Monthly eMagazine of the International Vedanta Mission
Vedanta Sandesh Oct 2019
Year - 25
Issue 4
Cover Page
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The cover page of the Oct 2019 issue of Vedanta Sandesh is one of the most beautiful bird of India - the Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus). It is also known as Impeyan pheasant, and is a bird in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. It is the state bird of Uttarakhand, India. It is also the national bird of Nepal, where it is known as the Danphe. It is a relatively large-sized pheasant. The adult male has multicoloured plumage throughout, while the female, as in other pheasants, is more subdued in colour. Notable features in the male include a long, metallic green crest, coppery feathers on the back and neck, and a prominent white rump that is most visible when the bird is in flight. The tail feathers of the male are uniformly rufous, becoming darker towards the tips, whereas the lower tail coverts of females are white, barred with black and red. The female has a prominent white patch on the throat and a white strip on the tail. Monal is found in the higher reaches of the Himalayas. This photo has been taken from our Bird Groups in Facebook and commend the photographer for this amazing pic. These amazing fauna help us see & feel the existence of their awesome creator everywhere. Om Namah Shivaya. Om Tat Sat
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CONTENTS
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Vedanta Sandesh Oct 2019 1.
Shloka 5
2.
Message of P. Guruji
7-8
3.
Sadhana Panchakam
9-12
4.
Letter 13-14
5.
Gita Reflections 15-19
6.
The Art of Man Making
7.
Jivanmukta 25-27
8.
Story Section 28-30
9.
Mission / Ashram News
20-24
31-40
10.
Forthcoming Progs 41
11.
Links 42 3
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Monthly eMagazine of the International Vedanta Mission Oct 2019 : Year 25 / Issue 4
Published by
International Vedanta Mission Vedanta Ashram, E/2948, Sudama Nagar, Indore-452009 (M.P.) India http://www.vmission.org.in / vmission@gmail.com
Editor:
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Swamini Samatananda Saraswati
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mikf/kLFkks·fi r)eSZ% vfyIrks O;kseoUeqfu%A loZfoUew<ofÙk"Bsr~ vlDrks ok;qoPpjsrAA Though he lives in the conditionings (Upadhis), he, the wise one, remains ever unconcerned with anything or he may move about like the wind, perfectly unattached. Atma Bodha - 52
Message from Poojya Guruji
Education & Intelligence
Good education is of paramount importance. It helps open up vistas
for people not only in their worldly endeavors but also awakens on the secrets of things which transcend our perceptions. Good education alone channelizes the people of any society into positivity, enthusiasm & creativity to make their lives & also the world in which we live a better place.
There are various objectives of education. Firstly it helps us to be
aware of our various faculties & their potentials; it helps us to be properly aware of the world in which we live in, it helps us to be sensitive to the beauty around, and also make us aware of the potential negativities in us. There is imparting of information gathered by millions of people at different times & places in different fields. It makes us be holistically more aware and awakened. However, the most important aspect of good education is V edanta Sandes h
to invoke the intelligence in human beings. This aspect is so important that without this human beings will simply become a pathetic machine.
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Beauty of man as compared to all the other beings is only in his
potential intelligence. It is with this alone we can thereafter understand everything else in a much better way, and also be good, efficient and conscentious people of the society. There is an old saying that ‘Vidya Dadati Vinayam’ meaning truly knowledgable people are very humble, thoughtful and caring. By proper intelligence we can see the truth of everything and moreso about our own Self. The great Vedic masters discovered that the truth of every person is the timeless truth of the whole world. That which helps us to wake up to this fact alone is true education.
Today education has just become a means of somehow getting jobs.
With the whole web of Internet the information of various field is at the tip of our fingers but the main question is whether the people using them are still seekers or are living like masters. May we have our priorities right and work to make our children intelligent and awakened people, and also IT savvy. We realize the main objective of the famous Gayatri mantra which says Dhiyo nah prachodayat - May our intellect be awakened and be intelligent.
