Adhyatma Vidya Mandir

Ishavasyopanishad chanting bu Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji.

Mandukya Upanishad Chanting by Swamiji Viditatmananda Saraswatiji

Kathopanishad Chanting by Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji talks about truth and non-violence as important values to inculcate in our life.  Pujya Swamiji points out that in life what is important is to travel in the right direction, and for that we need to make right choices. These values guide us to make the right choices and thus stay on track. Pujya Swamiji provides here the basis for understanding and interpreting what truth and non-violence is in a given situation.  The two aspects: Truth as in speaking truth and non-violence at the physical level are essentially unfolded and how to understand and interpret these aspects in our life is elaborately discussed.  It is pointed out that speaking truth includes speaking pleasantly meaning being sensitive about the feelings of other people, respecting their feelings, refraining from doing something that will hurt their feelings, and speaking only if needed, meaning if it would be beneficial to the other person, or for the greater good.  Speaking truth requires strength and not hurting others requires sensitivity on our part.  Thus speaking truth makes us both a strong and sensitive person, and helps us understand and accommodate others in our life.  Observing our own self and looking at the events in our life, whether or not we bend the truth in certain circumstances, would help us understand the subtleness of truth in our life.  In the latter part, Pujya Swamiji elaborates on non-violence at physical level, how consumption and possession are a mark of violence, because it deprives the others of their food.  Thus consuming and possessing just what we need, not over-consuming for our pleasure or enjoyment, is a value whereby we can be sensitive to the needs of other fellow beings and creatures, and address scarcity of resources by a simple act of minimizing our consumption and possession. Om!

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji answers to some fundamental questions each of us have within. When did we get separated from God? Pujya Swamiji points out to pay attention of why this question arises. Because we feel separated from God, we feel we don’t see God, we don’t know where he is. This sense of separation is explained differently in different philosophies, but what is important is that we feel separated, why we feel so is not so important. The various Acharyas have given us the means to remove that separation, like Bhakti. Pujya Swamiji explains how there should be worship of Isvara in one way or other. We need Isvara’s anugraha to accomplish moral, wordly and spiritual goals. Because for any successful accomplishment both self effort, a proper and adequate one at the right time, and grace of God is required. We are born with the need to be successful, the outcome is very important to us, and thus grace of God is very important in our life. So Isvara’s anugraha is important for helping us to be successful, as we are selfish people. But someday we will grow out of this begging, and the prayers will be an offering, just out of pleasure. Knowingly or unknowingly Isvara is the most important in our life, and we are born with this destination in mind, and our journey finds its culmination when we meet Bhagawan. What is growth? When we become free from our needs progressively! Right now we have many needs and our happiness depends on fulfilling those needs. By including prayers in our life, we live a conscious life, so we don’t take things for granted. We always need the grace of God, which we are as such receiving without asking. So let us all include prayers in our life whether it be to fulfill our needs, whether it be as an offering, let us all contemplate on the constant grace we are experiencing and offer our gratitude towards our Bhagawan.

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji talks about how practicing a value requires strength. We expect others to be kind, honest, truthful, but when it comes to us, it costs something, my image, respect, success, prestige, fear of punishment, fear of losing something precious to me. Whenever we don’t follow a value, inwardly it pinches us and leaves us with guilt of compromising the particular value. These guilt, the pinch cannot be measured in tangible terms and so we ignore, but it builts up, and hurts our personality. Pujya Swamiji highlights how we constantly seek approval of the world, but it is we who have to make ourselves happy. Self-worth is very important to be a successful person in the outer world. But this can be there only if I enjoy harmony with myself, if I am happy with myself. If you respect yourself, you do not need respect from others, if you approve yourself, you do not need approval from others. Self-confident person is one who acts without helplessness. Self-approval, self-worthiness is what we acquire slowly by living a life of value. But this requires that sometimes we have to let go what is dear to us. We should see how we have a tendency to keep on repeating wrong things, which means we become less and less worthy in our own view. Following the basic values of life makes us a more effective person by bringing out the self-worth, self-approval the confidence within. The youth and the seekers are encouraged to refer to the ‘Management Wisdom from Bhagavad Gītā’ by Pujya Swami Viditatmanandaji. This reading will provide further clarity of understanding and interpreting the issues we face in our daily life, and will complement this Satsanga.

