara realised by the Mahavakyas like Tat tvam asi.

Best Wishes on the occassion of Sri Adi Sankaracharya Jayanti Page # 5

Letter of the Month

Dhyana & Vedanta Hari om M..., Further to your question regarding the role of Dhyana & Bhakti in Vedanta.

Knowledge is all about aware If being we define of the truth what Dhyana as a of means while Yoga and ofis,paying complete Bhakti aimattention, to unflinching change thehumble mind for alongwith the better, so to the inquisitiveness technically fall words of ourthey Guru, in the category of who removes the veil workingand to ofkarma, ignorance change something. thus reveals the For knowledgethen even unknown, a sankalpa to has certainly Dhyana anything is anchange important role in an impediment, Vedanta...

But if by becausewe then our Dhyana simply priorities change imply focusing from knowing what intensely on is to working for is something which what should be. 'already known', then Guruji such - aPoojya sadhana doesn’t help.

Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

Well, if we define Dhyana as a means of paying complete unflinching attention, along with humble inquisitiveness to the words of our Guru, who removes the veil of ignorance and thus reveals the unknown, then certainly Dhyana has an important role in Vedanta. When an enlightened master reveals and the student pays complete, unconditioned attention to comprehend the subtlest of implications, then such attentiveness is indeed part & parcel of effective communication, it becomes a facilitator to further our journey from darkness to light, from unknown to known.

But if by Dhyana we simply imply focusing intensely on something which is 'already known', then such a sadhana doesn’t really help the getting of any new knowledge. This is what Upasana is all about. Upasana and Karma have initial preparatory role to play, but are never a revelatory means for new knowledge, so a student of vedanta keeps aside all such karmic sadhanas, physical or mental, for entering the portals of vedanta. That is what karma sanyasa is all about, and is extremely necessary, because any kind of karma basically ignores 'what is' for its imaginary preference for 'what should be'.

There is a shloka which says that if you do not know the truth, then dhyana doesn’t make sense, and if you know the truth then it is not required. So obviously dhyana has a limited role. People who practice Dhyana seem to aim an experience of a particular state of mind rather than aiming to efface ignorance of their Self. Any karma, whether physical or mental is prompted only by conclusions about what is that which is presumably something worthwhile & great etc, so such people start with a conclusion, and do not have the humility of an open minded seeker. So in Vedanta we prefer to just see the role of dhyana as capacity to pay complete unflinching attention to the ‘teachings of an enlightened

masters’, rather than simply absorption of a doer in some so called divine object/being/state.

Here we are more bothered about the subject rather than any objects, howsoever great it maybe.

So, listening to Sad-gurus with complete attention is the essence of studying, thinking deeply on them to sort out any of our doubts & conditionings is reflection, and reveling in this knowledge all the time so as to drop our habitual errors is the real meditation. Regarding Bhakti, it is all about having deep, selfless love for something. We prefer to see the role of bhakti as the deep & intense ‘inquisitiveness to know the truth’. With such love alone the Sravana, Manana & Niddidhyasana are truly possible.

Love & om Swami Atmananda

Time Bank Imagine for a moment that there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow."

You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

Treasure every moment that you have!

And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery.

Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!!!

Page # 7

The existence of Vedic Dharma in India today is primarily due to Sankara.The forces opposed to Vedic religion were more numerous and powerful at the time of Sankara than they are today. Still, single-handed, within a very short time, Sankara overpowered them all and restored the Vedic Dharrna and Advaita Vedanta to its pristine purity in the land. The weapon he used was pure knowledge and spirituality.

8th May 2011

Sri Sankaracharya Jayanti

Sankaracharya Jayanti falls on the 5th day of the bright half of the month of Vaishakh (around Apr-May). This year as per the english calendar in 2011 it falls on 8th of May.

VedantaSandesh Sandesh- -May April2011 2009 Vedanta

Sankara is the foremost among the master-minds and the giant souls which Mother India has produced. An expounder of the Advaita philosophy, Sankara was a giant metaphysician, a practical philosopher, an infallible logician, a dynamic personality and a stupendous moral and spiritual force. His grasping and elucidating powers knew no bounds. He was a fully developed Yogi, Jnani and Bhakta. He was a great Karma Yogi. Bharata Varsha would have ceased to be Bharata Varsha several centuries ago and would never have survived the murderous sword, the devastating fire and the religious intolerance of the successive invaders, if Sankara had not lived the life he lived and taught the lessons he taught.

