Recording of the weekly talks on Mundaka Upanishad—one of the primary (Mukhya) Upanishads. This talk-series aims at facilitating an easy understanding of the Upanishad keeping spiritual aspirants in view.
Discourse in Tamil on the glory of Sri Ramnama Sankirtanam by Swami Asutoshananda
The Bhagavad Gita, The Song of the God, often referred to as simply the Gita, is a 700-verse scripture that is part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. This scripture contains a conversation between Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide Lord Krishna on a variety of theological and philosophical issues.
As part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations, Vivekananda Youth Forum of out Math conducted ‘Arise Awake’ Exhibition on Swami Vivekananda on 4th May 2013 for Fishermen’s children in Ayodha Nagar, a fishermen colony in Triplicane, Chennai.
During the day the volunteers of Vivekananda Youth Forum and the Monks from Math screened motivational short movies, conducted Bhajans, and held an exhibition on Swamiji’s life.
Around 200 children participated.
Below are some photos from the day:
Contents:
01. Sri Ramakrishna Bhaktargalin Sila Thagudhigal
02. Achrya Sri Ramanujar
03. Sri Narasimmarin Magimai
04. Maha Kumbamela
05. India Medavigal-2
06. Sri Lashmi Narasimha Pancharatnam
07. Seetha Navami
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Contents
01. Editorial – The World We Live in
02. I shall Look Upon Them As the Blissful Mother Herself – Hironmoy Mukherjee
03. Sage Vasishtha’s Advice to Prince Rama – Swami Sarvadevananda
04. Swami Vivekananda’s Raja Yoga: A Contemporary Perspective – Swami Brahmeshananda
05. Three Touching Stories – Dipankar Bhowmik
06. Enlightened Citizenship: A Modern Indian Understanding – Ashwani Kumar
07. Glimpses of Swamiji – Spiritual Struggles and Realisation
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MONTHLY CALENDAR MAY 2013 – ENGLISH
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MONTHLY CALENDAR MAY 2013 – TAMIL
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In the beginning of our spiritual life, we depend upon, and are taught to depend upon, ourselves; we practice self-reliance and strengthen ourselves. And thus we start our long march of human growth and fulfillment. All the early chapters of the Gita are largely concerned with this growth of human individuality, with this development of individual identity and character-strength, as an integral part of its philosophy of a comprehensive spirituality, which is the yoga taught by the Gita.
That is a significant truth, which we often miss to recognize and act upon. Swami Vivekananda presents it as the central truth of his philosophy of man-making education and man-making religion. Says he in his lecture on ‘My Plan of Campaign’ (Complete Works, Vol. III, 1960 edition, pp. 224-25):
‘What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. …Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth: Anything that makes you weak, physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening; Truth is purity, Truth is all-knowledge.’
Say two popular verses of the Indian tradition:
Udyoginam purusa-simham upaiti laksmi daivena deyamiti kapurusa vadanti;
Daivam nihatya kuru paurusam atmasaktya Yatne krte yadi na siddhyati ko’tra dosah—
‘Lakshmi, or the goddess of Fortune, comes only to the industrious lion among men; it is only weaklings that say that we have to take what fate brings unto us; forsake this dependence on fate and express your manliness through the strength of self-reliance; what harm is there if no results come after you put forth your endeavour?‘
Udyamena hi sidhyanti Karyani na manorathaih;
Na hi suptasya simhasya pravisanti mukhe mrgah—
‘It is, verily, only through industriousness that we accomplish what are to be achieved, not through vain day-dreamings; no deer are going to (oblige a lion and) enter into its mouth while (it is lazily) asleep!‘
That is the first great lesson. Gain physical strength and mental strength; develop your talents and capacities and work-efficiency; gain self-confidence, practise self-reliance; and earn knowledge and wealth by hard honest labour; and share your wealth and happiness with others and earn their good-will and appreciation. All this is part and parcel of the spiritual training of man in the early stages. Renunciation of wealth, renunciation of this ‘I’, complete surrender to God, comes later; not at the beginning.
Swami Vivekananda sought to emphasize this truth about human growth very much, because he found among his people many, who were weak and good-for-nothing and yet holding the attitude: ‘God, I am nothing, You are everything. I surrender myself to You.’ They are really nothing!
Obviously, there is nothing praiseworthy about their statement of self-surrender. It is meaningless to regard any one unfit for the world as fit for God (or spiritual life). God will say to Himself: ‘What shall I do with this fellow? He or she will be a burden to me. It is not a joy to have such a devotee; bhakti, or devotion to Me, is made of a sterner stuff.’
This is a great idea. The sooner we understand it, the better. Says Swami Vivekananda in his lecture on ‘Vedanta and Its Application to Indian Life’ (Complete Works, Vol. III, p. 237):
‘Strength, strength, is what the Upanishads preach to me from every page. . . . O Man, be not weak. Are there no human weaknesses?—says man. There are, say the Upanishads; but will more weakness heal them? Would you try to wash dirt with dirt? Will sin cure sin, weakness cure weakness? . . . Ay, it is the only literature in the world where you find the word abhih, fearless, used again and again.‘
Only clean things can remove dirt, only strength can remove weakness, only light can remove darkness.
Source: Divine Grace, by Swami Ranganathananda, Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.
The Mylapore Academy, Chennai, which was established 58 years back, is doing a yeomen service in the Mylapore area. They organized Swami Vivekananda 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations at Sringeri Jagatguru Pravachana Mandiram Hall on Saturday , the 20th April 2013.
On that day a lifestyle portrait of Swami Vivekananda was unveiled and prizes were distributed to the winners in the inter-college oratorical competitions.
They also presented a trophy to Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai for the dedicated Community Service.
Following spoke on that occasion:
- Swami Buddhidananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai
- Sri B.S.Raghavan, IAS Retired (UN Policy Advisor)
- Sri V.R.Lakshminarayanan, IPS Retired (Former DG of Police)
- Sri S.Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant and Columnist
Sri B. S. Raghavan, spoke how Ramakrishna Mission is doing a wonderful service in Arunachal Pradesh and continuing its services despite difficult situations.
Swami Buddhidananda appreciated the Academy’s service and explained how Ramakrishna Mission is not only an institution for social service, but also a spiritual organization. He also highlighted that monks of Ramakrishna Order render their service with the idea of spiritual sadhana. He quoted Kapila’s advice to his mother Devahuti from Srimad Bhagavatam, and how Swamiji revived the sastras by saying, “Let the giver kneel down and pray and the receiver stand-up and permit” and that is the philosophy behind the service activities of the Ramakrishna Math & Mission.
Sri Gurumurthy spoke on how Swami Vivekananda stands as a hero among the youth. His ideas are the antidote for all the evils in the country and he is an inspires for all the philanthropic activities in different names.
Sri Ramanavami was celebrated with Ramanam Sankirtan, special puja, etc, in our Math on Friday, April 19, 2013.
Below video shows the excerpts of the evening Arati to Sri Ramakrishna followed by Sri Rama.
Duration: 17 min