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji draws our attention to the secret of gaining freedom in life. How it is important to master the mind to develop an inner freedom, and one who hasn’t mastered the mind becomes a slave of the mind. When we become slave of the mind, then the mind makes me do things, we helplessly do things which we may regret later on! Happiness is where freedom is, while unhappiness is where there is dependence. So with every relation in our life we need to check whether there is freedom or slavery in that relation. Are we able to control or manage our emotions, or are we controlled and managed by our emotions? Are we demanding in our relationships or are we giving, contributing? Pujya Swamiji gives description of a saint, of a wise person, of a free person, the one who doesn’t have hatred for anyone, who is a friend to all. Freedom is an inner disposition of the mind. It is this inner freedom that makes us free in life. First it begins with the freedom to do what is right and not what I like, and ultimately what is right is also what such a wise person likes by default. This inner transformation happens provided we are clear of what we want in life. We may have material goals in our life to be wealthy, powerful, etc, but we also have the desire to be free. We want to be wealthy and free, powerful and free, successful and free. So really speaking there is only one goal behind all the goals: to be free! So self transformation should happen for self-management! While pursuing external goals we should also pursue inner goal for our spiritual growth. Power, success etc can be used to either help others or to exploit others. And our goal should be to be successful and help others succeed. The youth and the seekers are encouraged to refer to the ‘Management Wisdom from Bhagavad Gītā’ by Pujya Swami Viditatmanandaji. This reading will provide further clarity of understanding and interpreting the issues we face in our daily life, and will complement this Satsanga. Om!

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji unfolds the art of developing a happy mind. Pujya Swamiji explains how all of us are having a love affair with ourselves – with a happy self or pleased self. We have the capacity to enjoy anything, but we have to learn to make ourselves happy. When I feel I made somebody happy, comforted, with what I did, I feel happy, and so to the extent there is sharing in our mind, to that extent I am happy. On the contrary when I am self-centred, and narrow-minded, when I do not give or share with others, I later do not feel good, and I become unhappy. It is the mind which is the cause of my happiness and the cause of my unhappiness. Therefore my mind becomes the most important to me. So we have to progressively develop a happy mind by invoking kindness within us, and that is the emotional maturity we need to develop to be happy. Values and attitudes is what makes us large-hearted, accommodating and friendly, and this is what we should inculcate in our daily life to shape our mind, to shape our heart. A kind, generous, forgiving person is an emotionally mature person, that’s what we are in true sense, and so we should invoke these values constantly. While being narrow-minded, self-centred, hurtful, revengeful is what an emotionally immature person is. We have to slowly get rid of these negative tendencies within us to discover the saintliness within us, which is our true nature. And this is the way to develop a happy mind, to be happy! The youth and the seekers are encouraged to refer to the ‘Management Wisdom from Bhagavad Gītā’ by Pujya Swami Viditatmanandaji. This reading will provide further clarity of understanding and interpreting the issues we face in our daily life, and will complement this Satsanga. Om!

