Reminder for 7.27.22 ZoomChant |
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Hi , Bhavani here
Here are the chants we'll do this coming Wednesday at 7 PM, in addition to the Opening Prayer, Ganesha, and closing Arati to Brahman.
Jaya Bolo (not in Kripalu chant book) Jaya Bolo Sita Rama Ki Ananda Me Prabhu Ananda Me Ananda Me Prabhu Ananda Me
Hare Krishna #4 (p20 in Kripalu chant book) Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Kali Durge #1 (p65top in Kripalu chant book) Kali Durge Namo Namah Kali Durge Namo Namah
Jaya Shiva Shivaye (p60 in Kripalu chant book) Jaya Shiva Shivaye Brahmeshvara Dada Shivaye Brahmeshvara Dada Shivaye Brahmeshvara Shivaya Shivaya Shivaya Shivaya Shivaya
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This Wednesday we welcome another member of our new group of response chanters: Prabhakar Jeff Migdow.
I’m honored to have Prabhakar join our responding group for Zoom Chanting with Bhavani. Prabhakar lived at Kripalu from 1980 to 1995, where he participated in lots of kirtans. Like me, he loves chanting.
Prabhakar Jeff Migdow, MD, and Usui Reiki Master, has explored yoga, health, and consciousness since 1969 in India, Nepal, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru. A former director of Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training, he currently develops and directs Prana Yoga teacher trainings in New York City. His holistic medical practice in Lenox, MA, includes homeopathy, lifestyle counseling, and Reiki healing. He is coauthor of Breathe In, Breathe Out and Goddess to the Core. For information on his yoga classes or his medical practice, you can contact Prabhakar at horus888@aol.com or 413-637-1513.
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Lessons We Can Learn from Krishna |
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Last week I forwarded to you Shiva’s prescription for the journey to enlightenment. This week we’ll look at some of the teachings from Lord Krishna, taken from the Bhagavad Gita, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, pictured above. These are from three different sources and are listed in no particular order. Also, I have shortened these, so to learn more from the references to the Gita, click the three links at the bottom of the article.
More than a Hindu God, Krishna was a true spiritual guru. He reformed the spiritual destiny of mankind, educating the world about devotion and dharma. Shri Krishna has been a role model for people in every sense—in the past, in today’s modern world and certainly he will remain that in ages to come.
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The most popular book in India—the Bhagavad Gita—often called simply the Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture in Sanskrit. It is a part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, where, in the battle of Kurukshetra during the righteous war between Pandavas and Kauravas, Lord Krishna enlightens Arjuna with his wisdom. He teaches him many life lessons that can easily be applied to our daily lives. Here are some of them.
The Purpose of Life is God/Truth We may run all over the place chasing after sense-objects and be consumed in the world of desires and ego, but the sooner we realize that the only true purpose to life is God, the better chance we have to be free of suffering and torment.
The importance of Doing One’s Dharma Krishna: “Do your duty and be detached from its outcome. Do not be driven by the end product; enjoy the journey of getting there.”
If you will not work or perform your duty, you will not get results. This is one of the best learnings from the teachings of Lord Krishna. You must perform your duty without anticipating the outcome or end result. It doesn’t mean that having hopes or being optimistic is wrong, but without actions, your path will not be successful. The trick is not to concentrate too much on the final result and just enjoy the process of reaching there. In this age we might say that being process-oriented instead of result-oriented improves your overall productivity.
The Awareness of the Truth of Karma Krishna’s most popular teaching was the theory of karma. He said to believe in yourself and do your Karma (action), and success will follow you automatically. When we think about the outcomes from our actions, we divert some part of out attention there and thus lose concentration. This keeps us from giving our hundred percent effort, and in turn decreases the value of the outcomes.
In the Bhagavad-Gita Lord Krishna says that everything happens for a cause or good reason. Whatever happens in life happens for good, and there is always a cause or reason behind it. He also said that the world is governed by a supreme power, which is our father, the Almighty. Krishna asked all to believe in the goodness of the Almighty and that whatever happens happens for good. Therefore it’s best not to cry over things that have happened or over things that we do not have control of. We need to let go and accept them.
The True Meaning of Renunciation As Krishna explains, sitting in a cave without any possessions, but nevertheless burning with desire is not renunciation. Being untouched by desire is true renunciation.
Desires Come and Go Krishna: “The key to happiness is the reduction of desires."
Desires come and go, but you can remain a dispassionate witness, simply watching and enjoying the show.This does not mean you do not act. The Gita is all about Karma Yoga, or the Yoga of Action.
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Monkey Mind Cannot Meditate The ability to concentrate is a prerequisite for meditation. Concentration is not meditation, meditation is much more than that. But without being able to apply your mind to the act of steady witnessing, and being constantly adrift and absorbed in thoughts, you will not be able to meditate. And without meditation, you will not uncover the Truth. Without Truth, there is no end to suffering.
Mindfulness Krishna: “Do not weep for the past; do not worry for the future, concentrate on your present life.”
