Boletín Arsha Vidya

~ Boletín Arsha Vidya ~
Knowledge of the Rishis
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
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Fundación Arsha Vidya
A nonprofit foundation for the study of
Vedanta, Sanskrit, yoga and Vedic
culture.
Boletín Arsha Vidya
In fearless voice may
we proclaim
The Rishi’s message from all
house tops
Board of Directors:
Swamini Vilasananda Saraswati
President
And bring the men
of different claim
To a fold of Love where
oneness lasts!
Dr. Alfredo Lauría
Secretary
Raúl Rishi Verma
Treasurer
Honorary board members:
Dr. Roberto Toranzo
Dr. Horacio y Silvia Vajovsky
Antonio Perrone
Marcos Erize
STAFF Boletín Arsha Vidya
Swamini Vilasananda Saraswati
Director of publication
María Lorena Reynoso
Writing and publishing
Comentarios y sugerencias:
Fundación Arsha Vidya
J. Salguero 2225, C.A.B.A.
Tel. 54 11 4826 5767
www.arshavidya.org.ar
[email protected]
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
With the blessings of
Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati
We offer the second issue of.
Boletín Arsha Vidya
Om Sri Gurubhyo Namaù
Om Gaëeçäya Namaù
Hariù Om
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SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATI
Interview with the Non Duality Magazine, part two
NDM: Is it possible to become fully enlightened
without the traditional Vedanta training?
Swamiji: We don’t need to have the traditional
Vedanta training. But Vedanta is a teaching – there
is a method in the teaching because I am solving a
problem that doesn’t exist. When I am solving a
problem that doesn’t exist I have to follow a
method. It is like therapy.
You cannot write it in a book. You can never make
someone a therapist by giving him a set of books.
The therapist himself has to undergo hundreds of
hours of therapy first because there is no medicine,
there is nothing, nor does the therapist really solve
the problem. He makes the person talk and
sometimes points out, “This is not your fault.” Shifts
the attention, shifts the whole blame from the
person to another. That is what the therapist does.
The therapist doesn’t really do anything except
make the person see; he validates the feeling, “If I
were a child, I would have done the same thing.”
And that means there is a law. There is an order.
And therefore, the child is not to blame. The child is
innocent. But somebody is to blame. That is therapy.
We have a super-therapy. Nobody is to blame.
(Laughter). Neither you are to blame, nor is
anybody to blame. It’s all in order. So it’s a method.
It’s a method, and therefore that method is the
tradition Adyāropa apavādābhyām nisprapañcam
prapañcate. By this method of superimposition and
negation, what is already free is set free.
It’s a method. It’s magic. And therefore, you cannot
replace the teacher either, because the package is
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
with the teacher. Śāstra (scripture), and the ācārya
(teacher), both come together. You cannot separate
one from the other. The teaching and the teacher
don’t get separated.
Therefore, you need not have a traditional Vedanta
training, but you should have exposure to a
traditional teacher that’s all.
NDM: What about reading books? Would you have
to have the teaching orally, like through listening, or
could you get the same teaching through just
reading?
Swamiji: First it has to be direct exposure then
afterwards you can use books and things like that.
And these days you have got all of them available.
And it’s direct teaching.
But we have a traditional way of teaching that
makes sure you are on the track. We have enough
material so that they can keep you engaged looking
at the same thing. So the books are like a mirror,
word mirror, and you look at yourself. To see myself
I need the mirror. It’s a word mirror – handled
word mirror. And if it is mishandled – not properly
handled – then the mirror can be concave or
convex, and you get a distorted version of yourself.
Already you had one and then now you have
another (laughter).
NDM: An Indian sage once said, “No learning or
knowledge of scriptures is necessary to know the
self, as no man requires a mirror to see himself.”
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Swamiji: He does require a mirror to see his face.
No man requires a mirror to find out whether he
exists or not, correct. But if he wants to see his face,
he requires a mirror.
I have no question about myself whether I exist or
not. I don’t have a doubt. I don’t need any mirror.
Even my eyes and ears, nothing I require, because I
exist and therefore I use my eyes. I exist and
therefore I use my mind.
So I am. The problem is who I am. Who is to
answer? If I know the answer, I won’t ask the
question, ‘Who I am?’ If I don’t know the answer,
then I cannot answer myself by asking the question,
‘Who am I?’ Unless the self is going to tell me from
inside, ‘Hey, I’m here! I am saccitānanda! (existenceconsciousness-limitlessness)’ It’s not going to tell
me anything.
