Upcoming Events

Swami Traveling to India
Swami Yogatmananda  is on a 5-week trip to India from  Oct 10 – Nov. 13.  Click here for his travel details.

Guest Lectures this Week:
Friday, Oct. 27, 7:30pm –  Srikanth Srigiriraju’s talk – ‘My Pilgrimages: Outer & Inner – Part II’. He will speak on his travels through West Bengal
Sunday, Oct. 29, 5pm –  Chester Boncek will speak on: ‘Vedantic Integration of Personality’
Tuesday, Oct. 31, 7:30pm – Sukalyan Sengupta will speak on: ‘Aghormani Devi- A Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna’
All are welcome to these lectures.

Hath Yoga Classes with Roshni Darnal– Tuesdays, 5:30 – 6:30pm
Appropriate for all levels.
$10.00 per Class; $40.00 for a two-month session
Click here to see the flyer.

Weekly Schedule (in addition to Daily Schedule given below)

Friday, Oct. 27 7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Srikanth Srigiriraju will speak on: ‘My Pilgrimages: Outer & Inner’
Saturday, Oct. 28 8:30 – 10:30 AM: Karma Yoga/Cleaning
11:00 AM – 12 noon: Guided meditation and chanting/singing
7:00 – 8:30 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & Meditation
Sunday, Oct. 29 5:00 – 6:00 PM:  Chester Boncek will speak on: ‘Vedantic Integration of Personality’
6:00 – 6:15 PM: Aarati
6:15 – 7:30 PM: Soup Supper
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Meditation
Tuesday, Oct. 31 7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Sukalyan Sengupta will speak on: ‘Aghormani Devi- A Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna’

Daily Schedule

Morning 5:45 – 6:45 AM: Meditation
6:45 – 7:00 AM: Chanting followed by a short reading from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
7:00 – 7:25 AM: A short ritual worship/Puja. Open to all.
Evening 7:00 – 7:15 PM: Aarti (devotional music), with a short reading from ‘THE STORY OF AN EPOCH: Swami Virajananda and his Times’, by Swami Shraddhananda
7:15 – 8:00 PM: Meditation. Open to all.

Synopses of Past Classes

Fri. Oct. 20 – No Class on account of Diwali

Songs on Divine Mother – A Musical Offering on the Occasion of Kali Puja – Sun. Oct. 22
Swapna Ray: Harmonium and Vocals
Rahul Ray: Vocals
Shiva Ramakrishnan: Flute
Sagar De: Tabla
Abhijit Sarcar: Introduction and Commentary
Mother Kali was Sri Ramakrishna’s chosen deity and he asked her to please reveal herself to him. He was a lover of spiritual songs. He got a vision of Mother Kali, whereupon waves of light engulfed him. He expressed in his life what the mystics had achieved.
Ramprasad Sen, the author of two of the songs, was so devoted to God that he had trouble holding down a job. His employer was so moved by the religious poetry that he wrote on the job, that he offered to pay him to stay home and write poetry.
Songs performed were:
1) I’ll take my Mother’s name no more
2) Hail to my blissful Mother!
3) I give up everything, O Mother by Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (1769-1821)
4) I see You play tricks by Ramdulal Nandi (1785-1851)
5) I don’t want to be wealthy, my dear Ma! by Ramprasad Sen (1723-1803)
6) Is my ‘Shyama Ma’ dark? by Kamalakanta Bhattacharya (1769-1821)
7) My mind doesn’t know the trade of tilling soil by Ramprasad Sen (1723-1803)
8) My body is like the stick of incense by Nazrul Islam (1899-1976)

Click here to see photos.

Guest Lecture –  ‘Mahendranath Gupta ‘M’: Recorder of Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’ by Prithwish Basu Tues. Oct. 24
M was born with very good past impressions. This has been mentioned by Master himself many a times. M was a very intelligent and disciplined student. He was also gifted with a poetic temperament. His past impressions and good deeds of his current life ordained him with an important task of recording and spreading the Master’s message.
Unfortunately, he had to discontinue his education on account of the family responsibilities. He went through a very challenging period due to his beloved mother’s death and some other family matters. When he was full of disgust Master took him under His shelter, soothed him and asked him to return back to his father’s house.
After that M’s life was completely devoted to the Master. He maintained cryptic notes about all his visits to the Master in diaries. Later on he meditated on these notes for hours together and even multiple times to write an actual account. But those were originally meant for his personal use. In October 1888 Holy Mother inspired M to publish his accounts. That is how his notes taken in 10 diaries were published as five volumes of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The last entry in his diary is from April 23, 1886. Master passed away in August 1886. But M could not write about those days as those were the most painful days of Master’s life. M could not even bear to think about those days.
After Master left the body, M spent all his life in serving the monks and the devotees of the Master. He devoted his life for writing the Gospel. He also opened an education institute named Mortan Institute for man making and character building education. He used to impart spiritual guidance to many aspirants. His life was a perfect example of a householder Jnani. He led an ascetic life. This can be seen from his unperturbed behavior at the time of the joyful occasion of his daughter’s wedding or even at the time of his another daughter’s death. He was not moved from his spiritual practices in any of the trying circumstances.
Towards the end of his life he developed excruciating neurological pain in his hand. Still he was proof reading the last volume of the Gospel. He left this mortal body and merged with the Master on the morning of June 4, 1932.