Krishna teaches us to live in the present moment. Even though he knew what would happen in the future, he stayed in the present moment. Mindfulness is all about staying in the present and being aware. Mindfulness is life changing and can make a difference in your quality of life. Living in the present and paying more attention to the present moment improves your mental well-being.
Control of anger Krishna: “Anger leads to clouding of judgment, which results in bewilderment of the memory. When the memory is bewildered, the intellect gets destroyed; and when the intellect is destroyed, one is ruined.”
Without intellect, decision-making gets affected. Krishna says that anger is the fundamental cause of all kind of failures in a person’s life. It is one of Krishna’s three main gates to self-destruction and hell, other two being greed and lust. One must try to control and side-track anger while keeping the mind at peace.
Devotion to the Supreme In much of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna indicates that doing all with the Supreme in mind is the path to salvation. This is another way to be free of the ego and pride--to devote all that you do to God, and remember that it is He doing everything and you are just a channel. Forgetting God leads to focusing on results and the ego, which only strengthens the bonds of delusion and suffering.
Understand Change/Non-Attachment Krishna: “Change is the law of the world. In a moment, you become the owner of millions. In another, you become penniless.”
We tend to get attached to worldly goods like money, cars, clothes etc, but we forget they are not our lives; they are just a ‘part’ of our lives. We fail to recognize that money is of no worth if it is not exchanged for something, a car will break down one day or the other, and there will be a day when our clothes will stop fitting us or will be out of fashion. All these worldly things will end one day, so why invest energy and waste one’s love on them? Instead, one should think of the good in the longer run. Krishna said: “Whatever belongs to you today belonged to someone else earlier and will belong to someone else tomorrow.”
Be a Believer Krishna: “A man is made by his beliefs. As he believes. So he becomes.”
In the Bhagavad Gita, 15.15, Krishna said “I am seated in everyone's heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.” He also said, “I am the ritualistic sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas, and I am the worship-able Deity. The transcendental sound vibration thus establishes Me as the essential meaning of all Vedic knowledge."
But in every way, Lord Krishna always asked people to believe—to believe in themselves, to believe in their talents, to believe in the power of analysis, and finally to believe in the supreme power. Lord Krishna said that one should be a believer because belief brings us confidence, it brings us motivation, and also the courage to take risks.
Be Empathatic and Just Krishna always professed to be uniform in vision, which means to be empathetic and just. He declared that God is omnipresent—always watching over us—and that makes everyone equal on this earth. So Krishna always asked people to step into others’ shoes and view the situation from their side. He said if you act for yourself and think you are being good to others, you are being a hypocrite. He asked people to be just, because the almighty is always watching. This means that the next time you go through a red light during the night, making sure that there is no cop around, be aware that God is watching. Practically, avoiding this not only makes you a good human being, but also avoids a lot of accidents!
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The Value of Friendship Sudama was Krishna’s childhood friend. Unlike Krishna he was a poor man. His family could hardly arrange food twice in a day. He once visited Shri Krishna hoping to ask for some assistance. But when he met Krishna, he did not have the courage to share his problems with his friend.
When Sudama returned home, he was surprised by the lavish house, beautiful clothes and expensive jewelry that awaited him. Being a true and genuine friend, Krishna understood Sudama’s problems without Sudama uttering a word. That is the true meaning of friendship. It is a well-established fact that having real, genuine and trustworthy friends is good for you. This life is about the people you share it with, so make the most of it. Surround yourself with good friends and always be a good friend in return.
The friendship of lord Krishna and Sudama is an example given to Hindu children. That friendship teaches us to value our relationships and to have a selfless love for our friends. It teaches us to love our friends irrespective of their status, caste and creed; it teaches us to help them in their bad times and not mention the help; it teaches us to watch the back of a friend.
Four Kinds of Actions According to Lord Krishna there are four kind of actions or karma that a human can perform they are, Kamya Karma: Actions performed for selfish gains; Nishiddha Karma: Actions that are forbidden by holy texts and scriptures; Nitya Karma: Actions that must be performed daily; and finally Naimittika Karma: Actions that must be performed on certain special occasions. Lord Krishna forbade his devotees to perform the first two kinds of Karmas as they lead to rebirth, and he laid stress on the performance of the latter two, as they help in achieving Moksha or Nirvana, in other words, salvation.
No job is big or small Krishna: “No one that does good work will ever come to a terrible ending.”
Lord Krishna could have won the battle of Kurukshetra all by himself. But he chose to guide Arjuna and drove his chariot for him. He says a job is a job; there is no big or small job. No labor is without dignity. You must give your best while at your job. It fills a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to respect all kind of jobs and accept them.
Sacrifice Krishna: “Do everything you have to do, but not with ego, not with lust, not with envy, but with love, compassion, humility, and devotion.”
In life we have to sacrifice many things to achieve success. There cannot be any significant progress or achievement without sacrifice. If you are not willing to sacrifice your comfort zone, pride, ego, time, money or security, you will never be able to achieve your highest level of success.