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Sarve bhadrani pashyantu. Om Tat Sat.
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Sadhana Panchakam
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- : 3: -
Swamini Samatananda 9
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Sadhana Panchakam S
angati : In this beautiful text of Sadha-
na Panchakam Shankaracharyaji speaks of a journey that begins from being introduced to the Vedas to realizing the ultimate truth
of the Self. He guides us into this divine journey through 40 steps. These 40 steps are the different sadhanas a sadhaka has to practise in a manner that one sadhana prepares him for the next one, helping him evolve spiritually, slowly and steadily. Although the knowledge of the self as being Brahman is just like lighting a lamp which is only a matter of realization, but this realization must precede a practice of a number of sadhanas which actually prepare our mind and intellect for this phase of knowledge and realization. Hence the need for this journey.
In the previous section we looked upon the second step
of the various sadhanas which was performing the duties as ordained by the Vedas. Now having understood the nature of the duties that the Vedas prescribe the Acharya reveals the attitude with which we must perform our duties or any of our actions. So now the Acharya goes on to say:
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rsus'kL; fo/kh;rke~vifpfr%
Make every action be worship of God
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Sadhana Panchakam
Worship God, and not only worship God in a temple, but
worship God with all those actions prescribed by the Vedas. With this suggestion here the Acharya is expanding our vision of Puja. Generally puja is always associated with performing a ritual in a temple outside or at home. But here the Acharya is expanding the whole practise of worship spreading it out from our temple to all the actions that we perform in every moment of our life. This implies that worship is not just a physical activity but it is an attitude that must be inculcated in every action that we perform. It is an attitude which Bhagwan Krishna speaks of in the Gita as Yagya Bhava. Once this attitude of worship is practised and inculcated in everything that we do, then every action becomes a yagya, a pooja. Such is the magnanamous beauty of this attitude.
Initially puja begins as a practise of rituals. But then the
scriptures reveal that God is not just limited to a particular idol or diety in a temple, but God is Ishvara who pervades the entire creation and thus whatever we do is a worship unto Ishvara in his entire creation. The only thing that the scriptures specify is that we offer all those karmas which are as per our varna and ashram. As per our state and as per our inclination. We all live in a particular stage of life as a student, as a householder, a vanaprasthi or sannyasi. This is our ashram. At the same time each one of us also has a particular inclination in the work field as a Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra. This our Varna. This may be translated in various fields in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s context. The Acharya says that V edanta Sandes h
consider our Varna and ashrama as a script given to us by God.
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Sadhana Panchakam He is the director of our lives. He has given us this life, an inclination, and various situations as well. One must feel privileged to make every action as a puja, as we are the chosen ones for whatever plan God has given us. Pooja is an expression of our love and service:
In a pooja we do that which our ishta devata likes, keeping
aide our personal likes and dislikes. This is an expression of our love. What ever God likes is my love too. And that which is not the will of God is my humble acceptance. This implies that situations are given by God and we have the freedom to perform to the best of our ability. In spite of any challenges, whatever we do, we do it with all our heart and soul, with full dedication and integration. With this art of performing actions the icing on the cake is that we do it selflessly, without any conditional prayers at the Feet of the Lord where love and worship for God is unconditional, not like a business transaction. There is no worry about the future or anxiety towards the fruit of actions. There is a deep sense of faith towards the plans of God. This is real surrender and true worship. This is worshiping God at all times.
This attitude of making every action a wor-
ship is what is called as Karma Yoga in the Gita. All such yogis perform actions in this manner to bring about the purification of the mind,
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thus opening the doors of the inner self.
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Mail from Poojya Guruji AI and its consequences Hari om.