Why this bugging, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’ bugging.
(Laughter) Then you go on bugging, bugging,
bugging, bugging – then the self gets bored and
blurts out, ‘I’m saccitānanda!” (Laughter) It’s all
‘Who am I’ bugging, nagging.
So understand the topic. You see, nothing is
necessary. Scripture is not necessary, nothing is
necessary to know yourself, except knowledge.
Where do you get it from? Wherever you are getting
it from, that is called ‘scripture.’
You can call it a scripture, or a book, or a teaching –
whatever you say – sacred text. We simply say śruti,
what has come through ears.
NDM: How about through intuition – intuition or
insight?
Swamiji: Intuition is not a means of knowing.
Intuition can give you a hunch and a feeling, maybe
this is right. But then afterwards you have to prove
this is right.
Every research scholar has some kind of intuition,
and he assumes that this must be the truth. This
must be the reason for a given phenomenon. He has
a hunch and that is intuition. Intuition is nothing
but a conclusion without having all the leading
steps of reasoning. So the human mind is capable of
doing that. And one gets a window through which
one sees the whole thing. Then he doesn’t know the
reasons for all that. Then afterwards he works for it
and finds out the reason, and proves what he
thought was right was right. That is research. But
it’s not a pramāṇa (means of knowledge). You have
to prove.
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
Therefore, what is it that divides wishful thinking
from intuition? Wishful thinking and intuition –
what is the line that differentiates? There is no line.
One person said, “Swamiji, I came from Atlanta
because I thought you were calling me.”
“Hey, you thought I was calling you? You should
have checked up, whether I called.”
“That is what I thought, you were calling me.”
I said, “What you thought that I thought was a
wrong thought, okay? (Laughter) That you are here,
I am happy. But don’t think that I was calling you.
You have got your job and therefore I don’t want to
disturb you in any manner. And why should I call
you? If I have to call you, I will call you. (Laughter)
So, what you thought that I thought was not what I
thought.” (Laughter)
Intuition is over. We don’t count it as a means of
knowledge. So, one fellow intuits like this, another
fellow says, “I intuit like this.” So what’s the
difference between this intuition and another
intuition?
One fellow says, “I intuit ātmā – the self – is zero”.
Each one can say something. It has no validity. It has
to stand scrutiny through valid means of
knowledge. The knower goes about knowing
through various means of knowledge.
How is he going to know himself as Brahman if that
is true?
“All that is here is me. I am the cause of this entire
thing, known and unknown.” That’s an entirely
different vision. Sarvātmā bhāva [the sense that I
am the self of all].
One fellow claims, “That is free from everything.”
Therefore everything else is like a banana peel. The
banana peel is not less real than the banana that has
gone inside.
One fellow threw a banana peel outside and then
ate the banana. He had his suit on with new shoes,
went out and came back; he forgot about the
banana peel he had thrown on the driveway. He
stepped on it. (Laughter) He went down sprawling,
and the banana he ate came out. Therefore, I always
ask the question, “Which is more real, the peel or
the banana?” (Laughter)
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Mere negation has the danger of dissociation. The
modern Vedanta is like our dealing with garbage.
(Laughs) So you have an underworld. We always
just flush it out, but it is not totally out. It’s all in
somewhere. It joins water, it joins air, it ends up in
your salad. Nothing goes away in this world.
You have to deal with garbage. Therefore it is called
jagat garbage—the world garbage. This is, “I am not
the stars. I am not the sky. I’m not time. I’m not
space. I’m not this. I’m not that. I’m not…” Okay,
what about all of them? This is called dissociation.
It only denies problems, and the problems will
come back in great proportions and completely
smother the person. But the truth is, “The subject
and object are me.” That is Vedanta. You only get
that by teaching.
The self is free from all this, and it is just
consciousness – that is the reason why they all deny
this, deny that, and all. But you have to account for
this world, and it is complex. Is it something
separate from me? Or if it is me, then what is this?
You have to know. Then how do I remain myself at
the same time I become all this? What accounts for
it, the complexity of it?
Take your own body, how complex it is. And
therefore, you require to account for all that, and so
unless that is all resolved properly there is no
question of Vedanta, advaita. Advaita is there is no
second thing. There is no banana peel other than
the banana and the eater of banana. (Laughter)
Continued in the next Boletín Arsha Vidya…
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ñä
Bhagavad Gita,
Home Study
Following the advice of Swami Svaratmananda we
are looking towards the formation of different
groups of the
Bhagavad Gita
in different
locations.
