11am Sunday Talk: Samkhya Cosmology, Part 2: The Three Gunas, with Br. Shankara
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This Sunday morning at 11am Br. Shankara will give a talk on Samkhya Cosmology, Part 2: The Three Gunas. Join us online and participate in the discussion!
June is a month for study of Karma Yoga, a spiritual path leading to the abandonment of selfishness. As a karma yogi, you practice offering your actions and their results, as well as your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings to the Divine Presence.
Even before fully knowing this Presence, you hold firmly to the belief that the Presence is within each person or other living being that you interact with or serve. Working and abiding in this spirit, you are increasingly able to release attachment to your activities and their results. This yields the freedom and contentment promised by Karma Yoga.
“Even a little practice of this yoga will save you form the terrible wheel of rebirth and death …” — Sri Krishna, Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 2
Sunday June 13 11am-noon:
Samkhya Cosmology, Part 2
The Three Gunas
w/ Br. Shankara
In Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna’s explanation of the four yogas — especially karma and raja yoga — is rooted in Samkhya Philosophy. The better you understand Samkhya, the more likely you are to make practical use of what He tells us.
Samkhya is a Sanskrit word that, roughly speaking, means counting. Krishna says that when you fully grasp the operations and functions of the three Gunas (sattwa, rajas, and tamas), you will be free of attachment, and therefore free of suffering.
Sri Ramakrishna taught that Maya causes you to believe you are the doer, when in truth it is the Gunas, which are under God’s control, that act.
“God alone is the Doer. Everything happens by His will,” Ramakrishna insisted.
It only seems as if your actions, and the thoughts you think, are your own; the Upanishads, the Gita, and Ramakrishna teach that they are in fact God’s thoughts and actions, expressed through the agency of the Gunas.
On Sunday morning we will explore the Gunas – their source, their effects, and their mesmerizing hold on our attention. We’ll do this partly as a review of Samkhya’s explanation of how Reality works, and as a discussion of what Sri Krishna tells us about the Gunas, in Bhagavad Gita.