Commencing of Session 2023-2024
Regular services of The Vedanta Center of St. Petersburg for the year 2023-2024 shall begin with the opening service on Sunday, September 10, 2023, at 11 am. We welcome everyone back after the summer recess.
The activities of the Center return back to pre-pandemic routine – Sunday service at 11 am, Chanting class on Mondays at 7 pm, and Scripture classes on Wednesdays at 7 pm. There shall be classes on Vedanta text books, which is continuation of Bhagavad Gita at present, on all Wednesdays except on the last Wednesday each month when Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna shall be studied.
Monday evening chanting class on hymns and prayers will be held in Mother’s House located at 176 – 19th Avenue SE, St. Petersburg. Sunday services and the Classes on Wednesdays shall be held in the Chapel and shall be available live via zoom platform.
Sunday Lectures
| Oct. 1 | To be Announced |
| Oct. 8 |
To be Announced |
| Oct. 15 |
To be Announced |
| Oct. 22 | To be Announced |
| Oct. 29 | To be Announced |
Weekly Classes
Monday: 7:00 PM: Chanting Class
Wednesday: 7:00 PM: Scripture Class
Inspirational Thoughts
The watchword of all well-being, of all moral good is not “I” but “thou.” Who cares whether there is a heaven or a hell, wo cares if there is a soul or not, who cares if there is an unchangeable or not? Here is the world, and it is full of misery. Go out into it as Buddha did, and struggle to lessen it or die in the attempt. Forget yourselves; this is the first lesson to be learnt, whether you are a theist or an atheist, whether you are an agnostic or a Vedantist, a Christian or a Muslim. The one lesson obvious to all is the destruction of the little self and building up of the Real Self.
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The spirit is the goal, and not matter. Forms, images, bells, candles, books, churches, temples, and all holy symbols are very good, very helpful to the growing plant of spirituality, but thus far and no farther. In the vast majority of cases, we find that the plant does not grow. It is very good to be born in a church, but it is very bad to die in a church. It is very good to be born within the limits of certain forms that help the little plant of spirituality, but if a man dies within the bounds of these forms, it shows that he has not grown, that there has been no development of the soul.
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The Lord is the great magnet, and we are all like iron filings; we are being constantly attracted by Him, and all of us are struggling to reach Him. All this struggling of ours in the world is surely not intended for selfish ends. Fools do not know what they are doing; the work of their life is, after all, to approach the great magnet. All the tremendous struggling and fighting in life is intended to make us go to Him ultimately and be one with Him..
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When through the guru’s instructions and your own conviction you will see, not this world of name and form, but the essence which lies as its substratum, then only you will realize your identity with the whole universe from the Creator down to a clump of grass, then only you will get the state in which “the knots of the heart are cut asunder and all doubts are dispelled.”
-Swami Vivekananda