Society of Toronto ( Mission) 120 Emmett Ave. Toronto, ON M6M 2E6 CANADA Tel.: 416-240-7262; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.vedantatoronto.ca Newsletter January 2020 Words to Inspire “Do not spend your energy in talking, but meditate in silence.” --- The Ideal of Service

Swamiji was dhyanasiddha (an adept in ) wherever they went. Since then the custom of asking from his very birth. So he gave importance to spiritual a monk for medicine is prevailing even now. Ashoka practices like japa-dhyana. But he cautioned and other followers of Buddha established many everybody that selfishness should not swallow us in service centres. Large-scale service work came into the name of spiritual practice. If we live together we vogue since then. shall get liberation together, or we shall drown When the monks of the Ramakrishna Order first together. Swamiji has said, "So long as a single man engaged themselves in service activities like running remains in bondage, I do not desire my own hospitals and schools, helping distressed people liberation". The Master also has said, "I shall have to during calamities like famine, drought, flood, etc., the come again and again for the emancipation of this monks of orthodox monastic orders did not appreciate world". The previous monastic organizations engaged it although they too were benefited by those services. themselves only in preaching Vedanta or various other Their view was that these monks deviated from the ideals they followed. Their activities were confined to ideal of monastic life. Swamiji had sent two of his the sphere of religion. Swamiji gave a broader shape disciples- Swami Kalyanananda and Swami to this work. Being acquainted with the ideal of Sri Nischayananda to Haridwar and Rishikesh to serve Ramakrishna he realized that one cannot have religion the monks, for he had seen that there was none to with an empty stomach. We need food and clothing as serve them. That was why Swamiji engaged these two much as we need religion. Otherwise religious life will disciples for serving the monks as well as helping be impaired. So, service must be rendered to all in distressed and helpless pilgrims so that they would get every sphere of life; only religious preaching will not some relief. We know how that institution slowly grew do. The ideal of this Sangha is that man should have and has become today a huge service centre. For this fulfilment in life. His life should be blessed by the service the orthodox monks used to call them bhangi development of his inherent potentials and he should sadhus (scavenger monks); because they would clean devote his life to help all in that work. even the excreta of the patients. Today those bhangi In Buddha's life we do not find much mention of sadhus are no more looked down upon; on the material service. But in later days the monks of the contrary they are highly respected. In course of time Buddhist Sangha used to roam about with medicines people have come to understand the importance of in their bags and distribute them among ailing people such service.

KARMA YOGA ACTIVITIES It is a great opportunity to provide your services to the of Toronto. Kindly come forward and volunteer time towards maintaining and managing the facilities. If interested in volunteering, kindly contact Abhijit Bhattacharya on 416-569-9401, indicating the Services that you are interested in and days you can be available for volunteering. THANK YOU!!

Basics of the Vedanta Follower Swami Sarvadevananda, Minister and spiritual leader of the Vedanta Society of Southern California

The basic role of the congregations of the devotees affairs are undergoing great changes. We are finding of Sri Ramakrishna is not just coming together to that every aspect of life has to be conceived in terms perform pujas or attend lectures or classes, but to of the entire humanity. … Herein lies the great transform their minds and hearts, so as to realize responsibility of the Vedanta students. Vedanta God. This is the main ideal of Vedanta. Providing stands above all for universality, oneness, synthesis, selfless service has a great value in this harmony, and infinite affirmation. Vedanta is a transformation and is a great opportunity to apply philosophy and religion of infinite hope. It promises Vedanta in day-to-day life according to the teachings infinite glory to humankind. It invites men and of Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji wrote to his brother women to march forward from one achievement to disciple Swami Akhandananda: “You have read, another, till the very highest is attained. It stands for mātri devo bhava, pitri devo bhava, look upon your the unity of humankind. All true students of Vedanta mother as God, look upon your father as God— but have to feel and realize this fact. They have, above I say, daridra devo bhava, murkha devo bhava, look all, to be all-inclusive and harmonious. By their life upon the poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted they have to prove to the timid world the beauty of as God. Know that service to these alone is the the new ideals towards which humanity is reaching. highest religion.” The challenge of Vedanta is tremendous. The weak Swami Vivekananda has established for us the twin may shrink from it, but those who have any strength goal of ātmano mokshārtham, jagat hitāya ca: for in them will take it up and rise to the required one’s own liberation, and for the good of the world. heights. … Let the best … in us come out, let the These two objectives are like two sides of the same Divine in us shine forth! Let the light in us be a coin: they go hand in hand. As we strive for spiritual beacon to the blundering world!” illumination in our life, we should be a source of As tells us, the world today blessing to others. As we strive for the welfare of needs the saving message of Vedanta more than others and grow in unselfishness, we grow closer to ever—the message which declares the Oneness of God, closer to God-realization. Existence, the Divinity of the soul, the acceptance of In 1931, Swami Ashokananda charged the members all religions as valid paths to the Divine, Harmony of the Vedanta Society in San Francisco as follows: and not dissension, Love and not hatred. We are “Do the students of Vedanta realize that they have called upon, as students of Vedanta, to broadcast great responsibility on their shoulders? None can this message far and wide, not only through our deny that humanity is just now passing through a words, but through our deeds, through our very lives. period of great storm and stress, when every ideal is This is a great responsibility which rests on our being remodeled, old ideas are being challenged shoulders. The Vedanta Society is a great source of and accustomed ways of doing things are being strength and stability for us as we carry out this questioned. Economically, politically, culturally, mission. spiritually, in every respect, the human mind and

