Upcoming Events

Durga Puja/Worship – Sat. Sept. 30, 11:00am –7:00pm
11:00 am: worship-ritual, 12:30 flower-offering & Prasad-lunch, 3:00-5:00 Video, 5:00-6:00 Special Durga dance, 6:00 – 7:00 Singing and 7:00 Supper-prasad
All are welcome. No Fee.

Durga Puja at Vedanta Society of CT – Sun. Oct. 01, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Venue: 100 Cherry Brook Rd, Canton, CT.
Worship, Reflections, Music, Refreshments. All are welcome. No fee.

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 Schedule given below)

Friday, Sept. 29  7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Jnana Yoga study class by Swami Yogatmananda
Saturday, Sept. 30 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM: Durga Puja/Worship; See more information above.
Sunday, Oct. 01 5:00 – 6:00 PM: Lecture: ‘Sri Ramakrishna and Divine Mother’ by Swami Yogatmananda
6:00 – 6:15 PM: Aarati
6:15 – 7:30 PM: Soup Supper
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Meditation
Tuesday, Oct. 03 7:00 PM: Aarati (devotional music) & meditation
7:30 – 8:30 PM: Study class by Swami Yogatmananda on The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Ch 52, pp 1009

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.

Past Events

Swami at Peace Walk – Sat. Sept. 22
Swami Yogatmananda, other clergy, and about one-hundred people and refugees from RI participated in the annual Peace- Walk in downtown Providence. Several refugees spoke of their experience.

Swami at RI Hindu Temple – Sat. Sept. 23, 5pm – 7pm
About twenty (20) devotees attended the talk on ‘ Rama-Charita-Manas’ that Swami Yogatmananda delivered at the RI Hindu Temple in Warwick.

Swami at Prabasi Durga Puja – Sat. Sept. 23
About one hundred (100) devotees attended the talk and Durga Puja that Swami Yogatmananda conducted in Framingham MA; The program was from 11:30am – 1:00PM.

Click here to see photos.

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

Study Class on –  Jnana Yoga – Fri. Sept. 22 
Class #69: Ch 11: Cosmos: The Macrocosm
Where did we come from?  Why is what we see around us so beautiful? Who made it? Whence is all this? These questions have been asked since time immemorial, and will continue to be asked ad infinitum.  “Before this,” time did not exist.  It was a state of absolute oneness, everything merged into that ONE-ness.  This world, in all its infinite variety, did not exist.  In the beginning, there was no variety. Our seeking of knowledge is really a search for unity in a world of diverse, multitudinous forms.  Darwin formed his theory of evolution based on this search—why is there such variety in the natural world? An underlying principle in all scientific knowledge is that nature is unified throughout. If we take one example of something from the world, we know the whole world.  For a scientist, an intellectual appreciation is good enough.  It is not enough for a yogi to understand something intellectually (this is merely the first step); instead he/she seeks to cultivate the mind through the practice of yoga, so that reality can be experienced, not just understood intellectually.

Sunday Service Talk – ‘Visions of Sri Ramakrishna’ – Sept. 24 
Sri Ramakrishna saw everything from two angles: as specific objects, plus everything being made of divine consciousness. Swami Yogeshananda wrote a book: Visions of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna could understand ideas in everyone’s mind, as if they were in a glass case. We cannot see that material objects bring bondage, but Sri Ramakrishna could see this clearly. As a child, he saw white cranes flying under dark clouds, whereupon he fell unconscious and merged with the Divine. On a trip to a nearby village, he fell unconscious and had a vision of the Divine Mother. Later, as a temple priest, Sri Ramakrishna was absorbed with obtaining the vision of the Divine Mother in the image he worshipped. He spent day and night praying for this vision, and when he got it, everything around was soaked with bliss. His visions were in conformity with the scriptures, and even went beyond them. He had a vision of God talking with him and even cracking his fingers. His subtle body would travel to places he wanted to see, while his gross body stayed in one place. His subtle body saw his throat cancer before it happened, and attributed it to his taking on the sins of so many devotees. Before he met Narendra (the future Swami Vivekananda), he had a vision of him as a sage, in a formless realm, with Sri Ramakrishna as a child, asking him to come down to earth. Later on, he had a vision of Swami Vivekananda’s successful spiritual mission. Sri Ramakrishna’s visions came true even in the physical world.

Study Class on – ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna – Tues. Sept 26
Pg# 1006-1008 – May 9 & 10, 1887:
Rabindra –a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, known to other devotees – comes in a terribly disturbed state of mind. He had fallen into bad habits and as a result had received a big jolt. He looked a total mess. We have very good intentions, have genuine desire to hold on to the path of God-realization, yet the infirmities stick with us. We are thus thrown into inferno of sufferings; but then that is the learning curve. Suffering becomes our teacher and helper in making a firm resolve. Of course it will be effective only if we get rid of the remorse and depression and start training ourselves in proper direction. Being in holy company is one of the most effective ways of training our personality to come out of this mess.
Cremation ground is a good place for meditation as the thought that everything is transient comes there naturally. Rabindra could not sit for meditation in the cremation ground because of very disoriented and agitated state of mind. Narendra sang a few songs/hymns to inspire Rabindra. Of course, it takes repeated rubbing in of the holy company to make the mind absorb it.
M describes how the monastic brothers were having a good deal of debate over theological and spiritual questions, and yet they had a lot of fun too.
Narendra said of making Rabindra a Snnyasi as he was coming back from a dip in Ganges. ‘Now he is going to put on a cloth of renunciation’, said he. He further explained: it means renunciation of lust and greed.

With this ends the study of this great book; next class will be of Appendices.