Recently I had a visitor, a smart & highly educated young man who was working in the field of standardisation of Artificial Intelligence researches. We had a lovely discussion on various aspects. One of his worries was how the AI is slowly overtaking our various systems and processes, which may possibily make even the jobs of various people redundant, and may become our controller too. He gave the example of Cambridge Analytica and how data mining and its analysis was used to manipulate electoral processes and thus could potentially control the economies and policies of the most powerful nations of the world.
Well, we all need to salute the power of human intelligence and see that it alone has created the AI systems. There are always good & bad uses of any technology, but just because few people somewhere have been found to use some technology for their own petty ends doesnt mean the tech should be condemned. What is required V edanta Sandes h
is the proper use of all tech. Like the nuclear tech it can be used for the betterment of world and can also become a terrible disas-
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ter when it is in the hands of petty people.
We need to remember that AI is a human creation and shall always be managed by some humans somewhere. However, it is also a fact the most of the people of the world are too conditioned and thus not intelligent, and thereafore can be managed by AI - just to make their lives better. I basically see the powerful AI tech as a potential tool to make our lives more efficient & better. It can even be a ruler of the majority of the people by managing various systems, but really speaking it will just help us to transcend all political and nationalistic boundaries to help manage the world more efficiently. With the existing fragmentations of the various kinds in the world it is the science which can provide a means to manage all in the most intelligent ways. Those who are not intelligent are anyway managed by some people somewhere, and all these can potentially be managed by AI, but those who are intelligent will manage this very AI. So the crux of the issue is to invoke our own intelligence and competencies in a much better & faster way. Thereafter alone there shall be no fears.
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Best Wishes.
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Gita Reflections
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;tUrs lkfRodk nsoku~ ;{kj{kkafl jktlk%A iszrku~ Hkwrx.kka’pkU;s ;tUr rkelk tuk%AA (Gita 17/14) 15
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The Threefold Reverance (;tUrs
lkfRodk%------)
Swamini Samatananda
Saatvik people worship the Gods, Rajasik (people) the yakshas and rakshasa, others tamasik people worship ghosts and bhutaganas.
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(Gita : Ch-17 / Sh-14)
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Gita Reflections
A
Man’s life is driven by his faith or his Shraddha.
As is his Shraddha so is the Man. This is what Bhagwan Sri Krishna says in the Seventeenth chapter of the Gita. Shraddha can be defined as that what I consider to be right in my belief and understanding. A person’s Shraddha can be understood by the motivations and attitude with which a person performs any kind of activities or sadhanas. As is the Sraddha so are his inclinations and so are his priorities. Thus faith is a very important criteria when we need to inderstand our own mind set or the mind set of another person. In worldly language we judge someone as ‘good or bad’ or ‘right or wrong’, but in the language of the Gita the parameters of understanding a person’s mind set is based upon his Faith, as Bhagwan in the Seventeen Chapter calls it the ‘Shraddha’ of a person. Such is the significance of this criteria of faith that an entire Seveteenth chapter of the Gita has been dedicated to this subject. It is the Shraddha of a person that gives direction to his life. But this Shraddha is not a general term, Shraddha is categorized on the basis of the three gunas that is Sattvik, Rajasik and Tamasik Shraddha. In the Seventeenth chapter Sri Krishna the Lord goes on to reveal different ways and means as to how one can understand the Shraddha of a person, wheather it is Sattvik, Rajasik or Tamasik. A person’s goals, his aspirations, his lifestyle, role model, food habits, all such aspects of life reveal the V edanta Sandes h
Shraddha of a person.