That oppressing stench of worldliness Parables of Sri Ramakrishna

Once, a fishwife was a guest in the house of a gardener who raised flowers. She came there with her empty basket, after selling fish in the market, and was asked to sleep in a room where flowers were kept. But, because of the fragrance of the flowers, she couldn't get to sleep for a long time! She was restless and began to fidget about. Her hostess saw her condition and said, "Hello! Why are you tossing from side to side so restlessly?" The fishwife said: "I don't know, friend. Perhaps the smell of the flowers has been disturbing my sleep. Can you give me my fish- basket? Perhaps that will put me to sleep." The basket was brought to her. She sprinkled water on it and set it near her nose. Then she fell sound asleep and snored all night.

Swami at the Shanti Ashram

The work of Swami Turiyananda at the Shanti nearest doctor was fifty miles away. We had no Ashram was character-building. “Be yourself,” he motor—only a horse and a two-wheeled cart. Neither used to say, “and be strong. Realization is only for was there a motor road nor a car that could cross the the strong, the pure, and the upright. Remember that mountains. But something had to be done without you are the Atman. That gives the greatest strength further delay. The poison was spreading. Then and courage. Be brave; break through the bondage something unexpected happened. In the evening a of Maya. Be like the lion; don’t tremble at anything. gentleman came to our Ashrama on foot. He had Swamiji has taught you that every soul is potentially walked all the way (fifty miles) and at last had found divine. Realize your own divinity, then you will realize the Ashrama. When we asked who he was, he told that all souls are divine. A cloud obscures the sun. us that he was a doctor. He had come from New We say, ‘There is no sun.’ But the sun always shines. York, more than three thousand miles away, and had So the cloud of ignorance makes us believe that we arrived just at this critical moment. He at once made are weak human beings. But the sun of the Atman is some incisions, saying that any delay might prove always shining. Remove the cloud of ignorance, and fatal. He had a few simple medicines with him—— the Atman will reveal itself in your heart. When you disinfectants—-and soon the swami was out of realize that, then you are a man. Otherwise you are danger. It was like a miracle. The Mother had sent not different from beasts.” this young doctor to save the swami’s life. And when asked how this can be realized, he In New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San answered, “Through meditation. Mediation is the key Francisco, the swami had given public lectures. But that opens the door to Truth. Meditate, meditate! lecturing was not to his liking. It was necessary to Meditate till light flashes into your mind and the reach the masses. But his real work was done in Atman stands self-revealed. Not by talk, not by classes and with individuals. It was his life—his study—but by meditation alone the Truth is known.” example—that drew us to the swami. In him we saw As we had no servants in the Ashrama, we had to do a man of realization—a man who lived what he all the work ourselves. We cooked, washed the pots, taught. That is why he impressed us. Such a man gathered fuel, washed our clothing, and even built the we had never seen before. From the East light and cabins ourselves. The swami was very happy to see wisdom had come to us in the West. In the midst of us do this, and often he would himself help in the a world of turmoil and striving and worldly ambitions, work. He even carried water from the well in big there was with us one man who counted not name or canisters and cut up the wood for the kitchen fire. We fame or worldly success but lived at peace with remonstrated the he should not do physical labour, himself—an inner life dedicated to God and the but the swami would not listen to us. “Unless I give service of humanity. He was a man who attracted the example,” he would say, “why should you all work through love and who conquered through love. To so hard? Let me share in the work. Many hands his disciples, Swami Turiyananda was the greatest make the task light.” blessing that ever entered into their lives. To them, Once it happened that during meditation, a his memory is a sacred memory—a memory that poisonous beetle bit the swami on his hand. He strengthens in time of need, a memory that brings made a motion with his hand, which threw off the sweetness in moments of distress, a memory that beetle. The swami then thought no more about it. He stimulates every new attempt to the realization of had not even opened his eyes to see what insect had Truth. To think of Swami Turiyananda is an act of bitten him. But after an hour or so, his hand began purification of the mind. To remember his life is an to swell. Then he told us that he had felt the sting of impulse to new endeavor. an insect. The swelling increased, and we could not ….From the book ‘With the Swamis in America and bring it down. The following day the entire arm was India’ by Swami Atulananda, pp. 74-79 swollen, and we became alarmed. What to do? The

