• Sign up for newsletter
• Newsletter archives

Upcoming Events

Day-Long Meditation – Sat. April 07, 12:00Noon – 8:ooPM
The monthly day-long meditation will begin at 12 noon Sharp, when entry will be secured. This begins immediately after the 11am – 12noon guided meditation & music hour. Vegetarian luncheon and snacks provided. All are invited to participate for short, longer, or full  time-frame.

Swami at Concordia Center for Spiritual Living.  – Sun. April 08
Swam Yogatmananda will deliver a talk on ‘Spiritual Osmosis’ during the 9:15-10:30am Service at Concordia Center for Spiritual Living on Sun. April 08. This will be followed by a workshop on: ‘Parables of Sri Ramakrishna’ from 11:00 am. Please contact CONCORDIA at 401-732-1552 for more information.

Chinmaya Swaranjali Music – Sun. April 08, 6:15 – 7:30PM
Chinmaya Swaranjali will sing devotional music in the Lower Level (LL) on Sun. April 08, (immediately after the Sun Lecture and Aarati), from 6:15 – 7:30PM. All are welcome. NO entry fee.
Click here to view poster.

Day-Long Retreat – Sat. April 28,  9:30AM –6:30PM
Topic: Vedantic Meditation ( 2 discourses)
Speaker: Swami Sarvapriyananda (Vedanta Society New York)
Fee: $30.00 per person; $20.00 if paid BY APRIL 18
Registration available in the Bookstore before/after classes, OR send us check by Mail.
Click here for more information and online registration.

NOTE: REGISTRATION WILL STOP WHEN THE SEATING CAPACITY GETS FULL; SO HURRY UP

Hatha Yoga Class – Fri. April 06 from 5:30—6:30pm with Roshni

Weekly Schedule (in addition to Daily Schedule given below)

Past Events

Just Kids Sun, April 01: 4:00-6:00pm
Five children participated. Activities: Yoga (25 minutes), reading (25 minutes) and cooking.
Continued reading “The Story of Hari” which follows the life of a lion cub born and raised within with a flock of sheep. Sam Abram taught the group to make Baklava.
The group adjourned at 6:15 after sharing soup supper.
Click here to see the pictures.

Synopses of Past Classes
(All classes given by Swami Yogatmananda, unless otherwise stated)

Study class – Jnana Yoga (a book by Swami Vivekananda)  – Fri. March 30
Class #90:  Atman – Its Bondage and Freedom (Ch 15)
Although we are in reality the all-pervading, unchanging Self, we feel that we are bound as a result of our erroneous identification with the body and mind. So identified, we experience the bondage of causation; we perform actions and then reap their effects. As souls we come from Brahman and then to Brahman we return. On our journey, the soul travels through various bodies, sometimes moving higher and other times moving lower. We want to be free from all bondages, including the bondage of space and time. This desire arises owing to the fact that our true Self pervades existence, transcends cause and effect, and lies beyond time and space. Human beings surely possess the capability, if we exercise it, to become free of all bondages and attain to our supreme, ever-perfect nature, which is Brahman. The uniquely human capacity to reflect enables us to overcome the pulls of likes and dislikes and to pose this question: “Who Am I?”. Bondage in life is perpetuated as a consequence of our desires and our proclivity to run after those desires. Eventually we come to the stage where we see that it was all a hallucination. At that point, we turn back and see the truth, and become free.

 Sunday Talk – Breaking the Bondage of the Flesh – Apr 01 (Easter Service)
We are more than attached to the body – we identify with it. We have to crucify the flesh to resurrect the spirit. Meister Eckhart said that in things temporal, the Holy Ghost cannot be received or given. Swami Satprakashananda’s book Hinduism and Christianity quotes from Saint Paul that we are sown in corruption, and raised in incorruption. We feel constrained in a tiny space of body. We are in bondage because we are not able to get out of the body. Jesus’s message was that to be happy, we must overcome being caught in the body. The funeral pyre is the destination of the body, so if we are carnal-minded, we are already dead. Jesus said: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. Matter is bound by the laws of causation, so it is never free. When we think of ourselves as the spirit, we are ever free. Swami Akhilananda wrote The Hindu View of Christ. He said that whether we pamper the body or torture it, we still identify with it. We need to overcome the body by mental force. When we are free from the body, nothing is lacking. Jesus gave the way to happiness when he said: But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

​Study Class – Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play – Tue. April 03
Page #412: The true indication of someone established in the spiritual realm is when that person intensely feels that there is the unchanging core to their being. As we start getting a sense of our Identity, the focus of life, as it were, shifts and then does one truly live in spirit. It requires immense effort and disciplined spiritual practice, such as to lead a strict moral life, to separate the identity of one’s Self from the body/mind complex. The desires that arise in spiritual life don’t arise to cater to one’s own body/mind, instead gives rise to ones such as to serve others, be in holy company, etc.. This keeps the person working in the world, in the domain of “I and mine”. But, this “I”, as Sri Ramakrishna puts it, is the ripe ego, where it is constantly connected to God. This ego is like a burnt rope, with the ridges and curves all still in place, but doesn’t really possess the power to bind.
The people who, through their spiritual practices, attain liberation and then continue to live in divine mood are called “Jivanmuktas” (liberated-in-life); there are some beings who, although born in this human body, were never entangled in the Maya are called “Ishwarakotis” (God-like soul); finally, there are these aspirants, who after reaching the realized state of non-duality give up their body, known as “Jivakotis” (ordinary liberated souls). Most liberated souls belong to the last category because firstly, the brain is programmed to run after sense objects, and spiritual realization is a reverse program which it cannot handle; secondly, the nervous system is only constructed to handle current impulses caused by small desires. “I am Divine” is an overload on the system, as it were, and therefore most people’s body cannot hold on for more than 21 days after Realization, as Sri Ramakrishna had stated.