This lecture was delivered on September 1, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat.
1 – Spiritual Wisdom and the Power of Selfless Work

-Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, and Shankaracharya are examples of spiritual teachers who had developed a spiritual faculty capable of penetrating into the true nature of everything. Coupled with the complete awareness of being instruments in God’s hand, they could do tremendous impactful work without any fatigue.

2 – The Ability to do Good without Any Expectation of Reward

-"If you love any human being you will have to suffer for it. He is blessed indeed who can love God alone. There is no suffering in loving God." – Holy Mother

-A person for whom you have done everything, there is at least a 50 percent chance that that person will become your enemy. Help and do your duty, but remember that love is for God alone.

3 – The Wisdom to Look Beyond the Body

-"Everything - husband, wife, or even the body - is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world. Even this attachment to the body, the identification of the self with the body must go. What's this body? My dear, it is nothing but three pounds of ashes when it is cremated. Why so much vanity about it? However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are attached to it too much. Glory to God. The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind. These earthly ties are transitory, today they seem to be the all and all of life but tomorrow they vanish. Your real tie is with God." – Holy Mother

-The story of Chitraketu from the Bhagavata Purana illustrates the fact that life cycle after life cycle, we have temporary associations with different parents and relations. These relations are indeed sacred, but we should not wait for fate to teach us the hard way that these relationships are temporary.

4 – The Real Meaning of Suffering: God in Vedanta

-"You see my son, it is not a fact that you will never face dangers. Difficulties always come but they do not last forever. You will see that they pass away like water under a bridge." – Holy Mother

-Difficulties and happy experiences are both transitory. Vedanta teaches that suffering is not suffering from a spiritual perspective. They are natural, inevitable stages in our spiritual evolution.

-Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, was grief-stricken over the loss of a family member. Buddha asked him to find one single home that had not suffered from death, old age or disease. He could not find one and was then consoled.

-The real cause of suffering is our constant expectation that what is essentially changeable, the empirical world, should be the unchanging. When we take our priority to be the unchanging transcendental reality, we are able to see suffering as part of God’s grace. This unknown factor is what makes life profound and meaningful and is often needed for us to be able to grow in spiritual life.

-This perspective also resolves the major objections of Agnostics and Atheists such as Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens to religion.

-We should recognize God's grace as God's grace. A man asked for 1000 dollars from God. He promised to give 500 dollars if he got it. He found 500 dollars on the street, pocketed it and said, "God, you have already taken your share." We often interpret God's grace in our terms instead of recognizing it as God's grace.

-In a famous Sanskrit verse, God says, "If I want to bless somebody, I will take away all his wealth, I will make his sycophants and flatterers desert him, I will isolate him, and if instead of losing faith in me, he persists in his devotion, I shall elevate him to such a position that he will be an envy of angels.”

-Prahlada says in the Bhagavata Purana: Every wise person should try to turn to God at the beginning of his or her life instead of waiting for fate to open one’s eyes.

5 – Japa: Evolution from Mechanical to Spontaneous Communion with God

-Disciple: "I practice japa but I cannot concentrate my mind."
Mother: "Repeat the name of God whether your mind is concentrated or not. It will be good for you if you can repeat the name of God for a fixed number of times daily with concentration. Otherwise, repeat the name of God whether your mind is concentrated or not."

-In this case, Mother advises that even mechanical repetition of God’s name is useful but it is not the most effective way.

-Disciple: "Mother, shall I practice repetition of the holy name having in mind a fixed number of repetitions?"
Mother: "If you repeat with an eye to number, your mind may be concentrated on number alone. Therefore, I advise you to repeat the name of God without being particular about the number. Repeating the name of God a fixed number of times, telling the rosary or counting on fingers is calculated to the direct the mind to God. The natural tendency of the mind is to run away from higher ideals and to run around all the time. Through these means, mind is slowly attracted to God. By repeating the name of God, if one sees his form and becomes absorbed in him, one's japa stops, that is the beginning of meditation."

-Repetition of ‘japa’ with a fixed number will draw the mind away from external distractions. At a higher level, we must develop the habit of repeating a few times with great concentration. There is an evolution from mechanical practice to a spontaneous and natural practice.

6 – What Should We Pray For? Preparing the Mind for Sublime Spiritual Practice

-Disciple: “Everybody says that one who approaches the Kalpataru, wish-fulfilling tree, has to ask something. But I wonder, for what should children ask the mother? A mother gives to every child according to its need. As Sri Ramakrishna used to say, a mother serves different dishes to suit the stomach conditions of her different children. Now, please tell me which is the correct attitude."

-Holy Mother: "How much intelligence does a man possess? He is likely to ask for something other than what he really needs. He may even end up creating a monkey in place of Shiva. It is wise to take refuge in God" He will always give you whatever is necessary. However, one should pray for devotion and desirelessness for such a prayer does no harm."

-It is a real problem if God listens to all our prayers because we do not know what to pray for. A greedy man who got whatever he prayed for, ultimately prayed for a tiger and the tiger killed him. By taking refuge in God, it becomes impossible to pray for something that is dangerous for us. Our desire becomes spiritualized. The examples of Girish Ghosh and Dhruva are narrated as positive examples of spiritual determination. The six factors of self-surrender in Vaishnava devotional philosophy are also mentioned. Spiritual maturity is needed to pray for the right thing, rather than the wrong.

Question and Answer

Q1 – The Sage Narada’s role in protecting ‘Dharma’ is explained.

Q2 – The relationship between Dvaita and Advaita is explained.

Q3 – The ultimate relationship, harmony, and apparent conflict between self-effort and grace is explained.

Q4 – The stumbling block of not seeing God’s grace as God’s grace is further explained.