KARMA YOGA ACTIVITIES It is a great opportunity to provide your services to the Vedanta Society of Toronto. Kindly come forward and volunteer time towards maintaining and managing the facilities. If interested in volunteering, kindly contact Abhijit Bhattacharya on 416-569-9401, indicating the Services that you are interested in and days you can be available for volunteering. THANK YOU!!

Saint Francis of Assisi Early life of luxury - Born circa 1181, in Assisi, duchy of Christianity. He began preaching around Assisi and was soon Spoleto, Italy, Saint Francis of Assisi, though revered today, joined by 12 loyal followers. Some regarded Francis as a began his life as a confirmed sinner. His father was a wealthy madman or a fool, but others viewed him as one of the cloth merchant who owned farmland around Assisi, and his greatest examples of how to live the Christian ideal. Whether mother was a beautiful Frenchwoman. Francis was not in he was really touched by God, or simply a man want during his youth; he was spoiled, indulging himself with misinterpreting hallucinations brought on by mental illness fine food, wine, and wild celebrations. By age 14, he had left and/or poor health, Francis of Assisi quickly became well- school and become known as a rebellious teenager who known throughout the Christian world. frequently drank, partied and broke the city curfew. He was Devotion to Christianity - After his epiphany at the church also known for his charm and vanity. In these privileged of San Damiano, Francis experienced another defining surroundings, Francis of Assisi learned the skills of archery, moment in his life. In order to raise money to rebuild the wrestling and horsemanship. He was expected to follow his Christian church, he sold a bolt of cloth from his father's shop, father into the family textile business but was bored by the along with his horse. His father became furious upon learning prospect of life in the cloth trade. Instead of planning a future of his son's actions and subsequently dragged Francis before as a merchant, he began daydreaming of a future as a knight; the local bishop. The bishop told Francis to return his father's knights were Medieval action heroes, and if Francis had any money, to which his reaction was extraordinary: He stripped ambition, it was to be a war hero like them. It wouldn't be long off his clothes, and along with them, returned the money back before the opportunity for warfare beckoned. In 1202 war to his father, declaring that God was now the only father he broke between Assisi and Perugia, and Francis eagerly took recognized. The bishop gave Francis a rough tunic, and his place with the cavalry. Little did he know at the time, his dressed in these new humble clothes, Francis left Assisi. experience with war would change him forever. Unluckily for him, the first people he met on the road were a War and Imprisonment - Francis and the men of Assisi group of dangerous thieves, who beat him badly. Despite his came under heavy attack, and in the face of superior wounds, Francis was elated. From now on, he would live numbers, they took flight. The whole battlefield was soon according to the Gospel. Francis' embrace of Christ-like covered with the bodies of butchered, mutilated men, poverty was a radical notion at the time. The Christian church screaming in agony. Most of the surviving Assisi troops were was tremendously rich, much like the people heading it, which immediately put to death. Unskilled and with no combat concerned Francis and many others, who felt that the long- experience, Francis was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. held apostolic ideals had eroded. Francis set out on a mission Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, to restore Jesus Christ's own, original values to the now- he was considered worthy of a decent ransom, and the decadent church. With his incredible charisma, he drew soldiers decided to spare his life. He and the other wealthy thousands of followers to him. They listened to Francis' troops were taken as prisoners, led off to a dank underground sermons and joined in his way of life; his followers became cell. During this time, he would later report, he began to known as Franciscan friars. receive visions from God. Continuously pushing himself in the quest for spiritual After the War - After a year of negotiations, Francis' ransom perfection, Francis was soon preaching in up to five villages was accepted, and he was released from prison in 1203. per day, teaching a new kind of emotional and personal When he came back to Assisi, however, Francis was a very Christian religion that everyday people could understand. He different man. Upon his return, he was dangerously sick in even went so far as to preach to animals, which garnered both mind and body —a battle-fatigued casualty of war. One criticism from some and earned him the nickname "God's day, as legend has it, while riding on a horse in the local fool." But Francis' message was spread far and wide, and countryside, Francis encountered a leper. Prior to the war, thousands of people were captivated by what they heard. In Francis would have run from the leper, but on this occasion, 1224 Francis reportedly received a vision that left him with the his behavior was very different. Viewing the leper as a symbol stigmata of Christ— marks resembling the wounds Jesus of moral conscience—or as Jesus incognito, according to Christ suffered when he was crucified, through his hands and some religious scholars—he embraced and kissed him, later the gaping lance wound in his side. This made Francis the describing the experience as a feeling of sweetness in his first person to receive the holy wounds of the stigmata. They mouth. After this incident, Francis felt an indescribable would remain visible for the rest of his life. Because of his freedom. His earlier lifestyle had lost all of its appeal. earlier work treating lepers, some believe that the wounds Subsequently, Francis, now in his early 20s, began turning his were actually symptoms of leprosy. focus toward God. Instead of working, he spent an ever- Death and Legacy - Francis of Assisi died on October 3, increasing amount of time at a remote mountain hideaway as 1226, at the age of 44, in Assisi, Italy. Today, Francis has a well as in old, quiet churches around Assisi, praying, looking lasting resonance with millions of followers across the globe. for answers, and helping nurse lepers. During this time, while He was canonized as a saint just two years after his death, praying before an old Byzantine crucifix at the church of San on July 16, 1228, by his former protector, Pope Gregory IX. In Damiano, Francis reportedly heard the voice of Christ, who 2013, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergogli chose to honor Saint told him to rebuild the Christian Church and to live a life of Francis by taking his name, becoming Pope Francis. extreme poverty. Francis obeyed and devoted himself to

