We are happy to welcome everyone back after the summer recess. 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 Bhagavad Gita and the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna on the last Wednesday of the month. The Sunday morning service and the Wednesday classes shall also be made available live via Zoom platform.
All classes are given by Swami Ishtananda except mentioned otherwise.
Sunday services begin at 11:00 am.
All are welcome.
Sunday Lectures – 11:00 A.M.
| October 4 |
Swami Vivekananda and the Bhagavad Gita |
| October 11 | God the Mother |
| October 18 | Worshipping Goddess Durga |
| October 25 | The Mother Divine |
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Monday evening chanting class
October 12, 19, 26
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
October 7, 14, 21 – Bhagavad Gita
October 28 – Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
This class will be held in the Chapel at 7:00 PM.
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Inspirational Thoughts
All knowledge must stand on perception of certain facts, and upon that we have to build our reasoning. But curiously enough, the vast majority of mankind think, especially at the present time, that no such perception is possible in religion, that religion can only be apprehended by vain arguments. Therefore we are told not to disturb the mind by vain arguments. Religion is a question of fact, not of talk. We have to analyze our own souls to find what is there. We have to understand it and to realize what is understood. That is religion. No amount of talk will make religion. So the question whether there is a God or not can never be proved by argument, for the arguments are as much on one side as on the other. But if there is a God, He is in our own hearts.
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The greatest aid to the practice of keeping God in memory is, perhaps, music. The Lord says to Narada, the great teacher of bhakti, “I do not live in heaven, nor do I live in the heart of the yogi, but where My devotees sing My praise, there am I.” Music has such tremendous power over the human mind; it brings it to concentration in a moment. You will find the dull, ignorant, low, brutelike human beings, who never steady their mind for a moment at other times, when they hear attractive music, immediately become charmed and concentrated. Even the minds of animals, such as dogs, cats, and serpents become charmed with music.
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Non-attachment is the basis of all the yogas. The man who gives up living in houses, wearing fine clothes, and eating good food, and goes into the desert, still may be a most attached person. His only possession, his own body, may become everything to him; and as he lives he will be simply struggling for the sake of the body. Non-attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our external body, it is all in our mind. The binding link of “I and mine” is in the mind. If we have not this link with the body and with the things of the senses, we are non-attached, wherever and whatever we may be.
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If you can get absolutely still for just one moment, you have reached the goal.
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–Swami Vivekananda