Arsha Vidya Pitham, Saylorsburg, PA

Weekend Classes

Bhagavad Gita Weekend Classes are held at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam on 1st and 3rd Sunday every month.
Live Streaming from Temple Lecture Hall

  • 10.00 AM to 11:10 AM — Session 1 
  • 11:20 AM to 12:15 PM — Session 2 
  • 12:30 PM                    — Aarthi 
  • 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM.  — Lunch
  • Satsang ( Optional – Subject to weather conditions )

BHAGAVAD GITA

A classical interpretation of the modern mind. For centuries the Bhagavad Gita has remained the single most influential philosophical text shaping Indian thought and life. It addresses itself foursquare to the universal limitations each human being is confronted with ignorance, sorrow, and death.

The teaching of the Bhagavad Gita opens with the audacious statement that all these are illegitimate problems caused by ignorance about the real nature of the self. Drawing upon the essence of all Upanishads, Gita explains how the self, the atman, is limitless, indestructible, unborn. This knowledge, Brahmavidya, frees one from all sense of limitation. This is the principal teaching of the Bhagavad Gita.

Introduction

MOKSA: FREEDOM FROM WHAT?

Even though it comes last, moksa is a very important purusartha, as we shall see. Moksa is recognised as a pursuit only by a very few people in any given generation. Because a certain appreciation, a certain maturity or insight, about life and its struggles
is required to understand moksa, people do not discerningly pursue it, although everyone is in fact, always seeking freedom in one form or other.

Chapter 2

with Swami Pratyagbodhananda Saraswati

A SORROW THAT CANNOT BE ALLEVIATED
In fact, only the sad become sad. No one suddenly becomes sad. Just as the angry become angry, the sad become sad. If you are already angry inside, all that you require is a reason to become angry. Similarly, the jealous become jealous and the lonely become lonely. Therefore, these feelings indicate that there is a problem already there underneath.

Chapter 3 – Karma Yoga

THE PURPOSE OF KARMA-YOGA

Arjuna was a karma-yogi, not a sannyasi. By listening to Krishna, he was pursuing knowledge. Although grahasthas pursue other activities, they are qualified for knowledge. This pursuit of knowledge plus the performance of karma made Arjuna a karma-yogi. If the pursuit of knowledge had not been there, if he had had no discrimination, if moksa had not been the end for him, he would not have been a karma-yogi. He would have been a simple doer, a karma, a karma kartha. When moksa is the end in view, then karma becomes yoga because it is done with a particular attitude in order to gain antah-karana-siddhi, purification of the mind. In this way, karma-yoga is important in gaining knowledge.

Chapter 4

KNOWLEDGE AND THE RENUNCIATION OF ACTION

THE ORIGINS OF KARMA-YOGA

In the first three verses of the fourth chapter, Krishna sums up the subject matter of karma-yoga by indicating to Arjuna that it is not something new. Krishna , as the Lord, had initiated it in the beginning of creation and, since then, karma-yoga has been handed down from generation to generation, even though it has not always been well preserved. To become a sannyase requires a mature and contemplative disposition. You cannot simply decide to be mature or contemplative. Either you are or you are not. What you can do, however, is to live your life in such a way that you can gain a contemplative disposition. This is karma-yoga.

Chapter 5

KARMA-SANNYASA

WHICH IS BETTER?
Since moksha means the knowledge of akarma in karma, meaning one should see the akarta, non-doer, in the kart¡, the doer, Arjuna wants to pursue that knowledge. It being very clear that this was what was to be done, renunciation of action seems to be the right thing to do — especially since the knowledge, ‘I am akarta’ is the renunciation of all activities. Why, Arjuna thinks, should I perform actions and then try to discover the akarma in them? It seems so much more logical to him to renounce action.

Chapter 11)

Chapter 11 Verse 55
by Swami Tattvavidananda

Lord Daksinamurti

In the vision of the Veda, this creation is a manifestation of the Lord. Being the cause, he is all knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge. We have a name for that Lord Daksinamurti.

The Lord presented in this form as Dakṣiṇāmūrti is the one who has eight aspects. The first five aspects are thefive elements. In the Veda the world is presented in the form of five elements—ākāśa, space,which includes time; vāyu, air; agni, fire; āpa, water; and pṛthivī, earth.

In this Vedic model of the universe, the five elements are non-separate from the Lord. In fact, these five elements constitute the Lord’s form, which is this universe.

The next two aspects are represented by the sun and the moon.

When, as an individual, I look at this world, what stands out in the sky are the sun and moon.

The moon represents all planets other than earth, and the sun represents allluminous bodies.

The eighth aspect is me, the jīva—the one who is looking at the world.

These eight aspects are to be understood as one whole. This is the Lord.

When we look at the form of Dakṣiṇāmūrti, we can see representations of the five elements. Space, ākāśa, is represented by a ḍamaru, a drum, in his right hand. In order to show space in a sculpture, it needs to be enclosed.

Empty space is enclosed in the ḍamaru, enabling it to issue sound, or śabda.

Next, vāyu, air, is represented by Dakṣiṇāmūrti’s hair with the bandana, the band, holding his hair in place against the wind. Bandana is a Sanskrit word which comes from the root band, to bind.

