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.
| April 5 Message of Easter |
| April 12 Inner Silence |
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April 19 Sri Ramakrishna’s Special Message Guest Speaker Swami Bhaswatananda, Vedanta Center, Washington DC |
| April 26 Human View of Sri Ramakrishna |
April 3. Good Friday: 6:30 pm at Panton House
April 19. Sunday Lecture by Swami Bhaswatananda
Swami Bhaswatananda is the Assistant Minister at the Vedanta Center of Greater Washington DC. He joined the monastic order of Ramakrishna Math at an early age in 1982. He lived in Bangalore and Belur Math for fifteen years, and served at the editorial office in Mayavati of Prabuddha Bharata for nine years. He was then sent to assist the Mission’s work in Germany in 1997. Since 2022 he is working at Washington DC.
Swami Bhaswatananda will be our guest speaker on Sunday, April 19, 2026
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Monday evening chanting class
April 6, 13, 20, and 27
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
April 1, 8, 15, 22 – Bhagavat Gita
April 29 – 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