His teachings can be summed up in three crisp aphorisms: ‘Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya, Jeevo Brahmaiva Naparah’, meaning Brahman alone is real, this world is illusory; and every Jiva is basically that one, infinite blissful divinity alone, and we have no separate identity apart from him.

Brahma Satyam: Brahman is that which is the life principle, pure conscousness. It is the substratum of the entire creation just as water is to waves and bubbles. The word ‘Satya’ is that which exists in all three periods of time. Past, present and the future.

That which transcends time and is thus timeless. That which exists at all times and that which cannot be effaced by time. In that sense Brahman is that Reality which existed before the creation, is there inspite of the creation and will be there even when the creation dissolves. Hence Brahman is not the manifested consciousness reflecting as the ‘I’ in our mind but it is that pure consciousness which is beyond all manifestations. Infact it is that which exists first and then everything follows. When we look at the creation, it is so beautiful, orderly and perfect. Such a creation cannot happen by itself of inert matter, but there has to be an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent power which creates and sustains all living and non-living things. This power alone is the Atman of everything. It is our basic essence which we all must aim to awaken into.

Page # 10

Jagat Mithya: The word Jagat embraces in itself the entire world. Anything that can be objectified and can be known other than the Self comes into the realm of ‘Jagat’.

The objects of the world, our physical and subtle bodies, all our experiences and the concept of time everything comes under this word Jagat. The word Jagat meansJayate Gachhati iti jagat i.e. that which is born and dies in the realm of time is Jagat. The scriptures reveal that the nature of this world or jagat is ‘Mithya’ i.e. it is illusionary in nature. It is comparable to a dream world. We have some experiences but it does not have any real existence. This is Mithya. Mithya is that which is not there in all three periods of time. It was not there in the past, will cease to be in future but as though appears to be there in the present. The aphorism ‘Jagat Mithya’ thus implies that all experiences are transcient and have no real existence. Another important feature of Mithya is that it does not have the capacity to give us that fulfillment which we seek. It is like eating dream food. How much ever we eat we are still hungry on waking up. So too we experience the best of pleasures in this world yet we remain where we are. Empty and seeking. The world surely helps us to make life comfortable and organised but it does not fulfill the seeker within. True contentment lies within the Self. That which is Mithya does not have an independant existence. It is dependant on a living entity, on the life giving principle. How then can it give the Self happiness. This aphorism helps us direct our life towrds knowing the reality of things.

Jivo Brahmaiv Naparah: This sutra reveals that the Jiva who sees himself as a limited, finite being is truly infinite and limitless in nature. It is Brahman. The existence of the Jiva or the individual comes about due to ignorance of the Self and wrongly identifying the Self with the the body and various roles that we play through this body. The body and all the experiences borne of this body are limited in time & space hence we come to see ourselves as limited in the same way too. Our basic serach is for limitlessness, for bliss because that is our very nature but by identifying with the limited body, mind and intellect we are constantly seeking and getting more and more trapped with the sense of limitation and seeking outside. The only path to liberation from this sense of limitation and seeking is knowing the Reality of the Self, the world and its creator. One needs to observe the limited and transcient nature of the world and all the experiences in this world. This alone will help us turn our focus on that which is eternal. The journey of awakening from a limited Jiva to the limitless Brahman is a journey of knowledge, of awakening. It is a state or reality of the self which one does not have to attain through any actions but by knowing that which is already there. I am the limitless, self effulgent and blissful Brahman right now. All one needs to do is to see the ephimeral nature of the objective world and see that which is untouched by change, untouhed by birth or death.

Awakening into this truth one is freed from the bondages of dependancies and constant seeking. The world is a beautiful place but it’s true beauty is lived when a person lives in it knowing its reality and also the reality of the self.

Page # 9

Offering the Best One rainy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the storm, the couple reached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night.

"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked. The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night." When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don't worry about me; I'll make out just fine," the clerk told them. So the couple agreed.

As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I'll build one for you." The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional,as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking the young man to pay them a visit.

The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a palace of reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky. "That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage." "You must be joking," the young man said. "I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

The older man's name was William Waldorf Astor, and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.

Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

Stories from Purana’s n o p e u .. c n .

O e m a ti

Indra & Virochan Once Prajapati, a knower of Brahman, declared: 'The Atman which is free from evil, free from old age, free from death, free from sorrow, free from hunger and thirst, whose nature is truth should be sought. He who has found out and who understands that Atman attains all the worlds and all the desires.'

Both gods and demons heard this proclamation. Indra among the gods and Virochana among the Asuras, then approached Prajapati and said : 'We have heard that the Atman has to be known, the Atman that is not touched by sin, or old age or death or sorrow or thirst or hunger. Please instruct us about this Atman'.