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Gita Reflections In this sloka Bhagwan reveals one of the most important means to recognise a person’s Shraddha which is by knowing who is reverential for a particular person. Who is his diety of worship. Whom does he look up to for his strength in various situations, his values, his knowledge, and his inspiration. Who so ever is a person’s diety of worship, reflects in his Shraddha as being Sattvik, Rajasik or Tamasik. Bhagwan Krishna goes on to say when there is a predominance of Sattvik Guna then we have reverance for Ishvara, Devatas, or divine people who reflect values and knowledge of the Scriptures. Sattvik deities are those who bring about good values and knowledge. They inspire us to live a life of righteousness and also help us to evolve spiritually. By worshipping divine powers or even divine people whom we can see in our day to day life like our parents and teachers we will ultimately be directed on a path of righteous living and constant spiritual growth. We will be inspired to live a life which is selfless and dedicated to serving one and all. At another level when a person’s Shraddha is Rajasik he will worship demi Gods like Kubera and all similar to him like the wealthy and the powerful one’s. These are people who are extremely ambitious people who aim for great amount of wealth and status. By worshipping such powers they will indeed be blessed by materi-
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alistic things in life. In fact, such is the trait of the Rajasi ones
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Gita Reflections that they may appear to be great devotees of Ishvara and will be visiting temples regularly. They will be offering pujas regularly, and also doing great tapas but the motivation behind everything is that they wish to be blessed by material gain in return. Unfortunately their relationship with God is also like a business transaction. They will make huge offerings to the Lord only to assure their happiness and security in return. This is Rajasik Shradha. Thirdly we have people whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Shraddha can be categorised as the Tamasik Shraddha. People with a tamasi shraddha have great respect for evil forces like ghosts and spirits as God calls them Bhutas and Pretas. They have respect for taantrik vidyas and people who will conduct such black magic. The motivation of these people too is evil. They will not work for the betterment of their own pottentials and life but they will do all kinds of evil things to bring down another person. They aim to achieve their goal by
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hook or by crook.
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- 18-
The Art Of Man Making
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The Logic of Self-Control
P.P. Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji 20
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The Art of Man Making
I
n every religeon the prophets and seers
and men of wisdom seem to have a unanimous conformity when they proclaim the need for sense-control in the seeker. In this age of permissiveness, our youth revolts against this, very openly and vociferously, and every generation must have felt this curb as an infringement upon their freedom and liberty. We are tempted to argue that if nature has given us these urges, why should we curb them? When was there a time in the world, when there was no indugence? The only difference is that in the past it was all hush-hush, while today our youth has learnt to indulge in the open. Such arguments are raised by the weak and the cowardly who feel that the urges are overpoweringly strong in them and they dare not challenge their uprise. True. These urges were always with us. Nature gave them to us. But to conquer and rise above them is to advance to the next stage of our evolution. The fishes were (and are) swimming in water, but the evolver fish decided to adventure forth and try to come out. It became the amphibian, and in its further evolutionary stages, the bird and the mammal. This is the story of our evolution. If your arguments be true, the adventurous progenitor of us all, that heroic fish, must have been a fool! No. These arguments to be heard, and seriously to be considered,
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they must have more pith and greater depth.
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The Art of Man Making Self-control is not practised to kill the indviduality in us, but to add to its tempo in performance, to its daring in vision, and to its brilliance in achievement. The energies dissipated through the senses are conserved in the man of self-control and are channelised into creative fields of nobler undertakings. His memory and judgement improve, his powers of willing and deciding are expanded, and his dynamism in the field of activity is hieghtened. When Krishna portrays such a man as unaffected by good or evil, he feels that Arjuna might find it difficult to concieve at all such a state of existence. A sceptic, the Pandava Prince, may even ignore the entire discourse as an impractical dream of an idle visionary. ‘How does he sit?’(Kimaaseeta) was one of the questions of Arjuna , who wants to know how the Man of Perfection will behave in the midst of the tempting objects of the world outside, without being ambushed by them. A sensuous man can never understand that there is at all a possibility of living in self-control. There are people who even consider it as an expression of immaturity or under-developent, or even a mental perversion. Before we actually take up for study Krishna’s own words, let us review the scheme of perception by which we come to cogV edanta Sandes h
nise and experience the world around us. We percieve objects
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The Art of Man Making through our sense-organs; the eyes see forms and colours; the tongue tastes, and the skin feels, touches and sensations. But we also notice that the sense organs cannot register perceptions of their respective objects unless the mind is acting behind them. For example when your mind is immersed in study or in work, you may not hear....feel heat or cold... nor see someone passing by. Or when you are asleep, there is no perception of objects due to the non-availability of the mind. So the mind functioning through the sense-organs percieves sense-objects. At present we have no control over the outgoing mind and in this extrovertedness we live to exhaust ourselves in a life of mere sense-grabbing. Now Krishna says *When man can like a toroise that withdraws all its limbs, totally withdraw the senses from their objects, then he is a man of steady wisdom. The example is very vivid and expressive. A tortoise on its slow move, brings out its head, its four limbs and tail so long as it feels it is in a safe place. But when it feels even a suspicion of danger, it immediately withdraws them into the shelter of its shell-fortress, with perfect ease and spontaneity. The Man of Perfection disciplines himself so well that the six factors with which he perceives object after object -the five V edanta Sandes h
sense organs and the mind-are all entirely under his control.
