May 26, 2019
Click for NOTES & QUOTES from the talk (PDF)
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 (mukti). 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.
When we learn to see accurately, what will we see?
Swami Vivekananda said: “Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter. …
“Each (one of you) is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power that lies behind mankind. …”
Regarding this week’s talk:
The great Sage Vasistha lived many thousands of years ago. He was spiritual counselor to the court of King Dasaratha, the father of Lord Rama. While still a young prince, Rama made a a tour of Ayodhya, the kingdom he will inherit. When Rama returns home depressed and disillusioned, his father worries that the prince is about to renounce the world.
Vasishta tells Prince Rama: “O my dear child! How strange is this world-bewitching maya! Being deluded by this maya, one cannot know the Self; though the Self has pervaded all through the limbs of the body … As (a magic show) or as the mirage water in the desert, are not true, in the similar manner this observable universe is not true.”
Vasistha explains: “This creation, which is merely of the form of a vibration of consciousness alone, is dissolved by accurate knowledge.”
In this talk we explore the meaning of those verses, and how three other master teachers of advaita vedanta — Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramana Maharshi — taught us how to experience maya’s “magic show” and still realize the all-pervading, non-dual Self, your true original nature.
Note: There is silent meditation in the Chapel from 10:30-11am, before each Sunday’s talk. After the talk, devotees and friends meet in the Monastery from noon to 1:30pm, for tea, coffee, snacks and a continuation of our spiritual fellowship. Spiritual talks and classes are open to the public and free of charge.