{"id":964,"date":"2020-01-18T01:21:01","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T01:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/?page_id=964"},"modified":"2020-01-18T01:21:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T01:21:02","slug":"watch-december-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/watch-december-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch: December 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"InThisEdition\">In this edition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"#InUpComingEvents\">Upcoming events<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#GeethaVahini\">Geetha Vahini<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Himself\">Love and Morality: Need of the hour (Christmas Discourse)<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#Rama\">Affection and Attachment are responsible for Joy and Sorrow<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#DevotionalActivities\">Devotional activities in Chicago and suburbs<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"InUpcomingEvents\">Upcoming Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Sunday December 08, 2019 Winter gift packing and singing Christmas carols at Berkeley Nursing Home<\/strong><ul><li>Special service project to pack winter gifts. <\/li><li>PS: Bhajans start at 10:00 AM<\/li><li>SSE students singing Christmas carols at Berkeley Nursing home from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM<\/li><li>Time: 09:30 AM &#8211; 12:30 PM<\/li><li>Venue: River Forest Community Center<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Saturday December 14, 2019 SSE Students sing Christmas carols<\/strong><ul><li>SSE students sing Christmas carols at Symphony Nursing Center<\/li><li>Time: 02:00 PM &#8211; 04:00 PM<\/li><li>Venue: Symphony Center, 150 Weiland Road, Buffalo Grove<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Sunday December 15, 2019 Christmas Celebrations<\/strong><ul><li>SSE students and Polish group present Christmas Carols<\/li><li>Bhajans start at 10:30 AM<\/li><li>Time: 09:30 AM &#8211; 12:30 PM<\/li><li>Venue: River Forest Community Center<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Saturday December 21, 2019 Quarterly Bread Truck Project<\/strong><ul><li>Quarterly bread truck project to pack sandwiches and deliver winter gifts to Port Ministry<\/li><li>Time: 07:00 AM &#8211; 09:00 AM<\/li><li>Venue: 1972 Wright Blvd. Buffalo Grove<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Wednesday January 01, 2020 New Year Celebrations<\/strong><ul><li>New Year celebrations with New Year divine message<\/li><li>Bhajans start at 10:30 AM<\/li><li>Time: 10:30 AM &#8211; 12:30 PM<\/li><li>Venue: River Forest Community Center<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em><a href=\"#InThisEdition\">Back to the top<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"GeethaVahini\">Geetha Vahini<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em> 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. \u201cSee the Universal in the Particular; see the Particular in the Universal; that is the essence of Jnana,\u201d said Krishna. \u201cAll 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).\u201d Krishna, who is All-knowing, began to teach Arjuna this Yoga, in order to cast off all doubt from his mind. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cArjuna! I\ntaught this sacred Jnana Yoga to Surya, then it was handed down from one\ngeneration to another till Manu and Ikshvaku and from them, Rajarshis came to\nlearn it. Then it (got) lost in the world. That ever-existing Yoga had to be\nrestored to the world, and so I had to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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. \u201cLost to view\u201d is the sense in which the word \u201cdestroyed\u201d 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 \u201cdestruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The reference\nto Surya also merits consideration. The people of Bharath are intimately\nassociated with the Sun god. The heroes of Bharath, the Kshathriyas, are from\nthe beginning attached to Surya. Even for ordinary men and women, Surya is so\nhighly sacred that He has been raised to the status of the Great Guru. The\nsacred scriptures and legends of India have not assigned a status of similar\nglory to anyone else. It is a unique position that Surya occupies. Why, for the\nwhole world, the Sun is the visible manifestation of the Lord. And the Sun is\nthe source of Time. Surya is the father of Time (Kala) as the Sastras declare.\nThe Sun limits and regulates the number of years each one lives. The Sun diminishes\nevery day a fraction of the allotted span. So the Sun is the supreme arbiter,\nthe maker of man\u2019s destiny. Whether one wills or not, every deed of his is\nperformed under His auspices and dedicated to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Above all,\nconsider the service the Sun does to this world! That is within the daily\nexperience of all. Everyone is witness for that. The Sun is the source of all\nlife, plant and animal, upon this planet. Without His rays, it will be a desolate\nwaste. He draws up into the sky the waters of seas and lakes, and from the\nclouds He pours rain on the crops. He is ever the Dharmadevatha (God of\nRighteousness), scattering His rays equally on all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surya is the\ngreat Thyagi for unequalled renunciation. He is the great Yogi. Without a\nsecond\u2019s thought of His own glory or of rest, He performs His Duty without\nthought of reward. He is humble and steady in work. The service He does is\nsomething no one else can fulfil. The happiness He contributes is something no\none else can confer. But He has no pretensions to pride. He moves above\nunconcerned with the consequences of His energizing mission of service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><strong>-Excerpts from Geetha Vahini<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em><a href=\"#InThisEdition\">Back to the top<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Himself\">Love and Morality: Need of the hour (Christmas Discourse)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>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. <\/em><\/p><p><em>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. