In this edition
- Upcoming events
- Geetha Vahini
- Love and Morality: Need of the hour (Christmas Discourse)
- Affection and Attachment are responsible for Joy and Sorrow
- Devotional activities in Chicago and suburbs
Upcoming Events
- Sunday December 08, 2019 Winter gift packing and singing Christmas carols at Berkeley Nursing Home
- Special service project to pack winter gifts.
- PS: Bhajans start at 10:00 AM
- SSE students singing Christmas carols at Berkeley Nursing home from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM
- Time: 09:30 AM – 12:30 PM
- Venue: River Forest Community Center
- Saturday December 14, 2019 SSE Students sing Christmas carols
- SSE students sing Christmas carols at Symphony Nursing Center
- Time: 02:00 PM – 04:00 PM
- Venue: Symphony Center, 150 Weiland Road, Buffalo Grove
- Sunday December 15, 2019 Christmas Celebrations
- SSE students and Polish group present Christmas Carols
- Bhajans start at 10:30 AM
- Time: 09:30 AM – 12:30 PM
- Venue: River Forest Community Center
- Saturday December 21, 2019 Quarterly Bread Truck Project
- Quarterly bread truck project to pack sandwiches and deliver winter gifts to Port Ministry
- Time: 07:00 AM – 09:00 AM
- Venue: 1972 Wright Blvd. Buffalo Grove
- Wednesday January 01, 2020 New Year Celebrations
- New Year celebrations with New Year divine message
- Bhajans start at 10:30 AM
- Time: 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
- Venue: River Forest Community Center
Geetha Vahini
Every single act of yours must be carried out with this Jnana (wisdom) as its background. That awareness of the Atma will guide you in both the out-moving and in-drawing paths, the Pravritthi Marga and the Nivritthi Marga. It will not block action but fill it with purpose and meaning. It will build up faith and moral life, it will take man to the realm of deliverance along the road of Nishkama Karma, the renunciation of the fruit of action, and not of action itself.
For the achievement of Liberation, Jnana is the direct road. Therefore, it is declared to be incomparably sacred. And, naturally, it follows that Ignorance is indubitably the most despicable. “See the Universal in the Particular; see the Particular in the Universal; that is the essence of Jnana,” said Krishna. “All Kshetras (bodies, fields) know only one single Kshetrajna (knower of the field or body). And, who is that? The Atma, that is to say, you yourself, your own self! Know this and you become a Jnani. So realize that the Atma is Paramatma (creator, universal soul); that is the Vijnana (wisdom).” Krishna, who is All-knowing, began to teach Arjuna this Yoga, in order to cast off all doubt from his mind.
“Arjuna! I taught this sacred Jnana Yoga to Surya, then it was handed down from one generation to another till Manu and Ikshvaku and from them, Rajarshis came to learn it. Then it (got) lost in the world. That ever-existing Yoga had to be restored to the world, and so I had to come.”
You will not fail to notice the discrepancy of the Yoga being described as ever-existing and the statement that it was lost! Of course, the statement was not made without thought. The indestructible is here spoken of as having been destroyed! It is called indestructible for two reasons. Its origin is the Veda, which is free from decline. This Yoga on account of passage of time, neglect and disuse, was forgotten. That is to say, it disappeared, it was lost to view, and it declined. “Lost to view” is the sense in which the word “destroyed” is used in a general way. That is how you have to interpret it, for the Lord will never devise a thing that will suffer “destruction.”
The reference to Surya also merits consideration. The people of Bharath are intimately associated with the Sun god. The heroes of Bharath, the Kshathriyas, are from the beginning attached to Surya. Even for ordinary men and women, Surya is so highly sacred that He has been raised to the status of the Great Guru. The sacred scriptures and legends of India have not assigned a status of similar glory to anyone else. It is a unique position that Surya occupies. Why, for the whole world, the Sun is the visible manifestation of the Lord. And the Sun is the source of Time. Surya is the father of Time (Kala) as the Sastras declare. The Sun limits and regulates the number of years each one lives. The Sun diminishes every day a fraction of the allotted span. So the Sun is the supreme arbiter, the maker of man’s destiny. Whether one wills or not, every deed of his is performed under His auspices and dedicated to Him.
Above all, consider the service the Sun does to this world! That is within the daily experience of all. Everyone is witness for that. The Sun is the source of all life, plant and animal, upon this planet. Without His rays, it will be a desolate waste. He draws up into the sky the waters of seas and lakes, and from the clouds He pours rain on the crops. He is ever the Dharmadevatha (God of Righteousness), scattering His rays equally on all.
Surya is the great Thyagi for unequalled renunciation. He is the great Yogi. Without a second’s thought of His own glory or of rest, He performs His Duty without thought of reward. He is humble and steady in work. The service He does is something no one else can fulfil. The happiness He contributes is something no one else can confer. But He has no pretensions to pride. He moves above unconcerned with the consequences of His energizing mission of service.
