Announcements:

• DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME:  Turn clock-times BACK one (1) hour late Sat night Nov 03
• The Tuesday & Friday online live-streaming of classes will now be from our YouTube channel (instead of Twitter). Please follow the link:
  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFof5116HcBYIpUFvKet1Uw
• Volunteer Work: Cleaning, Maintenance, webcasting of lectures, etc.
• Vedanta Library and Bookstore: Open 30 minutes before every class/program.

Upcoming Events

Day- long meditation – Sat. Nov. 03 
This is a monthly program. Participants must be IN the building before noon, as entry gets secured.  Complete silence required. Vegetarian foods/ refreshments/snacks provided. Can mediate as short or long a time frame as possible; however, if one leaves the building cannot re-enter until 6:30pm.

Vedanta CT Monthly Gathering – Sun. Nov. 04, 10:00am– 12:00pm 
Swami Yogatmananda will continue the monthly  discourse on: ’Musings on Bhagavad Gita: Creator & Creation’ at Vedanta Society of CT, located at  100 Cherry Brook Rd Canton CT. Program also includes short worship; devotional singing and prasad. All are welcome.

Just Kids! Time – Sun. Nov. 04,  4pm – 6pm
All children ages 5 through 12 welcome to participate.

Mother Kali-A musical worship  – Sun Nov 04, 5 – 6pm
Swapna and Rahul Ray will present: ‘Mother Kali-A musical worship’. They will be accompanied by Abhijit Adak on tabla. Swami Yogatmananda will provide commentary on the songs they perform. Aarati will be sung afterwards, as per schedule.

Daylong Retreat – Sat. Dec. 08, 9:30am – 5:00pm
– by Swami Yogatmananda
Topic: ‘Kingdom of God is Within You’
Fee: $30.00; Discounted fee $20 if paid  by Nov 30 (Fees are non-refundable)
Prior Registration Required; Can be done online or in person at the Society’s office, or by mail.  For detailed information and online registration:
https://vedantaprov.org/schedule/

Hatha Yoga Classes – Every Tuesday, beginning Oct 02, 5:30-6:30 PM
Fee: $40 — PREPAID For 2 Month Course, $10/Per Class
Contact Vedanta Society by phone or email or contact Roshni Darnal at 401-226-5421

Weekly Schedule (in addition to Daily Schedule given below)

Past Events

Swami traveled to North Carolina: Oct 27-29
Swami delivered lectures at the Hindu Temple in Greenville NC on Sat and again on Sun.  Swami spoke at the Vedanta Society of NC on Sun evening and again on Monday. He returned to Providence Tue afternoon.

Swami then went to U/Mass Dartmouth to participate in an interfaith gathering/memorial of the Pittsburgh PA shooting victims. He then returned to Prov to deliver the 7:30pm class.

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

Friday Study Class: Svetasvatara Upanisad – Oct. 26
Class 6: Verses Ch.1-5, 6 – To understand what reality is, we must achieve transcendence and see the truth. If we are unable to grasp the true nature of reality, we get drowned in the river of samsara. The Svetasvatara Upanisad states:
“We think of him (in His manifestation as the universe) who is like a river that contains the waters of five streams; that has five big turnings due to five causes; that has the five Pranas for the waves, the mind—the basis of five-fold perception—for the source, and the five-fold misery for its rapids; and that has five whirlpools, five branches and innumerable aspects.”
Vedanta is a critique of our experience, which offers a final analysis regarding the nature of reality as we experience it. How do we know that this world exists? Because we experience it. The five elements referred to in the above quotation, are technical terms that symbolically represent the experience through  five senses: space, air, fire, earth, and water correspond to touch, taste, sight, smell, and sight. Our senses limit our experience of reality. We experience nothing more in the world, and thus there are the five ways in which we get pulled around in the world. The rapids in the analogy above are the desires for those five things in life as revealed by the senses. Seeing the world as separate and thereby different from God one drowns. In such a situation, what is one to do? Try to feel the sameness, i.e. the same Self within all.
“In this infinite wheel of Brahman, in which everything lives and rests, the pilgrim soul is whirled about. Knowing the individual soul, hitherto regarded as separate, to be itself the Moving Force, and blessed by Him, it attains immortality.”
Gradually, through the practice of meditation, we will transcend the names and forms and attain to immortality and bliss. We must understand that whatever we love is in God; therefore, we must connect to God through love and devotion. In doing so, the difference between “I” and God will evaporate and we will achieve the highest goal in life.

Sunday Talk – Beware of the Mine-o-saur – by Gnana Prasoona Krishnamurthy – Oct. 28
‘Beware of the Mine-o-saur‘ is a children’s picture book written by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, about a dinosaur who grabs from the other dinosaurs, and loses all his friends until he learns to share. Like the Mine-o-saur, we may think that everything revolves around us. Children keep repeatedly asking for things, but this does not bring them joy. We are never happy with what we get, and we want more. The speaker once went white water rafting, and found that she needed to listen exactly to the instructions of the guide, just like we need to listen to our Guru, who takes charge of our life when we get into spiritual life. Yet we often think that we know it all. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna tells us how the ego plays games, and how we can overcome it. It guides us to shift our focus from ‘I’ as the center, to the Lord. Sri Ramakrishna says that we can indulge in thousands of reasonings, but the ego comes back. So we should follow the path of devotion, and let the ‘I’ be the servant of God. It is not easy to become a full-fledged devotee. We may need to fake it till we make it. We can pray to the Lord: May You save me from the ego. We are blessed to have Holy Mother in our lives, as her life is one of selfless love and constant giving.

Tuesday Study Class: Sri Ramakrishna & His Divine Play – Oct. 30
Bhav, Samadhi and Darshan- Page # 431-432
God realization is destruction of the separate ego or the limited identity (identified with body and mind). Hence it is difficult to fathom this concept with intellectual understanding. It does not come by reading scriptures or having powerful intellect. God realization is a result of intense yearning and  consequent Grace. A person who desires intensely, his/her “I” is eliminated and the consciousness is illuminated with the One awareness. When a reflection in the mirror tries to know the object which is reflected, the reflection has to merge with the object.
Pt. Shashadhar who was well versed in scriptures and respected by the Master, suggested Him to use his yogic power to get rid of the disease. Master reprimanded him for making such a worthless suggestion. According to Him, the mind which is devoted to God cannot be removed from there to apply to anything of lower nature such as the physical body. He clearly thought that everything is the Mother’s will. But Narendranatha (Swami Vivekananda) persistently asked him to ask Divine Mother to cure him. After repeated requests the Master agreed. But He was shown that the experiencer is the same in different bodies. The indweller in all different bodies is the One and the same. This also can be understood using the faculty of reasoning. As the different characters of the movie are not separate from the screen similarly, the same Self is in all these different bodies manifesting differently.