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>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, &#8220;This child will love God.&#8221; The second said, &#8220;He will be loved by God.&#8221; The third said, &#8220;He will love one and all. He is not different from God.&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The child was brought up by mother Mary and his father\nwas working as a carpenter. It was the time of a festival in Jerusalem and the\nchild Jesus was taken there along with his parents. They lost the child in the\ncrowd and could not find him anywhere. Mother Mary naturally was very much\nworried. Finally, they went to the temple to pray. To their astonishment, they\nfound young Jesus coming out of the temple. All the while the child had been in\nthe temple, listening to the holy discourse of the Rabbi (Jewish Priest) of the\ntemple. The anxious mother took hold of her child and started asking him\nseveral questions as to what he was doing all the while. The child replied,\n&#8220;Mother, why were you afraid? All the while I was in the hands of God. I\nhave been listening to the words of God by the Rabbi in the temple.&#8221; Thus,\nthe child was God-minded from a very young age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After some time, father Joseph passed away. Mary told her son, &#8220;Now that your father passed away; you should continue your father&#8217;s profession, so that we may earn our livelihood.&#8221; But the boy was not inclined to continue in his father&#8217;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, &#8220;Follow me; are there any waters that do not have fish?&#8221; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>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.<\/em><\/p><p><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus could instill such great faith in those people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">&#8211;<strong>Baba&#8217;s Divine Discourses<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em><a href=\"#InThisEdition\">Back to the top<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"Rama\">Affection and Attachment are responsible for Joy &amp; Sorrow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Moha expresses itself in\ndesiring things. Desires go on multiplying. Moha may be compared to the water\nthat is found in a lake. I will now give an example. There is a girl in one\nhouse. There is a young man in another house. Their houses are almost\nside-by-side. But the girl does not know anything about the young man, and the\nyoung man does not know anything about the girl living in the neighboring\nhouse. One day, the girl, fell seriously ill. That day all the people in the\nhouse were hectic and they were all anxious and several doctors were called in.\nWhen the boy in the neighboring house heard the noise, he thought it was a\ndisturbance to his studies, and, therefore, he closed his windows and started\nreading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the course of time, as\na result of destiny, this boy who was living in that house got married to the\ngirl in the neighboring house. The marriage took place in the morning. In the\nafternoon the girl developed a stomachache and the bridegroom felt very anxious\nfor the girl and her stomachache. Where and when had he developed this\nattachment to the girl? Because he got married to her; even a little\nstomachache upsets him now. Though the same girl felt dangerously ill some time\nago, he did not feel even the slightest anxiety for her because at that time\nthere was no attachment or relationship with the girl. So, <em>abhimana<\/em> and <em>mamakara<\/em>,\naffection and attachment are responsible for all joys and sorrows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em><a href=\"#InThisEdition\">Back to the top<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"DevotionalActivities\">Devotional Activities in Chicago and Suburbs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Every Monday<\/strong><ul><li>Bhajans in Aurora Shirdi Mandir from 07:00 PM &#8211; 08:00 PM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Every Wednesday<\/strong><ul><li>Bhajans in Hoffman Estates from 07:30 PM &#8211; 08:30 PM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Every Friday<\/strong><ul><li>Bhajans in Oak Brook from 08:00 PM &#8211; 09:00 PM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>First Saturday of the month<\/strong><ul><li>Bhajans in Glenview from 10:30 AM &#8211; 11:30 AM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Saturday December 14, 2019<\/strong><ul><li>Paduka Puja in Bolingbrook from 10:30 AM &#8211; 12:30 PM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>Monday December 23, 2019<\/strong><ul><li>Bhajans in Aurora Shirdi Mandir from 07:00 PM &#8211; 08:00 PM<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em><a href=\"#InThisEdition\">Back to the top<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<p><!--EndFragment--><br>\n<br>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/watch-december-2019\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Watch: December 2019&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-964","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/964\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centers.saimedia.org\/chicagometro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}