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The Art of Man Making They play in the field of sense-objects and at the slightest apprehension of temptation, he can, at will, easily withdraw the mind and the senses from their objects. Ths ease is not with us now, so we fall a prey to their enchantments and lengthening tragedies. To reach a state of soveriegn freedom, to live in the world, but not be of it, ever at will, enjoying the gradeur of beauty in it, but not falling a victim to its hallucinatons and magical
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enchantments is the goal of all spiritual life.
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Jivanmukta Wandering In Himalayas
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Trilokinath
Excerpts from the Travel Memoirs of Param Poojya 25 Swami Tapovanji Maharaj
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Jivanmukta R
amapura is a beautiful little town or an
overgrown village. It is the seat of the Raja of Vishire, a small Himalayan State, as welt as its capital. After travelling two or three days from Kullu, one has to cross a mountain covered with formidable forests for at least ten miles. In the chill of the early dawn I entered the forest at a leisurely pace. The tall trees that grew dense in the region were covered with a luxuriant growth of climbers and creepers. The whole place was dark and grand, ringing with the shriU sound of cicalas. The forest did not frighten me ; it filled me only with a sense of pleasant wonder. A well trained and controlled mind stands a man in good stead better than armies. It saves him from cowardice as well as perils. My mind was well disciplined and fortified by meditation on God, and by the exhilarating enjoyment of Nature. So it was free from all pranks and caprices. On reaching the top of the mountain I rested there for a while and entered into a state of samadhi in the midst of such natural, Divine loveliness Bears and such fierce wild beasts might have been prowling about the place, but 1 never met them. As I made my way down the mountain, I came across several villages. Travelling thus for five or six days I arrived at Ramapura safely. I spent two or three days there pleasantly, drinking the holy water of the Satadru (Satlej) which flows out of Lake Manasa, bathing in the sacred river and worshipping at various shrines A beautiful Buddhist temple in which a light V edanta Sandes h
was kept perpetually burning, attracted my attention. Attached to the temple was a Buddhist library I visited the temple once or twice
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Jivanmukta and worshipped Lord Buddha A Buddhist lama who was the head of the library, accorded me a friendly welcome and showed me a number of rare books We discussed many things about Buddhism From Ramapuram a good road leads up to Tibet along the bank of the Satlcj and so traders with their merchandise, often
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travel this way from the plains of Hindustan.
