Sunday Online Talk
September 6, 11am to 12noon
A Little Improvement
w/ Br. Shankara
Join us online via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/y7veshzt
If you read these paragraphs last week, please read them again. There have been changes — perhaps a little improvement.
September is a month for study of Bhakti Yoga. A bhakti yogi (bhakta) has a devotional relationship with God . This is developed over time by study, prayer, ritual, and worship. As a bhakta, you practice giving every action, thought, emotion, perception and tendency “a Godward turn.” Everything you are, both positive and negative, is offered to the Divine Presence. Your prayer is for the carefree self-surrender of a child in its Mother or Father’s arms and, ultimately, union with your Belovèd.
Pablo Casals (1876-1973) was an internationally renowned cellist. For more than 50 years he was a featured soloist with orchestras around the world. At age 93, Casals still practiced three hours a day — he was asked why. The Maestro replied, “I’m beginning to show some improvement.” Though his answer was light-hearted, we may believe Casals meant what he said.
Perhaps Casals sheds some light on Swami Vivekananda’s remark, “We are infinite dreamers dreaming finite dreams.” Since Swamiji could find no line of demarcation between the finite and the infinite, he claimed we can go on growing — improving — as long as we make the effort.
Raja Maharaj (Swami Brahmananda) asked a visitor, “Do you perform prayer and meditation nowadays?”
The answer: “No, Maharaj, not at all.”
“It is better to do at least a little every day. That will give you peace of mind and steadiness. … Perform Japa … a hundred and eight or a thousand times daily. If you are inclined to do more, you can do so, and you should.”
But in spite of instruction like this, Swamiji noted, “Most of us make our minds like spoilt children, allowing them to do whatever they want. … Practice is absolutely necessary. You may … listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practice, you will not get one step further. It all depends on practice … Practice makes us what we shall be.”
We will explore and discuss the bhakta’s practice of study, prayer, ritual, and worship at 11 am on Sunday, Sept. 6. The Zoom link to join us is: https://tinyurl.com/y7veshzt
