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Upcoming Events

Swami at RI Hindu Temple – Sat Sept. 23, 5pm – 7pm
Swami will speak on: ‘ Rama-Charita-Manas’ from  5pm – 7pm at the RI Hindu Temple located at 40 Gardiner St Warwick RI.

Durga Puja/Worship – Sat. Sept. 30, 11:00am –7:00pm
Durga Puja will be observed on Sat. Sept 30 (NOT SUN). The day includes ritual worship & food offering by swami; flower offering by devotees; devotional singing/music; a video-showing; readings and more.

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.

Vedanta Blog and Facebook:
Please consider posting your comments, thoughts, poetry on our BLOG and Facebook page.

Weekly Schedule (in addition to Daily S given below)

Past Events

Swami  at Bristol Community College – Wed. Sept 13
Over seventy (70+) attended the 2-hour  talk that swami delivered on Hinduism and Vedanta at Bristol Community College in Fall River MA.

Day-long meditation – Sat. Sept. 16, 12:00 pm  – 8:00 pm
About eleven devotees attended.

Just Kids! – Sun. Sept. 17, 4:00 – 6:00 pm
Six children participated in the Just Kids! Monthly 2-hour program which  met  from 4pm – 6pm in the children’s room and dining room under guidance of Dorothy and Chet . Activities included  reading and discussion on contacting God and using the gifts we receive to help others. Origami flowers. Brainstorming for 2017-2018 activities. Snacks.

Music Concert – Sun. Sept. 17, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
About thirty-five music enthusiasts attended the one-and-half (1 ½) hour Santoor and Tabla Music concert from 6:30pm – 8:00PM performed by Vinay Desai and Amit Kavathekar in the Lower Level (LL).
Click here to see photos.

Monthly Satsang – Vedanta Society, Connecticut  – Sun. Sept. 17,  10:00am – 12noon
Thirty-five-plus (35+) devotees attended the monthly program at Vedanta Society of CT, where Swami spoke on: ‘Bhagavad Gita Musings: Divine Incarnations’. The program included a short worship, music, and refreshments.

Salutations!
On Thurs. Sept 14, the birth anniversary of Swami Abhedananda, and on  Wed. Sept 20, the birth anniversary of Swami Akhandananda, direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, was  observed in the morning with a chant and in the evening with a song, and a short biography reading.

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

Study Class on –  Jnana Yoga – Fri. Sept. 14 
Beginning  Ch 11  Class #68:
This class marked the first fall session of the Jnana Yoga class which has been going on for the past two years. Today’s class provided an overview of the first ten chapters of Swami Vivekananda’s Jnana Yoga. Jnana Yoga is the process by which we learn to discern what is truly permanent and what is truly impermanent. Names and forms are constantly changing. That which is not associated with name and form does not change. In any experience, these two factors are amalgamated, and therefore we need to learn to ‘pierce through the veil’ to see the unchanging which transcends the changing names and forms. Jnana yoga is also the process by which we learn to discern what is the subject and what is the object, When we analyze the question, “What is the I?” we see that the I is not the body. As we realize more and more that we are “not this, not this” we increasingly see that we are Consciousness Itself, the Infinite, the all-pervading. If that is our true nature, why are we suffering, bound, and imperfect? The sages say they do not know; it is Maya= just a statement of fact. There is no ‘why’ possible in One. Maya is the life that is caught in contradictions. We know the objects in the world won’t bring happiness; still we rush towards them. The emergence of the individuated I, the individual conception of the self, is another effect of Maya. With our different conceptions of ‘who we are as individuals’, come different conceptions of bondage, and corresponding conceptions of freedom and God. As we evolve as individuals, our conception of God also evolves. When we reach THE God, there is no further evolution or difference; we have realized God, we have realized oneness and are free.

Sunday Service Talk – ‘Truth & Fake News’ – Sept. 17
There are two aspects of truth: the relative, which depends on where we are, and the Absolute, which does not change. Fake news, in the relative world, is given with the intention of misleading. Rene Descartes said that our senses often deceive us. We cannot trust a person who has once misled us. Spreading a rumor, although with no intent to deceive, can become fake news. Fake news takes advantage of our gullible human nature. In business, people give the wrong impression, to make a profit. The source of fake news is our inner desire to get something without paying for it. Magicians and thieves use the fact that we get cheated by our senses. The spiritual aspirant may ask: Will what is coming from the senses survive the test of truth? We are all seeking the truth. Nothing is superior to the truth. A Swami once told someone: I believe you because you have a spark of the Divine in you, but I don’t believe you because you are in Maya (ignorance). We consider the body, mind, and sense organs to be ‘I’, so we accept what they tell us. But the sense organs only see the outer, or the superficial. To see Reality, we need to transcend the senses, and realize the Self through intuition. Sri Ramakrishna had a full perception of the Truth, and was not fooled by appearances. We can think of what we see as what we see, plus God. What we see is changing, while God does not change. If we mislead someone for a good cause, it is not deception, only if it is done with an unselfish intention.

Study Class on – ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – Tues. Sept 12
Pg# 1000-1001 – May 9, 1887:
M was sitting alone under a tree in the garden and said to himself that Sri Ramakrishna has made all his disciples renounce lust and greed and they are all eager to realize God. Lust and greed represent all our desires. We must give up lust and greed to achieve our ultimate goal. We all seek the highest level of happiness, freedom and immortality. These are our ultimate goals. We seek other things by mistake. We think that they will give us happiness. When we realize these things are evanescent and our pursuit of these things only frustrates us, then our direction changes. This is dispassion, leading to renunciation. When someone else sees this person practice renunciation, that person too gets inspired. This is the impact of holy company.

Narendra sings a hymn that begs forgiveness from Siva for the devotee’s transgressions. When a devotee sees the gap between right behavior and actual behavior, then the devotee sincerely feels that this should not happen again. Then the devotee makes sincere effort to change the actual behavior. In this hymn, forgiveness means asking God to help the devotee  to not repeat the inappropriate actions.

Narendra further sings other hymns that allude to the evanescent nature of worldly things. When one becomes pure through renunciation, the body feels like an impure burden that one has to carry. Such a person loses all attraction for the body and does not find any pleasure in contact with another body. Narendra says one cannot attain to liberation without renouncing the world. By renunciation, Narendra does not mean that one must become formally a monk; the householders too must renounce lust and greed to attain God. Sri Ramakrishna used to say that they should do their duties but keep their mind on God. Householders should work with one hand and hold on to the feet of Lord with the other hand. When the work is over, they may hold on to the feet of the Lord with both the hands. When they renounce properly, the work does get over in one’s lifetime. The work of worldly people never gets over.