11am Sunday Talk: “The Equations of Maya”
(according to John Dobson)
, with Br. Shankara

On Sunday, May 22nd at 11am EDT, Br. Shankara will give a talk on “The Equations of Maya”(according to John Dobson). Join us in the chapel at the Center, or online via Zoom.

John Dobson earned a Masters in Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1943. He went on to become an astronomer, student of human history, and Vedanta philosopher.

Dobson wrote, “Modern cosmologists usually take non-existence for granted and hope to get the Universe out of nothing. But must we assume that in the absence of the Universe and in the absence of space and time there would be nothing? Or can we, without so rash an assumption, find clues to what might remain if instead we take existence for granted but leave out space and time? Could what remains, through apparition or maya, appear as this Universe? Can we, from what remains, get a Universe of gravity, electricity and inertia?”

If you can’t explain (things) simply, you don’t understand (them) well enough.” — Albert Einstein

Dobson was a master of explaining advaita vedanta simply. On Sunday morning we will read and discuss his detailed, very clear descriptions of how Brahman appears to us as this Universe.

“”There cannot be two existences, only one.”  — Vivekananda

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May is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (advaita vedanta). As a jnana yogi, you practice discrimination, reason, detachment, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). The goal is freedom from limitation . Our teachers say that all miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. An earnest and persistent jnani may break through this misapprehension (Maya) and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.