- From 7 pm at Vedanta Hall, 15 Liverpool Road, Croydon NSW for Meditation
- OR From 7.30 pm join via Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88434388900
Group discussion led by Pravrajika Gayatriprana, a senior nun of Sri Sarada Math of the Ramakrishna Order.
Continuing Study of Chap 7, The Way of Knowledge & Realization – Verse 6
THEMES FOR DISCUSSION:
- Tremendous Datum Called Consciousness: A worm lays on a railway track as a train bears down on it. The lowly worm has something the mere matter bound train doesn’t – consciousness. With that consciousness the worm crawls away, saving itself from the mighty force of the train.
- A Place for the Mind: ‘Outstanding neurologists have accepted the idea that you cannot explain human behaviour based only on one item, namely, the brain; you have to have the second item, namely, consciousness or the mind; the mind and the brain. Brain alone cannot explain everything.’
- Ocean of Pure Consciousness: ‘This is the struggle of consciousness or intelligence to return to its own original state and discover that the whole world is nothing but an ocean of Pure Consciousness.’
- We Are Free: Matter is our servant. We need to disentangle ourselves, let our pure consciousness shine through, to free ourselves from obsessions, delusions, and addictions.
- Reflections:
‘Manifestation, and not creation, is the word of science today, and the Hindu is only glad that what he has been cherishing in his bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language, and with further light from the latest conclusions of science.’
Swami Vivekananda (From speech at World Parliament of Religions – Chicago, 1893).‘But if it seems strange to you that the old Indian philosophers should have known more about the soul than Greek or medieval or modern philosophers, let us remember that however much the telescopes for observing the stars of heaven have been improved, the observatories of the soul have remained much the same.’ Prof.Max Muller – Three Lectures on the Vedanta Philosophy, London, 1894
Learn more in the discussion.
Bhagavad Gita:
We’re exploring a spiritual classic that’s enriched cultures throughout Asia over the centuries and inspired leading figures in modern times from Mohandas Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Carl Jung, and Aldous Huxley to astronaut Sunita Williams who took a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to the international space station.
We’re dipping into Swami Ranganathananda’s 3 volume commentary: Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita. The late President of the Ramakrishna Order, the Swami was a world thinker and cultural ambassador for India, sponsored by the Government to travel to over 50 countries around the world giving lectures.