In his left hand, you will see a torch, which represents agni, fire.

Āpa, water, is shown by the Gaṅga, in the form of a Goddess, which you can see on Dakṣiṇāmūrti’s head.

Pṛthivī, the earth, is represented by the whole idol.

Then there are people, the jīvas, Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanātana and Sanatsujāta, who are the disciples of Dakṣiṇāmūrti, sitting at the base of sculpture.

The sun and moon are also shown in this form of the Lord.

On the left side of Dakṣiṇāmūrti you will find a crescent moon, and on his right side there is a circle, representing the sun—a whole circle.

So we see five elements, two planets and the jīva constituting the aṣṭa-mūrti-bhṛt, the Lord of these eight factors that are the whole.

You can worship Dakṣiṇāmūrti as the Lord, the one who is aṣṭa-mūrti-bhṛt, or you can invoke him as a teacher, because he also is in the form of a teacher.

His very sitting posture, āsana, is the teacher’s āsana. What does he teach? Look at his hand gesture. That shows wha the teaches. His index finger, the one we use to point at others, represents the ahaṅkāra, the ego.

The other three fingers represent your body, deha, mind, antaḥkaraņa and sense organs, prāņa.

They also may be seen as the three bodies, śarīras, the gross, subtle, and causal. This is what the jīva mistakes himself to be. The aṅguṣṭha, the thumb, represents the Lord, the puruṣa. It is away from the rest of the fingers of the hand, yet at the same time, the fingers have no strength without it.

In this gesture, mūdra, in Dakṣiṇāmūrti’s right hand, the thumb joins the other fingers to form a circle, teaching that the jīva, who takes himself to be the body, mind and senses, is the whole. The circular hand gesture visually states the entire upadeśa, teaching: tat tvam asi, “You are That.” Just as a circle has no beginning or end, you are the whole. That is the final word about you. Nobody can improve upon that vision; no culture can improve upon it.

Even in heaven, it cannot be improved upon, for the whole includes heaven. Therefore, you have the final word here, because you are everything. It is better that you know it. That teaching is contained in the Veda, represented by the palm leaves in the left hand of Dakṣiṇāmūrti. And to understand this, you require a mind that has assimilated certain values and attitudes and has developed a capacity to think in a proper and sustained way.

This can be acquired by various spiritual disciplines represented here by a japa-māla, The fact that the Lord himself is a teacher, a guru, means that any teacher is looked upon as a source of knowledge. And the teacher himself should look upon Īśvara, the Lord, as the source of knowledge. Since the Lord himself is a teacher, the first guru, there is a tradition of teaching, so there is no individual ego involved in teaching.

Dakṣiṇāmūrti is seated upon a bull, which stands for tamas, the quality of māyā that accounts for ignorance. This is the entire creative power of the world and Dakṣiṇāmūrti controls this māyā; Then, there are bound to be obstacles in your pursuit of this knowledge. Dakṣiṇāmūrti controls all possible obstacles.

Underneath his foot, under his control, is a fellow called Apasmara—the one who throws obstacles in your life. This tells us that although there will be obstacles, with the grace of the Lord, you can keep them under check and not allow them to overpower you. There is no obstacle-free life, but obstacles need not really throw you off course; you keep them under control.

Thus, the whole form of Dakṣiṇāmūrti invokes the Lord who is the source of all knowledge, the source of everything, the one who is the whole, and who teaches you that you are the whole. He is Dakṣiṇāmūrti, the one who is in the form of a teacher, guru-mūrti.

We invoke his blessing so that all of you discover that source in yourself. If this self-discovery is your pursuit, your whole life becomes worthwhile. This project of self-discovery should be the project of everyone. That is the Vedic vision of human destiny

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam was founded in 1986 by Pujya Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati. In Swamiji’s own words,

“When I accepted the request of many people I know to start a gurukulam, I had a vision of how it should be. I visualized the gurukulam as a place where spiritual seekers can reside and learn through Vedanta courses. . . And I wanted the gurukulam to offer educational programs for children in values, attitudes, and forms of prayer and worship. When I look back now, I see all these aspects of my vision taking shape or already accomplished. With the facility now fully functional, . . . I envision its further unfoldment to serve more and more people.”

Ārṣa (arsha) means belonging to the ṛṣis or seers; vidyā means knowledge. Guru means teacher and kulam is a family.  In traditional Indian studies, even today, a student resides in the home of this teacher for the period of study. Thus, gurukulam has come to mean a place of learning. Arsha Vidya Gurukulam is a place of learning the knowledge of the ṛṣis.

The traditional study of Vedanta and auxiliary disciplines are offered at the Gurukulam. Vedanta mean end (anta) of the Veda, the sourcebook for spiritual knowledge.  Though preserved in the Veda, this wisdom is relevant to people in all cultures, at all times. The vision that Vedanta unfolds is that the reality of the self, the world, and God is one non-dual consciousness that both transcends and is the essence of everything. Knowing this, one is free from all struggle based on a sense of inadequacy.

The vision and method of its unfoldment has been carefully preserved through the ages, so that what is taught today at the Gurukulam is identical to what was revealed by the ṛṣis in the Vedas.