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FESTIVALS THIS MONTH:

JULY 10: GURU PURNIMA

ORLANDO AREA

SANTOSHI MA TEMPLE:
Bhajan and aarti first Friday of every month; 10900 Park Ridge Gotha Road, Windermere, FL 34786; (407) 996-2830.

SHRI LAXMINARAYAN MANDIR: 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday; 269 N. Klondike Ave., Pine Hills, FL 32811; (407) 877-7916.

SHRI SWAMINARAYAN MANDIR (BAPS): 1325 W. Oak Ridge Road, Orlando, FL 32809; (407) 857-0091.
POINCIANA HINDU MANDIR INC.: 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. each Sunday and on special festivals; 3999 Monterey Road, Kissimmee, FL 34758; (407) 873-2679.


LAKELAND (POLK COUNTY)


SHRI SWAMINARAYAN TEMPLE: 2793 New Tampa Highway, Lakeland, FL 33815; (863) 682-8260.


ALACHUA (ALACHUA COUNTY)


ISKCON OF ALACHUA (International Society for Krishna Consciousness): founder is A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, P.O. Box 819, Alachua, FL 32616; (386) 462-2017.


INVERNESS (CITRUS COUNTY)


SHIRDI SAI CENTER: 4707 Pleasant Grove Road, Inverness, FL 34452; for timings of the center and any other information, call (352) 860-2181 or e-mail shirdi@gowebco.com


JACKSONVILLE/ORANGE PARK


HINDU SOCIETY OF NORTHEAST FLORIDA (HSNEF): 714 Park Ave., Orange Park; for information, call (904) 269-1155 or click on www.jaxhindutemple.org


SOUTH FLORIDA (MIAMI AREA)


SOUTH FLORIDA HINDU TEMPLE: 13010 W. Griffin Road, Southwest Ranches, FL 33330; for timings and classes at the temple, call (954) 438-3675 or e-mail info@sfht.org

SHIVA VISHNU TEMPLE OF SOUTH FLORIDA:
5661 Dykes Road, Southwest Ranches, FL 33331; 9 a.m. to noon and 6 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and holidays; call (954) 689-0471 or click on www.shivavishnu.org

For a complete listing of Faith & Worship places and Classes, click on www.khaasbaat.com/faith


Send information on upcoming events to Nitish S. Rele, Khaas Baat, 18313 Cypress Stand Circle, Tampa, FL 33647
or e-mail editor@khaasbaat.com
Deadline for submissions is the 18th of each month to be included in the next issue.



RELIGION: IN A SERIES


WISDOM OF THE ‘YOGA VASISTHA’VIVEKA, VAIRAGYA AND ABHYASA
By SWAMI SURYADEVANANDA



Swami Suryadevananda

In this article, we are taking a slight detour from the main text of the Yoga Vasistha to include some practical considerations that are in different portions of the scripture but gathering them so their import can be taken in together.

CORRECT UNDERSTANDING

Proper understanding of what it is that we call the world before us, our own self with our strengths and weaknesses, and the objective of spiritual life is important. Clarity builds understanding, and inner conviction rises on the shoulders of proper understanding. This is the dawn of the eye of wisdom, as it has been called, or the constant insistence on the truth of things based a conviction that externality is an appearance. Externality consciousness is the root of all our problems as then we are prompted to take a certain position in regards to what we erroneously regard as external. This object, person or condition that is regarded as external is not affected by the position that we begin adopting. Another person who also beholds the same object, person or condition may not have the same attitude that we begin adopting. The adoption of an attitude is peculiar to our mind only and gains momentum by the amount we insist on its separation with us and the force with which we take a positive, negative or even an indifferent view towards it. Here, indifference is a denial of its existence and diversion of the mind.

The mind is inert since it does not function in deep sleep when consciousness disentangles itself from the mind. Sleep seems to come naturally when we are more inclusive in our understanding and sleep appears difficult when there is an insistence on this ‘outsideness,’ which requires an attitude toward something as the strength to maintain this condition is consciousness. When consciousness is kept engaged in its own segmentation and then to entertain a certain attitude, it is tightly woven with the mind and poured onto the condition to which we feel justified somehow to have a peculiar attitude.

EMPOWERING NEW MECHANISMS

The insistence on externality is the cause sorrow to the individual and stands as an obstacle in any spiritual progress since a portion of your self is needed to power another operation taking place, be it in the background or foreground. Unfortunately, we are force-fed ‘awareness of externality’ because of many factors and the onslaught continues throughout our life. Vigilance is necessary to prevent the continual insistence of this state of affairs.

The lamp of wisdom becomes a state of vigilance throughout the waking condition and also is known as Viveka. This Viveka is a heightened state of inner vigilance and an insistence of fresh evaluation as things circumstances unfold. Viveka is not something that you do, and is not triggered by circumstances. It is ‘being awake and intelligently observant’ as an ongoing condition so that the reports of the senses and mind are not allowed to impose themselves and insist on a peculiar attitude because of their limitations. Viveka is the non-acceptance of the limitations of perception and self-recovery in stages by empowerment of a faculty that capable of functioning on reason till experience dawns. If you can somehow see the vital connection with everything and all, erroneous attitudes also will start dropping as you cannot have these attitudes to your own self.

Under the arising vigilance of Viveka, or insistence on the ‘truth of things’, two processes take place simultaneously: rejection of the untruth, which is Vairagya, and effort toward the truth, which is called Abhyasa. Vairagya is not a renouncing of things, persons or conditions as these will continue to be right there with or without our refusing to have anything to do with them. Vairagya is the renouncing the unreality of the state of externality of things, persons and conditions, which compels us to invest consciousness to maintain that condition of unreality. It is therefore important that this rejection of externality as a reality be under the lamp of Viveka or inner vigilance does not become another attitude that goes to an extreme. Simultaneously, there is an insistence on the connectivity of things and a resulting expansion from the absorption in a positive direction and this is called Abhyasa. Gurudev Sri Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj said all of this in two powerful words: “Detach. Attach.”

Spiritual life is simple life, not merely externally but in the spirit in which life is lived. Complication requires our energy for its sustenance, and so it is that an increase in simplicity is an expansion of being! Joy is the feeling that arises from completeness of being, and it is this quest for completeness that is ultimately behind all our efforts.

Swami Suryadevananda is with The Divine Life Society, Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India. He can be reached at suryadevananda@gmail.com by email.


 




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