Bhagavad Gita | The Essence of Vedanta
Swami Tattwamayananda’s class on Srimad Bhagavad Gita is held at the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco (founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900) on Friday evenings in the First Universal Hindu Temple in the West (founded by Swami Trigunatitananda in 1905). Classes are held on Friday night at 7:30 pm. All are most welcome. The Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the most important spiritual classic of Hinduism. Swami Tattwamayananda, currently the Minister of the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco, (originally founded by Swami Vivekananda in 1900) served in various centers of the Ramakrishna Order in India as editor, publisher, and teacher of Sanskrit, Advaitic texts such as Sri Shankaracharya's commentaries on the 'Prasthanatraya' (the fundamental Sanskrit texts of Vedanta philosophy), Buddhism and Indian philosophy. He underwent traditional training in Hindu scriptures, Sanskrit, Vedic and Vedantic literature for many years, from his early days. Before coming to the United States in January 2012 he was teaching Sanskrit, Vedantic scriptures and Indian philosophy at the Training center in Belur Math, the institution that trains the monks of the Ramakrishna Order at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, Kolkata, India. Apart from his traditional education, the Swami has also received modern University education in English literature, psychology, European history, and Western philosophy. He is frequently invited for lectures on Yoga, Vedanta, and traditional Hindu scriptures and for participating in interfaith dialogues. For more: Web: www.sfvedanta.org Livestream: https://livestream.com/sfvedanta Facebook: www.facebook.com/sfvedanta YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SFVedanta All Original Content © Vedanta Society of Northern California
Episodes
-Emerson: an example of the universal appeal of the Bhagavad Gita.
-Sir Warren Hastings's introduction to the first English translation Bhagavad Gita is referred to.
-Lord Krishna answers the questions every refined, cultured, human being would ask.
-Our quest for contentment: Psychology of spiritual contentment
-Problems of success
-The solution
-Efficiency minus work...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on February 08, 2019.
- Existence is One.
- Seeing God everywhere, all the time, in every action, outside the place of worship
- You are eternal: going beyond the physical, psychological and intellectual
- Spirituality beyond the rituals.
- Introduction continues
- Dhyana-slokas
- Message of the Gita
- Humanity is One Spiritual Family
- The mystery of the Sacred word
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on February 15, 2019.
- You were never non-existent. You will never cease to be. You are eternal.
- Atman: our timeless transcendental dimension
- The secular merges in the spiritual.
- Spiritual food is needed for a healthy mind.
- Swadharma: resolving our inner conflicts
- No separation between the spiritual and the secular
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on February 22, 2019.
- The nature of Reality in Vedanta
- The creation is One.
- You are immortal.
- Remedy for depression
- The five gateways of secular knowledge and sense-perception
- Sublimation and evolution of our ego and diverting our mind into healthy channels.
- Psychology of real happiness
- The danger of seeking perpetual happiness
- Be a Witness of the ...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on March 01, 2019.
- Emerson's poem 'Brahma'
- The Bhagavad Gita: Second Chapter, Verse 19 and the fourth stanza of 'Brahma'.
- We are not the perishable body, the changing senses, the wavering mind or the unstable intellect. We are the immanent, omnipresent and transcendental Atman.
- The practical benefit of this realization: A unique spiritual common sense.
- Ou...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on March 15, 2019.
The laws of Karma and rebirth are explained. We are born with a whole lot of accumulated karmas and their results, a bundle or inheritance of samskaras.
Life Continues Even after Death of the Physical Body; Death is a Comma, not a Full Stop.
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on March 22, 2019.
The mystery of life and death. The problem of mindless activism and obsession with success. Diverting the mind into spiritually healthy channels. This body is ephemeral, but the soul (Atman) is eternal and immortal.
Feeding our mind with good samskaras through noble actions and noble thoughts.
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on March 29, 2019.
The Bhagavad Gita presents a high ideal on inner spiritual transformation through the practice of Swadharma. The important teachings of the second chapter are:
1) The Atman is deathless, unchanging, immortal and eternal.
2) The body is transient.
3) The ideal of Swadharma.
4) The characteristics of a Sthitaprajna (a man of steady wisdom or a spirituall...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on April 5, 2019.
