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Talks on "The Message of the Bhagavad Gita" in the Bay Area
MESSAGE OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA
TWO SESSIONS
By
Swami Viditatmananda
Swami Viditatmananda is a sannyasi disciple of Sri Swami
Dayananda Saraswati. Swami Viditatmananda has been teaching
Vedanta and Sanskrit for the past eighteen years in India and
has been coming to the West to serve as teacher-in-residence
at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania for the
last seven years.
Schedule of Talks:
Saturday, June 29, 1996
Topic: Freedom From Grief
Time: 11:30 A.M - 12:45 P.M
Coffee break
1:15 P.M. - 2:30 P.M
Light Meal
Sunday, June 30, 1996
Topic: Self-Growth
Time: 1:30 P.M. - 2:45 P.M
Coffee break
3:15 P.M. - 4:30 P.M
Location: FUKAYA-B HALL in Fremont Library
2400 Stevenson Blvd., Fremont, California
Directions: From Highway 880, take Stevenson Blvd. Exit
Go east for approximately 2 miles. Fremont Library
is between Civic Center and Paseo Padre Parkway.
For Fremont residents, From Mission Blvd., take
238, go west to Stevenson Blvd; the Fremont library
is on the left.
For more information, please call:
Vijay Kapoor at (415) 949-5522
OR
Madhu Chaudhary at (510) 471-7120
Admission Free, Donations Welcome
Sponsored by Arsha Vidya Gurukulam, Institute of Vedanta and
Sanskrit Studies in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania
Web Site: http://www.epix.net/~arsha
---------------------------------------------------------------
Message of the Bhagavad Gita - Sadhya and Sadhana
By Vijay Kapoor
The Bhagavad Gita, or The Song Celestial, presents the
quintessential wisdom of the Vedas in two basic ways, Sadhya -
or What is to be known, and Sadhana - or The means of knowing
it. Swami Viditatmananda's talks in Fremont on June 29 and 30
reflect this; The emphasis of the first day's talk is on
Sadhya, and that of the second day on Sadhana. Two stories that
illustrate Sadhya and Sadhana respectively made a deep and
lasting impression on me.
The End to be Achieved
The first story is about a simple boatman whose whole life was
spent in ferrying people back and forth across a river. One
time he had a lone passenger, who was a learned scholar. As the
jouney began, the passenger viewed the sweaty boatman ply his
trade and thought to himself, " What a wretched existence this
man must lead, utterly devoid of the finer things of life." He
decided to speak to the man. "Tell me, my dear man, do you know
literature?" " No Sir, I do not" replied the boatman. The
scholar said " Too bad, one fourth of your life is wasted."
After a while the scholar continued, " Well, do you know any
grammar?" "No," sadly replied the boatman, " I don't even know
what grammar means." " What a pity," said the learned scholar, "
One half of your life is wasted" Then, " But surely you know
classical music, don't you?" " I am sorry Sir, but I do not" "
My God, three fourth of your life is wasted." Just then the
boatman, noticing a hole in the boat, grabbed a bucket and
hurriedly started to take out water. But alas, the hole grew
bigger and the boat started to take in more and more water. The
boatman, as he took his clothes off, shouted to the scholar, "
Sir, do you know swimming?" The alarmed scholar replied " No, I
don't" "Too bad," the boatman muttered to himself as he
prepared to jump into the river, " Your whole life is wasted."
Similarly, in terms of the end to be achieved in life, we are
urged by the Vedas to discriminate between the real and the
false, between lasting and the temporary, between gold and
tinsel. As we go about squeezing joy from what life has to give
us, as we beg for moments of peace and tranquillity among a sea
of disquiet and problems, we are asked to pause and ponder over
the very source and reality of our experienced joys. Our
scriptures tell us that as we are enjoying a piece of candy, for
instance, to see what the source of the joy is. Is it contained
within the piece of candy? Or is it coming from within
yourself, somehow 'unblocked' from yourself by the candy bar.
In fact it is the latter. This discriminative knowledge, or
Viveka, gives rise to freedom from sorrow. Vedanta is an ancient
teaching methodology that unfolds this Self knowledge.
Means to an End.
If the end to be achieved in life is to be clear and meaningful,
then to change the priorities and persue the right direction is
important; this is illustrated by the second parable. There was
once a kingdom that had a peculiar succession rule. Unlike most
of them that passes keys of the kingdom from father to son, this
one, upon the death of the king, appointed the new one according
to the following rule: The most deserved among 20-year old
applicants was chosen; the new king could live as he wished,
command his army to do whatever he wanted etc. However, at the
end of 40 years, the king was to be forcibly taken by his
subjects to an island jungle across the river and left alone to
survive for six months. No king had even survived even a week
of living in that jungle of tigers and other wild beasts.
Yet, despite of the end that they knew awaited them, there was
never any dearth of applicants. They all had a good time, for
20 years, but their cries of anguish as they were killed by the
wild animals could be heard by all their former subjects across
the river.
One time when a new king was to be chosen, a young man of 20 who
was otherwise well known for being sensible and even-minded,
applied to be king, much to the surprise and anguish of his
family. He was selected and crowned as the king. Barely a week
had passed after his coronation when the new king summoned his
army and asked them to start clearing the jungle across the
river. When told that it was not easy task and may not even be
possible, he remained undaunted, personally supervising in the
planning and implementation of the work. Years passed, and work
was slow. In the meantime, the king pressed on with the
project, among his other kingly duties. As the jungle was being
cleared, he set about to make homes, roads, farms. When his 20
years passed, he was taken in a boat and left to live alone for
six months, just as the constitution required. At the end of
those introspective six months, a multitude of his subjects and
friends joined the former king and they lived happily in the new
city.
The life of mortals is not much different, our acaryas tell us.
Due to false notions, we make easy choices in life, not
necessarily the right choices. Fully engaged in a life of
temporary experiences, we do not pause to inquire into a deeper
basis of life; even when the way to the right direction is
shown, we ignore the advice. In short, a confusion about
realities leads to mixed-up priorities. It takes a brave and
wise soul to take the courage to inquire beyond the obvious, and
then to rearrange one's priorities to achieve a better end, as
the young king did.
There, the young man had to figure it out for himself. In our
case, help is available. It is available in the form of an
beginningless tradition of teaching in the form of authentic
gurus who have the ability to unfold the truth. What is an
authentic guru, or teacher? The teaching tradition says there
are three ways to look for authenticity. First, he/she should
have a lineage, a traceable and verifiable connection to other
traditional teachers (Called parampara ). Second, one leads the
life of a Sadhu, one of renunciation, kindness, simplicity and
joyfulness. And third, one who having gained the clear vision
has the ability to communicate it to others.
I know one such guru to be Swami Viditatmananda (Or "one whose
joy is due to his knowing the Self'). His teacher is the
revered Swami Dayananda Saraswati. He gave up a very promising
career as a chemical engineer in New York in 1973 to become a
monk and has been teaching Vedanta in Ahmedabad in India since
1975, and has a very large following of working people and
students. And lastly, during his many previous visits to the
Bay Area, the clarity of his vision and mastery of
communication was appreciated by many.