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STORY Section 28
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Bhima Shankar L
ocated in the Ghat Region of Sahyadri
Hills near the head of the Bhima River that merged with River Krishna too, Bhima Shankara Jyotir Linga was stated to have materialised on its own as Maha Deva killed Demon Bhima the son of Kumbhakarna, the brother of Ravanasura. Demon Bhima wished to avenge the killings of his father and King Ravana by Shri Rama and secured the boon of invincibility against Devas and other Beings from Brahma by the dint of extreme penance. Besides dislodging Indra and Devas from their Seats of Power, the Demon Bhima provoked Maha Deva as the Demon tormented his devotee a staunch Shiva Bhakta named King Kamarupeshwara insisting that instead of worshipping Shiva the Demoon should worship him instead. As the Demon was about to destroy the Shiva Linga worshipped by the King, Mahadeva appeared and sliced the demon’s head and the sweat from Shiva’s forehead while killing the demon turned into a water flow since called Bhima River. The Jyotir Linga manifested as a powerful representation of ‘Ardha Nareeswara’ bestowing proof of fulfilment of devotees who throng the Temple in large crowds especially on Mondays and Shiva Ratris. As in respect of Ujjain, the Swayambhu Linga here too is set at a level V edanta Sandes h
lower than the normal Ground. The Bhima Shankar Temple is
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Bhima Shankar also stated to have ben associated wirh the killing of Tripurasuras and there was a manifestation of Devi Parvati in a Place nearby as Kamalaja since Brahma worshipped her. Another version from the Koti Rudra Samhita of Shiva Purana indicated Dakininam BheemaShankara as the slayer of Bhimasura and that Bhima Shankaraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Temple was situated at Kamarup (Assam) on Bhimapur Hill where King Sudakshina was saved and the Jyotir Linga was consecrated as Shiva Ratris were celebrated with tremendous pomp and show with great fervour. Yet another version stated that Bhima Shankar Jyotir Linga appeared as a Swayambhu at Kashipur near Nainital which was chronicled as the Dakini Country where Bhima of Pandavas married a Dakini woman named Hidimba and there
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too there was a Jyotir Linga as Swayambhu.
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Mission & Ashram News
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Bringing Love & Light in the lives of all with the Knowledge of Self
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Lucknow
By Poojya Swamini Amitanandaji
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Gita Chapter 12
16th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Lucknow
By Poojya Swamini Amitanandaji
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Gita-12 / Kena 3&4
16th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Lucknow
Poojya Swamini Amitanandaji
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Kenaopanishad - Chap 3 & 4
16th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Mumbai
Poojya Swamini Samatanandaji
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Gita Chapter 17
18th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Mumbai
by Poojya Swamini Samatanandaji
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Gita Chap - 17
16th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Mission News Gita Gyana Yagna, Mumbai
by Poojya Swamini Samatanandaji
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Gita Chapter 17
16th - 22nd Sept 2019
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Ashram News TNV Book Release Program
The Book ‘Birds of Indore’ released
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Avian Vibhootis - ebook to Bhalu Mondhe
3rd Sept 2019
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Ashram News Hanuman Chalisa Satsang: Sept 2019
Bhajans / HC Chanting & Pravachan
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Pravachan was on Chaupayi 35
Last Sunday, 29th Sept 2019
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Ashram News Hanuman Chalisa Satsang: Sept 2019
Bhajans / HC Chanting & Pravachan
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Pravachan was on Chaupayi 35
Last Sunday, 29th Sept 2019
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Forthcoming VM Programs 20th Oct 2019 HANUMAN CHALISA SATSANG @ Indore from 6.30 PM @ Vedanta Ashram P. Guruji Swami Atmanandaji 1st - 6th Nov 2019 VEDANTA CAMP@ Indore Natak Deep (Panchdashi-10) /Gita Chap - 7 P. Swamini Amitanandaji 19 th - 25th Oct 2019 GITA GYANA YAGNA @ Jalgaon Gita Chap 13 / Mundakopanishad 1-1 P. Swamini Poornanandaji 16 th - 23th Nov 2019
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GITA GYANA YAGNA @ Ahmedabad Gita Chap 15 / Mundakopanishad 1-1 P. Swamini Amitanandaji
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Visit us online : International Vedanta Mission
Check out earlier issues of : Vedanta Sandesh
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Published by: International Vedanta Mission
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Editor: Swamini Samatananda Saraswati
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