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Upcoming Events

Swami travels to Livingston NJ – Sat. May 12
Immediately after the Sat. 11am – 12noon guided meditation & music hour, Swami and some devotees will travel to Livingston NJ, where Swami Yogatmananda will conduct a discourse/hold satsang at a devotee’s residence. They will return very late Sat evening.

Connecticut Vedanta – Sun. May 13, 10:00am – 12:30pm
Swami will meet with devotees at Vedanta Society of CT, 100 Cherry Brook Rd Canton CT to discuss: ‘Process of Meditation’. There will also be singing and luncheon. All are welcome.

Saxophone-Tabla Indian Melodies – Sun. May 13, 6:15 – 7:45PM
Phil Scarff will perform Indian melodies on saxophone, with Nitin Mitta (not Amit Kavthekar) accompanying on tabla, following the 5-6pm Sunday Service lecture & Aarati. All are welcome.
“Phil Scarff… proving his masterful control of Indian classical music… beautifully played on saxophone, with the audience absolutely spellbound in rapt attention.” – Loksatta, Chandrapur, India
“Scarff… sounds as if he had been living in the North Indian tradition for centuries, absolutely naturally transmitting the subtlety of the music.” – Jazz Quad
Tabla virtuoso Nitin Mitta is a highly sought after, engaging, dynamic artist. He has performed with Indian classical icons, including Jasraj, Amjad Ali Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Shahid Parvez, and Nishat Khan. As a fusion artist, he performs and records with Vijay Iyer, R. Prasanna, and two-time Juno award winner, vocalist Kiran Ahluwalia.

Day-long Retreat – Sat. June 16,  9:30AM –6:30PM
Topic: Yoga Psychology – Managing the Mind (2 discourses) 
Speaker: Pravrajika Bharmaprma, Resident Vedanta nun from Vedanta Society Dallas Texas
Fee: $30.00 per person; $20.00 if paid by June 05
Registration available in the Bookstore before/after classes, OR send us check by Mail. Online registration will be available soon.

Hatha Yoga Class – Fri. May 11 from 5:30—6:30pm with Roshni

Weekly Schedule (in addition to Daily Schedule given below)

Past Events

Day-Long Meditation – Sat. May 05, 12:00 noon – 8:00pm
About ten people participated.

Just Kids! Program – Sun. May 06, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Five  children attended. Activities included baking brownies, making Mother’s Day cards, and reading from Sister Gargi’s book: Vedantic Tales. The group adjourned at 6PM after sharing soup supper.
IMPORTANT: The Just Kids meeting for June 2018 will be delayed until either June 10^th, or June 17^thor cancelled. Please refer to the Vedanta Web site or the Vedanta Newsletter for the final decision and date.

Swami attended the introductory session of the Conference of the Chaplains of Ivy Universities hosted this year by Brown University on Mon May 07 at 5:00 pm.

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

Study class – Jnana Yoga (a book by Swami Vivekananda)  – Fri. May 04
Class #95:   The Real and the Apparent Man (Ch 16)
Dualist Vedantists believe that souls have certain qualities by which the soul accrues pleasure, pain, and all the results from the actions we perform.  According to the non-dualists, the mind and body have qualities that are reflected on the soul, but the soul itself does not have any qualities.  Some Buddhists argue that there is no need to assume the existence of the soul at all.  This Buddhhist argument appeals to our logic that there is nothing in this world that does not undergo some kind of change. Even science: as data changes, so, too, do scientific truths. If everything is in flux, there’s no need to assume the permanent background (a soul). They argue that we are just assuming permanence to make ourselves feel good. Dualists counter this argument, claiming we can only cognize something changing in relationship to something that is unchanging. Cognition is not possible without something steady and unchanging.  The dualists claim that mind, body and soul are separate from each other.  Non-dualists claim that they are different, but not separate. It is like the plant’s roots, stem, and leaves.  They are different, but they cannot grow separately from one another. The non-dualists say this whole universe is one without a second. There is but one comprehensive existence, which appears changing and manifold due to the constructs of name and form.  The Self, or Soul, (Brahman) is all that exists in the universe. It exists beyond time, space and causation, and pervades them all.

Sunday Talk – The Art of Doing ‘Nothing’ – May 06
Ordinarily, the body and mind are running after what is felt as pleasurable. ‘I’ gets falsely identified with body-mind and thus we become exhausted with all this running. In Taoist thought there is this practice ‘wu wei’ – doing nothing. Is it like sitting idle? Far from it. ‘I’ actually do not do any work, it is the body-mind that do work. The skill lies in dis-identifying ‘I’ from body-mind.
We may understand this, but experiencing it requires training, because we are accustomed to our beliefs. If I see that I am not the body or mind, then ‘I’ am not working. Then, all work is done to perfection, because there is no interference. There was a very serene Swami who did accounts in ink without making a mistake, while managing many other things. In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, acting as our representative, was concerned about work, attaining justice, and getting defeated. He was worried about engaging in conflicts. He wanted to give up all work. Lord Krishna told him that he had to work, as there are no short cuts. When we see that the same Self is in all bodies, this is the only way to get happiness and peace in life, and work gets accomplished without any problem.

​Study Class – Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play – Tue. May 08
Page 416-19 : The opening prayer is a verse from Srimat Bhagavatam. I this text, ‘The All-pervading God’ (=Vishnu) is meditated upon as the supreme Truth that forms the substratum of all the fleeting appearances.

While the Master surrendered everything – ‘knowledge and ignorance’, ‘righteousness and un-righteousness’, ‘good and evil’ and all such dual throng, he could not give up the truth. The most important back-bone of the spiritual life is holding on to the truth, which is same as God. What it means is being honest and straight-forward. He had mentioned that God cannot be realized if there is deviousness. Speaking the truth means ‘using the speech to convey one’s feelings exactly as they are to another person’ (Sankaracharya).

The steadfast practice of truthfulness has brought Master to such state that whatever escapes his lips has to become truth. The Divine Mother won’t allow an untruth escape his lips. Having completely surrendered to Divine Mother, she is holding him by hand.