This beautiful text will be seen in 4 classes
• 7th of July
• 21st of July
• 4th of August
• 18th of August
from 6:45 pm to 8:15 pm
V.S. Dr. Horacio E. Vajovsky
[email protected]
No fee for the classes
zone: Villa crespo
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
The idea is to
form groups of
between 7 and
11 people who
gather weekly
to read, analyze and study the teachings of Pujya
Swamiji of the 9 volumes of his monumental work
on the Bhagavad Gita. Pujya Swamiji himself
recommended these study groups as the first step
for the study of Vedanta.
Dr. Roberto Toranzo
Tel.: (11) 4541-6761
[email protected]
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
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~
LIVING IN THE PRESENT ~
Sri Swami Svaratmananda Saraswati
Anniversary address for the 25th Anniversary of Arsha Vidya Argentina
May 3, 2015 in Buenos Aires, Argentina
It is really amazing that Argentina has four
wonderful teachers from the same tradition. When
this happens, we say it is punya (good karma). You
must take advantage of these four teachers who are
here, as Pujya Swami had mentioned, we have to
continue studying.
The first thing I would like to say is that this is my
first time in Argentina and I have a bad habit that
before I go to a country I don’t study anything about
it. I remember that during the holidays of 2000
before leaving I was working almost for 46 hours
non-stop. I was heading to Peru and I knew nothing
about that country. Unfortunately as I travel
around the world, I don’t have time to know what is
happening at the place where I am going. I did the
same thing when I was coming here 10 days ago.
So I was on the plane dressed like this and the air
host came to serve me the meal. He looked at me
and said, “You need vegetarian? I said: “Yes, please.”
To which he replied: “Are you sure you’re on the
right flight?” (Laughter). I said: “I think so, why?”
And he answered: “You know that this plane is
going to Argentina, don’t you?” I said: “Yes, what’s
wrong in Argentina?” “There is only steak”, he said.
(Laughter).
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
So you get these impressions about a country as you
travel there and I realized that there’s only steak in
Argentina. But then I was confidant that I was in
good hands with Swamini and my support team
here and I knew that I wouldn’t have to look at
steak on my plate.
The second thing that I did upon arrival was to post
in Facebook: I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina! Then
my friends sent a comment saying: “Ok, you should
learn how to tango! To which I answered: “Imagine
a Swami dancing tango... No, thanks. (Laughter).
The next response: “You used to do the lambada
and the salsa merengue so well! Surely you could
easily learn tango.” So that was the second thing I
learned about Argentina: tango... Another thing that
Argentina is very famous for is futbol. In 2014, I was
in Tanzania watching the world cup finals with my
friends and there were a lot of Germans there, so
the few of us who were not Germans decided to
support Argentina, and of course we know the
result which I’m not going to talk about…
(Laughter). But let’s assume that at the end of the
game things were a bit different… and it was zero
zero. So the next would be a penalty kick and only
one kick is allowed from each team. The player who
is supposed to do the penalty kick is standing there
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and about three billion people from all over the
world are watching the game. So, this person who is
supposed to kick, no matter from which country,
looks at the stadium, looks at the goal and then
freezes up. He is standing there and suddenly he
starts thinking about what if he misses the goal...
And then he starts dreaming about it: If I miss this
goal, my wife is going to leave me, I will lose my job;
I’ll never be able to play this game again in
Argentina; my mistress is going to leave me; the
other girlfriend that I was interested in, is also
never going to look at me again. In the meantime,
everyone is waiting for him to kick the goal! Then,
suddenly, he changes and begins to think... “And if I
make the goal? I will be very famous, I will meet the
President, I will fly around the world, and even the
girl that I am intereted in will give me attention.
Also I’m going to get a new house because I don’t
like the one I have now… The question is that this
player instead of doing what he had to do, was
submerged in his dreams of what could or could not
happen. You see, what he is supposed to do is to
focus on the game and kick the ball, and in this
process he has to strategize.
When we look at ourselves, about 90% of the time
we are doing the same. We don’t focus on what
needs to be done; we focus on what can happen and
what cannot happen. We tend to size up what
should happen and then we regret about what did
happen. Most of our worries are about what should
happen and what shouldn’t happen: Oh! That
person said this to me, why? That person didn’t like
what I did, why is that? Most of the time we spend
in worrying is not very productive. Like the guy
who was supposed to kick the ball, instead of
kicking the ball, he was focused on everything else.
