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Talk: Your Spiritual Mother’s Guiding Hand
– Br. Shankara
November 11th, 2018
Click for NOTES & QUOTES from the talk (PDF)
November 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
As a small child, perhaps you walked with your mother in places where the path was uneven or narrow. Were you not more comfortable — less likely to fall — when she held your hand? If you held hers, you might let go at just the wrong moment and take a tumble. When she held yours, that wrong moment was the time when she gripped your hand more tightly, making sure that even if you stumbled you would keep your feet.
Sri Ramakrishna used this relationship as a metaphor, encouraging you to “offer your hand” to your spiritual parent. Religious literature is rich with this personalization of the Divine Presence, from the Hebrews’ Shechinah (the Divine dwelling within as Mother) to the Incas’ Pachamama (Mother of the Universe). Our recent celebration of the Mother Season seems a natural time to discuss the Divine’s maternal aspect. In this talk we explore the Motherhood of God.
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.
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