-Excerpts from Geetha Vahini
Love and Morality: Need of the hour (Christmas Discourse)
Our ancient sages undertook deep investigations and enquiry to understand Divinity. Ultimately, they declared to the world, Vedahametham Purusham Mahantham Adityavarnam Thamasah Parasthath (I have visualized the Supreme Being who shines with the effulgence of billion suns). They exhorted man to make efforts to have the vision of Divinity. From then on, man started believing in God. But, with the passage of time, his faith started diminishing. He is subjected to grief because of his disbelief in God.
He who is known as Allah by Muslims, As Jehovah by Christian aspirants, As the Lotus-eyed Lord by Vishnu worshippers, As Sambhu, by those who revere Siva, In any way He is worshipped, He responds, Grants the grace of fame and fortune, And showers happiness and joy.
He is the One, The Supreme Self. Know Him as Paramatma. God is one, He has many names. Different religions lead to the same divinity. Religions are many, but goal is one. Clothes are many, but yarn is one. Jewels are many, but gold is one. Cows are many, but milk is one. Beings are many, but breath is one. Castes are many, but humanity is one.
Jesus was a noble soul. He declared that he was the son of God, but he never said that he was God. When Jesus was born, three royal wise men were guided by a star to Bethlehem. He was radiating divine effulgence. The first said, “This child will love God.” The second said, “He will be loved by God.” The third said, “He will love one and all. He is not different from God.” The one who loves God is the messenger of God; the one whom God loves is the son of God; the one who understands the principle of unity becomes one with God. This is the inner meaning of the statements given in the Bible. One should understand the import of these statements.
The child was brought up by mother Mary and his father was working as a carpenter. It was the time of a festival in Jerusalem and the child Jesus was taken there along with his parents. They lost the child in the crowd and could not find him anywhere. Mother Mary naturally was very much worried. Finally, they went to the temple to pray. To their astonishment, they found young Jesus coming out of the temple. All the while the child had been in the temple, listening to the holy discourse of the Rabbi (Jewish Priest) of the temple. The anxious mother took hold of her child and started asking him several questions as to what he was doing all the while. The child replied, “Mother, why were you afraid? All the while I was in the hands of God. I have been listening to the words of God by the Rabbi in the temple.” Thus, the child was God-minded from a very young age.
After some time, father Joseph passed away. Mary told her son, “Now that your father passed away; you should continue your father’s profession, so that we may earn our livelihood.” But the boy was not inclined to continue in his father’s profession. One day, young Jesus went to a lonely hilltop. The mother was very much worried. Jesus was sitting and meditating on God all the while. As he was returning, he ran into a group of worried men. When young Jesus enquired from them the cause of their worry, they said that they were fishermen and that for quite some time past, they were not able to catch any fish in their nets. Jesus said, “Follow me; are there any waters that do not have fish?” He took them along with him in their boats to the middle of the sea and asked them to cast their nets at a particular spot. To their utter astonishment and great joy, the fishermen found that their nets were full with fish. This event created a lot of faith in the minds of the fishermen. Therefore, faith is indispensable for humanity.
Where there is faith, there is love; Where there is love, there is truth; Where there is truth, there is peace; Where there is peace, there is bliss; Where there is bliss, there is God.
Jesus could instill such great faith in those people.
–Baba’s Divine Discourses
Affection and Attachment are responsible for Joy & Sorrow
Moha expresses itself in desiring things. Desires go on multiplying. Moha may be compared to the water that is found in a lake. I will now give an example. There is a girl in one house. There is a young man in another house. Their houses are almost side-by-side. But the girl does not know anything about the young man, and the young man does not know anything about the girl living in the neighboring house. One day, the girl, fell seriously ill. That day all the people in the house were hectic and they were all anxious and several doctors were called in. When the boy in the neighboring house heard the noise, he thought it was a disturbance to his studies, and, therefore, he closed his windows and started reading.
But in the course of time, as a result of destiny, this boy who was living in that house got married to the girl in the neighboring house. The marriage took place in the morning. In the afternoon the girl developed a stomachache and the bridegroom felt very anxious for the girl and her stomachache. Where and when had he developed this attachment to the girl? Because he got married to her; even a little stomachache upsets him now. Though the same girl felt dangerously ill some time ago, he did not feel even the slightest anxiety for her because at that time there was no attachment or relationship with the girl. So, abhimana and mamakara, affection and attachment are responsible for all joys and sorrows.
Devotional Activities in Chicago and Suburbs
- Every Monday
- Bhajans in Aurora Shirdi Mandir from 07:00 PM – 08:00 PM
- Every Wednesday
- Bhajans in Hoffman Estates from 07:30 PM – 08:30 PM
- Every Friday
- Bhajans in Oak Brook from 08:00 PM – 09:00 PM
- First Saturday of the month
- Bhajans in Glenview from 10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
- Saturday December 14, 2019
- Paduka Puja in Bolingbrook from 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM
- Monday December 23, 2019
- Bhajans in Aurora Shirdi Mandir from 07:00 PM – 08:00 PM