So what we need to do is to be the right kicker of
the ball. There are three things: We need to do what
we are supposed to do, we need to focus on what
we’re supposed to do, and do it within that range of
time. The player was supposed to kick the ball right
then and there, not ten minutes later. Can you
imagine what he is daydreaming with billions of
people watching... We have to remember this
example because we do that all the time.
There is a saying that we cannot cry about the past.
It’s gone. We cannot stress about the future. It is not
there. We have to focus on the present. You know
English is a very strange language. When we say
“present” it can mean “now”, but “present” can also
mean “a gift”. We have to look at the present
moment as a gift. In fact, this is what the Bhagavad
Gita teaches us. We have to focus on the present
because what is given to us comes to us as a gift.
The teaching of the Bhagavad Gita is to learn how to
be objective. You become objective about
everything around you. You become objective about
the environment and how you relate to it, to the
animals, to the people. Understanding that
objectivity gives you a framework in which you can
operate. You operate within that gift that is given to
you in that moment. Los Vedas say that every
morning we wake up there is a reason. That reason
is that we have past karmas to fulfill. The correct
term is “exhaust the karma”. So we wake up
because we need to exhaust the karma of that day.
It is not to exhaust the past karma nor the future
karma. We are supposed to exhaust the karma of
that particular day and we wake up to deal with it. If
you look at it from an objective point of view, you
will see that what you have to deal with is a gift. But
can that gift be in a negative form or a positive
form? It is based on how you see that gift, whether
you see it as a negative or a positive experience. If
you are objective, you will see it less as a negative
experience, instead you will see that everything is
more or less positive, because every negative
experience is actually a teaching.
When we wake up every day we are given a gift of
problems and problems and problems. (Laughter)
We have to shift our attitude to see that this is
something I have to learn from.
Continuaremos con este artículo
en el próximo Boletín Arsha Vidya…
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La Tradición del Canto
Distintos grupos y contenidos
Principiantes: inicio en las plegarias tradicionales.
Avanzados: Ganapati Atharva Shirsha Upanishad,
Aditya Hrdaya Stotram, y otros con Bhashyam.
Sri Rudram: y Shanti mantras propiciatorios y
comentarios de Swami Dayananda.
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
V.S Silvia Vajovsky
[email protected]
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~
EVENTS ~
1st International Yoga Day
On the 21st of June the first International Yoga Day was celebrated around the globe
In all of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay the
celebration took place under the auspices of the
Indian Embassy located in Buenos Aires, with
the officials of the local governments and many
yoga associations participating. Ambassador
Amarendra Khatua presided over the events in
the City of Buenos Aires.
Besides the many demonstrations of yoga and
meditation practices, it was an opportunity to
have “person to person contact”, as Ambassador
Khatua explained during his interview on Radio
Niketan a few days before the celebration.
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Vedanta in Mar del Plata
Every week, for several years, a group meets
for the study of different topics and texts of
Vedanta. At present we are studying the
Tattvabodha of Shankaracharya with the
commentaries of Swamiji Dayananda.
Antonio Perrone
Tel.: (0223) 492-4683
[email protected]
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
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Retreat in Spain
The Vedanta Retreat took place from June 26 to 29 in Madrid, Spain.
by Jorge Luis Jáuregui
Sri Swami Paramatmananda, outstanding
disciple of Pujya Swami Dayananda conducted
the retreat.
We began this journey in Bilbao, which is
located at the North of Spain, where we were
resting on the shores of the Cantártic Sea while
recovering from jet-lag.
Luis and Valeria are some very generous fans to
pay the cost of our tickets and all of our stay in
this beautiful Iberian Peninsula. This trip was
completely unexpected for them and for us.
There can be no doubt that the hand of the Lord
of the Universe, Sri Parameshwara is present.
Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
Having been able to converse and be with
Swamiji made me recognize once more the
glorious labor that Pujya Swami Dayananda has
wrought to have disciples who are now true
Masters, besides being loving beings, of the
stature of Sri Swami Paramatmananda.
Xabi Atchoarena of Bilbao, was present for the
retreat but not for the group photo.
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Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
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Boletín Arsha Vidya, 2° edición - Julio 2015
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