Ask Swami 2/27/2022

Vedanta Talks - Swami Sarvapriyananda

Vedanta Society of New York

Hinduism, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 714 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2022

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Q&A session lead by Swami Sarvapriyananda at the Vedanta Society of New York on Feb 27th, 2022. List of questions with timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - How can I worship God if I am one with God? 12:58 - I find it easy to say "I am Brahman", but how can I say "I am Jesus"? 19:32 - When we pray for peace, who are we praying to? 26:38 - My dream borrows material from my waking experience. Where does my waking reality borrow material from? 36:03 - As our identities are ephemeral in dreams, aren't our identities also ephemeral in awareness? How is Advaita as expressed by Nisargadatta different from Advaita taught in the Ramakrishna Order? 46:50 - After having our vices under control, what is the next step forward? After having cleansed the mind, what is the next step in mediation? 01:00:13 - What hope is there for an ordinary householder in achieving realization?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ome, Asatoma,
0:02.0	Am, Asatoma,
0:03.0	Jhāhma, Jyotyrgamaya,
0:19.0	Mritiurma, Amritam Gamaya.
0:23.6	Ome, shantay, shantay, shanty.
0:28.6	Ome, lead us from the unreal to the real, lead us from darkness unto light, lead us from death to immortality.
0:38.5	Ome, peace, peace, peace.
0:42.3	The first question is from Florence Lentini.
0:46.5	How do you reconcile God with consciousness?
0:50.5	If I am consciousness, which is the only reality, then I am God.
0:55.0	How is it that Vedantins worship God, but at the same time teach that I am Brahman or God?
1:03.0	When I try to realize my true self, how can I also worship God? Are the two the same?
1:11.6	This is a standard question which comes up when you study Adwaita Vedanta.
1:18.6	If I worship God only because first of all God is something different from me.
1:25.6	And if myself is one with God, if I am one with God, then how can I worship God?
1:31.3	It's like worshipping myself then.
1:33.3	So how do you reconcile this?
1:35.3	And yet there is an Advaita Vedantah, there is full-fledged Bhakti and devotion and worship of God.
1:39.3	So how do you reconcile this?
1:42.3	The story which Sri Ramakrishna was fond of in a parable about Hanuman and Ramachandra.
1:49.0	Sri Ramachandra, who is an avatar, an incarnation of God, asks Hanuman, what do you think of me?
1:55.0	What do you think of me?
	...

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