Sunday morning service at The Vedanta Center of St. Petersburg is held in the Chapel at 11:00 AM. All are welcome.
The Center is continuing with our Monday evening chanting class. The class will be held in Mother’s House – 176, 19th Avenue SE, St. Petersburg, at 7:00 PM.
We are also continuing with our Wednesday evening scripture class. This class will be held in the Chapel at 7:00 PM. The scripture class will be on studying the Bhagavat Gita and the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna on the last Wednesday of the month. The Sunday morning service and the Wednesday scripture class shall also be made available live via Zoom platform.
All classes are given by Swami Ishtananda except mentioned otherwise.
Sunday Lectures – 11:00 A.M.
| May 3 Story of Bhagavan Buddha |
| May 10 Spiritual Life and the Mind |
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May 17 One Exceptional Worship |
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May 24 Shaping the Mind in the Light of Sri Ramakrishna Guest Speaker Swami Shivarchanananda, Vedanta Society, St. Louis |
| May 31 More About Spiritual Mind |
SPECIAL EVENT
May 24. Sunday Lecture by Swami Shivarchanananda, Asst. Min. of Vedanta Society of St. Louis, MO
Swami Shivarchanananda joined the Ramakrishna Order in 2001. After his training, he spent over ten years in Jayrambati, where he performed ritualistic worship and wrote journal articles. In 2017 he was transferred to Baghbazar, where he worked editing and publishing Vedanta related books. He was subsequently appointed chief editor of Udbodhan magazine, the Bengali journal of the Ramakrishna Order. He came to the United States in April, 2022
Swami Shivarchanananda will be our guest speaker on Sunday, May 24, 2026
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Monday evening chanting class
May 4, 11, 18
Music Practice at the Chapel May 25
The class will be held in Mother’s House – 176, 19th Avenue SE, St. Petersburg, at 7:00 P.M.
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Wednesday Evening Scripture Class
May 6, 13, 20 – Bhagavat Gita
May 27 – Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
This class will be held in the Chapel at 7:00 PM.
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Inspirational Thoughts
The Self—the Atman—is by Its own nature pure. It is the same, the one Existence of the universe that is reflecting Itself from the lowest worm to the highest and most perfect being The whole of this universe is one Unity, one Existence, physically, mentally, morally and spiritually. We are looking upon this one Existence in different forms and creating all these images upon it.
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Relative knowledge is good, because it leads to absolute knowledge; but neither the knowledge of the senses, nor of the mind, nor even of the Vedas is true, since they are all within the realm of relative knowledge. First get rid of the delusion “I am the body,” then only can we want real knowledge. Man’s knowledge is only a higher degree of brute knowledge.
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Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy—by one or all of these—and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
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Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge, power and activity, has its seat.
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All the teachers of humanity are unselfish. Suppose Jesus of Nazareth was teaching, and a man came and told him, “What you teach is beautiful. I believe that it is the way to perfection, and I am ready to follow it; but I do not care to worship you as the only begotten Son of God.” What would be the answer of Jesus of Nazareth? “Very well, brother, follow the ideal and advance in your own way. I do not care whether you give me the credit for the teaching or not. I am not a shopkeeper. I do not trade in religion. I only teach truth, and truth is nobody’s property. Nobody can patent truth. Truth is God Himself.”
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–Swami Vivekananda