Liberation and Bondage Krishna: “The pleasure from the senses seems like nectar at first, but it is sour as a toxin in the end.”
Lord Krishna emphasized being free from all kinds of negative and positive emotions like, joy, sorrow, grief, happiness, jealousy, as they are all illusions or maya. These emotions are ephemeral. All beings are bonded due to lack of knowledge. but they get free and achieve liberation once they realize that the world is nothing but illusion. All souls taking birth on the Earth must surrender to the Lord and be free from attachments to living and non-living objects. One should not be conditioned by body or worldly things.
Withdrawal from Sense-Objects Lord Krishna preached withdrawal from all sensory-objects as a means to avoid delusion. All the objects of desire ultimately lead to misery. One must control his senses and not run after the pursuit of desires. As soon as one desire is fulfilled, another takes its place, thus creating a vicious circle. One should give up ahmkara or Ego and identify only with God.
Listen to Your Conscience Lord Krishna said that when his subjects meditate, they ask a lot of questions and he has to meditate to answer them back. His voice is the voice of conscience, the voice of heart, the voice which can be heard only when we are calm. Our mind is biased, it analyzes what is good and what is bad, and sometimes when we over think, it finds bad from good as well. But our conscience never lies to us, it is unbiased and sometimes very rude, and it is for that reason that most of us refrain from hearing its voice.
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Glory Of Satsanga Lord Krishna described, satsanga as the fastest means to be closer to him and please him. Satsanga literally means being in the company of Truth, represented by Sadhus or knowledgeable ones. It helps in reducing and finally putting an end to attachment of all kinds.
Path to Life-Long Happiness Krishna: “Happiness is a state of mind, that has nothing to do with the external world.”
Lord Krishna describes, Karma (action) Jnana (knowledge) and Bhakti (devotion) as the three-fold way to attain the Lord. This is the sure way to achieve happiness and moksha. Being knowledgeable will help perform the right Karma and not worry about the fruit of the action. Devotion to God helps introspection and turning away from worldly desires. The three paths lead to removal of illusion or maya.
Humbleness or modesty Even though Krishna was the king of Dwarka and the god of all creation, he was still humble and always showed tremendous respect to his elders – whether they were his parents or teachers. He was always eager to give pleasure to them. Because of this, people were always willing to help him whereever he went.
During the Kurukshetra war, Krishna donned the role of lowly charioteer. Shri Kirshna was the embodiment of simplicity and his role as a charioteer is a testament to that. Being humble or modest is one of the most important characteristics of one’s personality.
From Darkness to Light When a man can still the senses, he is called illumined. The recollected mind is awake In the knowledge of the Atman, which is dark night to the ignorant. The ignorant are awake in their sense-life, which they think is daylight. To the seer that is darkness.
The seer knows peace: The man who stirs up his own lusts can never know peace. He knows peace who has forgotten desire. He lives without craving--free from ego, free from pride. This is the state of enlightenment in Brahman. A man does not fall back from it Into delusion. Even at the moment of death he is alive in that enlightenment
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About Rasa Lila The rasa-lila did not take place on the ordinary plane of the senses, the way people today interpret it. During the rasa-lila the gopis experienced the beatitude of the jivatma (individual Soul) merging in the Paramatma (the Supreme Principle, whatever we call it: God, Supreme Self, Divine Self, Love, Truth or Reality). Because of their divine love, the Lord appeared to each of the gopis. With his power, he blessed each with a vision of the Self.”
https://www.speakingtree.in/al... https://www.invajy.com/8-life-... https://top-10-list.org/2014/0...
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Zoom Chanting with Bhavani is each Wednesday from 7 PM to about 8:15 or so.
The Zoom and Facebook chanting sessions are free offerings. However, when you are in a positive financial position to do so, we are grateful for any monetary gifts you might offer to help keep it all going—and support responders and drummers. Send any amount by going to @bhavanilorraine on one of these links: Venmo or PayPal. If you’d rather send a check, my address is Bhavani Lorraine Nelson, 109 Housatonic Street, Suite 204, Lenox, MA 01240. Thank you very much.
Lots of gratitude to those of you who have been sending gifts for the chanting. We're very grateful and will use those gifts to maintain the Wednesday sessions as long as we can.
I still have a few copies of the Kripalu Chant book for $15 with free shipping. If you'd like one, just email me. My CDs are available on my website bhavanilorrainenelson.com as hard copies or downloads.
Feel free to share the Zoom link with friends, but please send me their names and emails so I can have them on my list in case anything changes.
If it’s easier for you to join the chanting on FB, go to my FB business page Bhavani’s Meditation, Music, and More at 7 PM, or watch the video there later. Past Zoom sessions are available here on my YouTube channel.
Hope to see you Wednesday evening. Peace and blessings,
Bhavani
If you’re using the Zoom app, put in meeting ID and passcode.
Meeting ID: 961 6260 7200
Passcode: Zchant
If you’re calling in by phone, the numeric passcode is 777008.
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