Prajapati asked them to practise austerities and celibacy for thirty-two years, and then instructed them thus: 'The Purusha (the Self) visible in the eyes, reflected in the water or in the mirror is the Atman. Look at yourselves in water and let me know what you see.' When they did this Prajapati asked them, 'What did you see?'

'We saw the whole body', they said. Prajapati asked them to dress well and again look at the image and they said that the images also looked well-dressed. Prajapati said, 'This is the Atman that you seek', and they went away satisfied.

Virochana went back to the Asuras and proclaimed, 'The body is the Atman, serve it well and you will obtain all your desires here and hereafter'.

Now let us follow Indra. As a result of living a right type of austere life, Indra became endowed with intelligence, the power of discernment. On his way back he reflected, 'If the Atman becomes lame if the body is lame, and blind if the body is blind, and is well-dressed if the body is well-dressed, and is destroyed if the body is destroyed—I see no good in this teaching.'

So he went back to Prajapati who asked him to live a life of celibacy for another thirty-two years. Then he said: 'He who moves about as the Lord in the state of dream, is the Self, the Atman.' Indra, again reflected on the way back: 'Though this dream Purusha is not affected by any damage to the body, yet at times he is being chased or hurt or that Purusha feels pain or weeps. This certainly cannot be the Self.'

Again he went back to Prajapati. After thirty-two years more of celibacy, Indra was told, 'The Self in the state of deep sleep is the Atman, immortal, fearless, he is Brahman'. Indra again expressed doubt: 'The Self is not affected by dream, or damage to or destruction of the body, but it seems not to know itself, and is, as it were, dead in this state of deep sleep (sushupti). I do not see any real good in this.'

He again went to Prajapati and was told to practise celibacy for five more years. At last Prajapati found Indra fit to receive the true teaching and instructed him: 'O Indra, mortal indeed is this body, held by death. But it is the support of this deathless, bodiless Atman that enlivens everything. This Atman is of the nature of truth life and bliss. Know this Atman. He obtains all the worlds all the desired objects, who having known that Atman revels in it.'

Vedanta Sandesh - April 2009

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Apr’11 VM / VA Programs Gita Gyana Yagna at Sevalia:

Vedanta Mission / Ashram Programs

A Gita Gyana Yagna by Poojya Swamini Amitanandaji was organized at Sevalia, a small township near Godhra in Gujrat. The subject matters of this Gujrati language Gyana Yagna were Gita Chapter 17, and Bhaja Govindam.

The Yagna shala was lovingly made in one of the open areas by erecting pandal etc. It was the first time such a Gita Gyana Yagna was organized and the inspiration and initiative was by Kaileshbhai of Ahmedabad, who basically belongs to this town. The response to this first ever Gyana Yagna was good. A good crowd regular attended and appreciated the initiative to bring the message of Bhagwad Gita. Normally they just heard Ramayan & Bhagwad. P. Swaminiji’s room was near the fields & forest, with chirping birds, peacocks and greenery.

Special Session for Hastamalaka Stotram, Sevalia: Apart from the two regular discourses at Sevalia, P.Swaminiji used the time there to conduct two more sessions for advanced devotees and conducted special discourses on Hastamalaka Stotram. Even though this session was meant for select few, many more joined to take a dip in the Gyana Ganga.

Hasstamalaka Stotram is a profound text revealing the vision of Vedanta, and is attibuted to Hastamalakacharya, one of the well-known disciples of Sri Adi Sankara. This stotram pertains to the first introduction of himself to his great Acharya by Hastamalakacharya, and in & through the introduction beautiful pointers are given about one’s Atma. A great stotra to chant & revel. On the last day a session of conducted meditation was also conducted, so as to directly appreciate what had been studied so far.

P.Swaminiji visits an old Temple near Sevalia: On one of days Poojya Swaminiji along with a group of devotees went for an outing to get darshan of Valteshwar Mahadev. This is a very old temple, whose shikhar had been dececrated and broken by Moghul invaders. Till date the temple stands without its shikhar, waiting for some resurrection & renovation. Regular puja is conducted, and the structure continues to bring resolutions in the mind of devotees to do something substantial to protect their dharma and its institutions.

Before the darshan everyone took a dip in the Mahisagar river nearby.

The river originates from a place near Sevalia, and takes a big form even after 10-15 Kms, where this spot was. Obviously it must be sourced by some good underground watersprings, and thus it is a perenial river flowing in the same way throughout the year. The dip was refrshing in the clean waters of the river.

Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

Apr’11 VM / VA Programs

Vedanta Mission / Ashram Programs

Ram Navami Celebration, Indore: This year Ram Navami was on the 12th of April. On that day a beautiful altar was made in the Shiv Tample and all the ashramites alongwith Gita class students and various neighbours got together to celebrate the ‘birth’ of their beloved & reverential Bhagwan Ram. Apart from bhajans, everyone chanted the Vishnu Sahasranama, the thousand names of Lord Vishnu, whose avatar Bhagwan Ram is. Bhagwan Vishnu protects and sustains this beautiful creation by presenting and protecting the order of Dharma. Dharma is that which sustains the world and also the individual. Dharanat Dharmah. When everyone appreciates their swadharma and lives as per it in the attitude of being an instrument of Lord, then one gets tuned with the cosmos, and is blessed in every way. Dot at 12 everyone chanted the appropriate sections from Ramayana celebrating the manifestation of Bhagwan. Later there was Maha-Aarti & prasad.

Satsang at Bharuch: On her way back from Sevalia, Poojya Swamini Amitanandaji visited some acquaintances at Bharuch, an well-known industrial township on the banks of Narmada River. This is the place where Narmadaji meets and merges in the Arabian Sea, and thus the place has a great religious significance too. The place thus has many ashram’s too.

On 30th April evening a Satsang was organized in a temple hall in one of the residential societies. The temple stands like a gem in the middle of multi-storeyed buildings and thus there was good attendance in the satsang too. As in Sevalia, here also the devotees heard a Gita discourse for the first time. Swaminiji talked on the famous shloka of Gita, ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste...’ It was very nicely recieved and appreciated. Later everyone chanted Hanuman Chalisa.

Sanyas Deeksha Day of Sw. Samatanandaji: On 30th April was the Sanyas Deeksha day of Poojya Swamini Samatanandaji. This year was its seventh anniversary.

Sanyas is all about dropping all compulsions for doing any kind of ‘karma’ whatsoever. While karma is a very powerful & potent means available in the hands of human beings, and that is where every devotees and sadhaka starts his or her spiritual journey, but the very scriptures which reveal to us the potential of karma, also reveal to us the limitations of karma.

Karma can change, create or purify, and all this is good for our worldly goals, but insistence on change denies us the knoledge of ‘what is’, and such a person is always bothered about what should be. This is the very anti-thesis of knowledge of ‘what is’, and thus scriptures rightly advise all the students of truth of be a sanyasi first.

Check out the detailed Photo Albums of the various functions on VM News Blog at : http://vmissionews.blogspot.com/ Page # 13

Quotes

“If you see a friend without a smile; give him one of yours.”

“Smile, it is the key that fits the lock of everybody's heart.”

“A smile happens in a flash, but its memory can last a lifetime.”

“There are hundreds of languages in the world, but a smile speaks them all.”

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity “The robb'd that smiles, steals something from the thief” “A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.”

You haven't lost your smile at all, it's right under your nose. You just forgot it was there.”

“If someone is too tired to give you a smile, leave one of your own, because no one needs a smile as much as those who have none to give”

Vedanta Sandesh - May 2011

Forthcoming Programs

Gita Gyana Yagna, Dehradun: A Gita Gyana Yagna will be organized at the residence of Dr Bhatia in Dehradun from 6th-10th May for five days. The subject matters of the discourse series will be Gita Chapter 2, and Kathopanishad 1-2.

Gita Gyana Yagna, Mumbai: A Gita Gyana Yagna will be organized at BHA Hall Mumbai from 7th to 12th May. The subject matters of the discourse series will be Gita Chapter 4, and 3rd valli of the first chapter of Kathopanishad.

Sadhana Camp, Rishikesh: A Sadhana Camp will be organized at Arsha Vidya Peetha, Rishikesh from 7th to 11th June 2011 by Poojya Guruji. The subject matters of the discourse series will be Isavasya Upanishad and Chapter 4 of Bhagwad Gita.

Guru Poornima, Indore: Guru Poornima will be celebrated at Vedanta Ashram on the 15th of July. As earlier, first there will be a pujan of Bhagwan Sri Sankaracharya and Poojya Gurudev by Poojya Guruji. There after a Pada Pooja of Poojya Guruji will be done. Later there will be a Bhandara.

Gita Gyana Yagna, Wellingborough: A Gita Gyana Yagna will be organized at the Hindu Temple at Wellingborough from 23rd July by Poojya Swamini Samatanandaji. The subject matters of the discourse series will be Gita Chapter 2 and Atma Bodha.

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Hari om !

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Om Tat Sat