ADVENTURES IN ADVAITA VEDANTA...

Adventures in Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy and science of spirit. We are one you and I; are you curious why?..


An Interlude

Hari OM

'Text-days' are for delving into the words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.

TATTVABODHAH.

A digression - and yet not...Got a little excited when doing personal catch ups on Chinmaya Channel. Whilst the teaching here is based in this aacharya's own learning and taken directly from her own guru, it is lovely to find another presentation on the subject/text in hand. 

A completely pertinent video from Sw. Swatmananda-ji, who is aacharya at Worli (Mumbai) CM centre and who takes many public classes. This is not something to be done too often, the putting of videos here, but every now and then it is good for you to have a sense of what this learning activity feels like 'in the flesh' as it were. This video well serve a number of purposes at this juncture. Without the benefit of face-face class, the teaching at AVblog may appear somewhat dry, or distant, or a mere intellectual exercise. Despite reminders, and without there being much, if any, feedback from the readers who are evidenced in stats at around a consistent 22/23 (that's impressive in terms of Vedanta folks!), it is impossible to know what kind of impact is being made. There is no way to gauge the value to the student, unless the student reflects back to the teacher. This is as much a part of the Vedantic experience as learning the texts. 

In providing this satsang video today, which recaps wonderfully the items we shared last Text-day, it is hoped that you will note, amongst other things, the prayers at beginning and end,  how students ask questions and how practical the lessons are. The benefit of sitting in satsang like this for an hour or more becomes clear. Greater depth and much more variety of example can be given. The fun which is Vedanta is much more apparent in live study group situation. Swami-ji's class activity some way through is very interesting indeed! (If you choose to take it up, take this clarification, that the second part of exercise is to write one letter of the sentence he says, followed by numerals 1 - ... then back, like as T1, H2, E3 and so on. There, you have an advantage &*>)

Image result for adi shankaracharyaAnother factor in this little 'holiday' is that today is Sri Adi Shankaraacharya-jayanti. The guru parampara all the way back to that saint is celebrated on this day and what better way to demonstrate the consistency of the teaching, albeit with different delivery, than to hear from another of Sandeepany's graduates? Swami-ji "graduated" in 2000.


To clarify, recordings from Sandeepany are not used here as the teachings of we the teachers were at an entirely different level - though of course the essence of Sw. Advayananda comes through in the voice of AVblog...as indeed does that of Gurudev. The beauty of this video, is that Swatmananda-ji is presenting to householders and workers, making it relevant.

English is excellent but you may need to tune your ear to accent. (NB - the subtitles given here are absolute nonsense so do not be tempted to even try them!).  

If you do not have the time to watch this right at the moment, then do queue it up on the 'watch later' in You Tube.



A word of caution. There may be temptation to progress through and follow up on all Swami-ji's talks. There is no concern if you wish to catch up and obtain his perspective in episodes one to seven (this being ep eight); but please do refrain from moving beyond the point we are 'at' on AVblog. Think of this as an exercise in 'delayed gratification' ... ie uparati!!!