-Swadharma: natural and spontaneous
-An antidote for our perverse notions of freedom and passion for the rationally indefensible
-Description of a perverse tendency for self-deception and untruthfulness and its cascading consequences (with a courtroom illustration)
-References to Dostoevsky's 'Notes From the Underground'
-A contrasting study of...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on April 12, 2019.
-While Swadharma is natural, effortless, inherent and our own, Para-dharma is artificial, alien and false.
-Swadharma and avoiding bitterness
-Swadharma and conservation of energy and facing the conflict of propriety
-Swadharma: an antidote for fragmentation of mind and loss of mental energy
-Swadharma as 'Yajna': the sacrifice of selfishness
-...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on April 19, 2019.
- Swadharma harmonizes the secular and the spiritual. We are able to do even our secular duties in a spiritual way.
- Swadharma is the creative utilization of human energy resources.
- Swadharma saves us from the tyranny of ultra-pragmatism.
- It guards us against our natural obsession with short-term goals.
- Verses 42 - 44 refer to the dist...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on May 3, 2019.
The evolution of the three gunas:
-Tamoguna to Rajoguna to Sattvaguna
-Karma-yoga in contrast to the karma-marga of the Mimamsaka philosophers
-The importance of mental attitude in karma-yoga in contrast to the Mimamsaka’s insistence on the letter of the law and Arjuna's fascination for the latter -Sri Krishna corrects Arjuna.
-The unknown and the u...
The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on May 10, 2019.
-'Brahmana' ideal: its universality
-Ethical and spiritual implications (verse 46).
-Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhwa on the 'Brahmana ideal'.
-Buddha on the ideal 'Brahmana'
-Our actions and their results: their unpredictability (verse 47).
-We cannot predict how our mind will work, the way we can predict how a machine will work.
-The psychological i...
- Why does the mind refuse to cooperate?
- The need for freedom from anxiety and worry
- Extraordinary mental powers without a spiritual ideal conceal within them the seed of trouble
- Great skills need a spiritual ideal to guide them
- How do we develop spiritual characteristics?
- The quest for real and lasting efficiency
- What is real success?
- F...
- Characteristics of an illumined saint (स्थितप्रज्ञ:):
- The qualities of a spiritually enlightened person (स्थितप्रज्ञ:) should serve as an ideal for the aspirant.
- Spiritual awakening does not make you insensitive to the problems of others.
- A spiritual man is not shaken by adversities and reverses.
- He is never unhappy because he does not go a...
-The Absolute ('Paramarthika) and the Relative ('Vyavaharika'):
-Their practical implication in daily life.
-The need for setting new priorities in life.
-For a स्थितप्रज्ञ: 'Buddhi' is free from all entanglements of mind (verse:55).
-How, in the case of a स्थितप्रज्ञ:, mind reacts differently to the different stimuli: no excitement, no emotions...
- The mind: our master or our slave?
- Why does the mind revolt?
- When does our mind become our friend?
- Can we program our mind?
- Why we cannot program our mind.
- We cannot disown our accumulated impressions and samskaras.
- The problem of fragmentation of the mind.
- The pull of the sense-objects, the senses, the visual and the audio object...
-The path to inner peace and freedom
-प्रसाद:(Inner peace and tranquility) and प्रमाद: (delusion / ignorance) discussed
-The four inner disciplines to obtain inner tranquility and stability of mind
-Beyond attraction, aversion, and sorrows
-Shama and Dama further elaborated
-Two types of purification: the physical and the mental
-How the mind becom...
-going beyond the tyranny of the senses and the sense-objects
-how to be in peace with ourselves
-the quest for tranquility of mind [prasada प्रसाद:]
-going beyond infatuation/ fascination and aversion: keeping the senses under restraint: way to perfect tranquility of mind
-Shankaracharya on प्रसाद:
-“प्रसाद: प्रसन्नता स्वास्थ्यम्” (Shankaracharya...
-The Bhagavad Gita is a conversation between two great men of action. In verse 18.73, Arjuna has had his conflicts resolved.
-We must win the battle within between the senses and the spirit. When we win the battle, we assert our true nature.
-A sthitaprajna has had the real experience of Atman. In verse 2.54, Arjuna asks for the characteristics of a sthitaprajna.
-We should not j...
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