Dec 27 2020 Sunday Morning Satsanga on Shreyas and Preyas This Sunday’s Satsanga is in English.  The week’s Satsanga is related to Kathopanisad: subtle aspects of shreyas and preyas in a seeker’s life. Pujya Swamiji sheds light on what does being like Nachiketa mean in today’s world. As Pujya Swamiji mentions in Kathopanisad, ‘Every moment can be a moment of joy if alertness is there and Shreyas is there’, so Shreyas is not a onetime thing and a seeker has to constantly apply it in life.  How the choice of shreyas and preyas also leads to antahkaran shuddhi, because happiness from Anatma is what we are familiar with, and what is attractive, we know the pleasure from there, and the mind easily gets attracted.  While Shreyas is the happiness of the self, which requires removal of likes and dislikes, and so it may not be immediately pleasing, but it is a short term pain for a long term gain. Shreyas and Preyas is not about choosing a given thing, rather it is choosing the right attitude.  So to apply Shreyas and Preyas, a seeker first has to have the Viveka of what does he want in life, he has to set the goal, then what will lead to that choice, the means, and then the values have to be applied. Lastly how can a seeker motivate himself when at every step it is like a glass half filled, with the little progress made, but the larger half still to be achieved?

Adhyatma Vidya Mandir Video lecture link : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvByNyt5x4-Aj-amr2__x6-DAvIk3EXFL Subject: अपरोक्षानुभूतिः aparokṣānubhūtiḥ Speaker : Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji Such treatises as aim at serving as introductions to a more advanced study of a system of philosophy, are generally known as प्रकरण ग्रन्था prakaraṇa granthā. Besides giving an outline of the system, each of them emphasizes some one or other of the main features. Aparokṣānubhūtiḥ is one such title manual, which, while presenting a brief description of Vedanta, deals specially with that aspect of it which relates to anubhūtiḥ realization of the highest truth. Such realization, unlike the knowledge of objects through sense-perception of inference, is an immediate and direct perception of one’s own Self, which is here indicated by the word aparokṣa.

Adhyatma Vidya Mandir Video lecture link : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvByNyt5x4-Aj-amr2__x6-DAvIk3EXFL Subject: अपरोक्षानुभूतिः aparokṣānubhūtiḥ Speaker : Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji Such treatises as aim at serving as introductions to a more advanced study of a system of philosophy, are generally known as प्रकरण ग्रन्था prakaraṇa granthā. Besides giving an outline of the system, each of them emphasizes some one or other of the main features. Aparokṣānubhūtiḥ is one such title manual, which, while presenting a brief description of Vedanta, deals specially with that aspect of it which relates to anubhūtiḥ realization of the highest truth. Such realization, unlike the knowledge of objects through sense-perception of inference, is an immediate and direct perception of one’s own Self, which is here indicated by the word aparokṣa.

Adhyatma Vidya Mandir Video lecture link : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvByNyt5x4-Aj-amr2__x6-DAvIk3EXFL Subject: अपरोक्षानुभूतिः aparokṣānubhūtiḥ Speaker : Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji Such treatises as aim at serving as introductions to a more advanced study of a system of philosophy, are generally known as प्रकरण ग्रन्था prakaraṇa granthā. Besides giving an outline of the system, each of them emphasizes some one or other of the main features. Aparokṣānubhūtiḥ is one such title manual, which, while presenting a brief description of Vedanta, deals specially with that aspect of it which relates to anubhūtiḥ realization of the highest truth. Such realization, unlike the knowledge of objects through sense-perception of inference, is an immediate and direct perception of one’s own Self, which is here indicated by the word aparokṣa.

Adhyatma Vidya Mandir Video lecture link : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvByNyt5x4-Aj-amr2__x6-DAvIk3EXFL Subject: अपरोक्षानुभूतिः aparokṣānubhūtiḥ Speaker : Swami Viditatmananda Saraswatiji Such treatises as aim at serving as introductions to a more advanced study of a system of philosophy, are generally known as प्रकरण ग्रन्था prakaraṇa granthā. Besides giving an outline of the system, each of them emphasizes some one or other of the main features. Aparokṣānubhūtiḥ is one such title manual, which, while presenting a brief description of Vedanta, deals specially with that aspect of it which relates to anubhūtiḥ realization of the highest truth. Such realization, unlike the knowledge of objects through sense-perception of inference, is an immediate and direct perception of one’s own Self, which is here indicated by the word aparokṣa.