UPCOMING EVENTS – MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Events Date & Time Celebration January 1 12.00pm Birthday Celebration of Swami Vivekananda January 12 11.00am Saraswati puja February 2 11.00am Maha Shivaratri February 21 6.30pm

REGULAR PROGRAMMES

SCRIPTURE CLASS: Friday Scripture Classes begin DAILY BREAD FOOD BANK: Daily Bread Food Bank at 7:30 pm, following the regular evening prayer at 6:00 has actively started. We would like to encourage people pm. The class, held at the centre, is open to all interested to donate. persons. For details, please see the ‘Calendar of Events’ on the next page. INTERVIEWS/INSTRUCTION: Swami Kripamayananda will be happy to give Interviews VIGIL: A vigil consisting of japa and meditation will be to those interested in knowing more about Vedanta and observed, from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, for date kindly see meditation. Individual interviews are also given for ‘Calendar of Events’, on next page. To participate, please Spiritual instructions. Appointments for interviews should call the centre @416-240-7262. be made in advance with the Swami at 416-240-7262. RAM NAM: For the date and time of the monthly DAILY MEDITATION: Meditation is done at the Centre Ramnam, please see the ‘Calendar of Events’ on the every morning from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. Devotional next page. singing and meditation time in the evenings is from 6:00 BOOK STORE: The Book Store has re-opened and pm to 7:30 pm. books are available for purchase. SOUP KITCHEN: Soup Kitchen has now started at the Vedanta Society, please see the ‘Calendar of Events’ on the next page for details.

Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by Balgangadhar Tilak ABOUT the year 1892, i.e., before the famous Parliament of Religions in the World's Fair at Chicago, I was once returning from Bombay to Poona. At the Victoria Terminus a Sannyasin entered the carriage I was in. A few Gujarati gentlemen were there to see him off. They made the formal introduction and asked the Sannyasin to reside at my house during his stay at Poona. We reached Poona, and the Sannyasin remained with me for eight or ten days. When asked about his name he only said he was a Sannyasin. He made no public speeches here. At home he would often talk about Advaita philosophy and Vedanta. The Swami avoided mixing with society. There was absolutely no money with him. A deerskin, one or two clothes and a kamandalu were his only possessions. In his travels someone would provide a railway ticket for the desired station. The Swami happened to express a strong hope that as the women in the Maharashtra were not handicapped by the purdah system, it was probable that some of the widows in the higher classes would devote their lives to the spread of spirituality and religion alone like the old yogis of the Buddhist period. The Swami also believed like me that the Shrimad did not preach renunciation but urged everyone to work unattached and without the desire for fruits of the work. I was at that time a member of the Deccan Club in the Hirabag which used to hold weekly meetings. At one of these meetings the Swami accompanied me. That evening the Swami rose and spoke in fluent English . Everyone there was thus convinced of his high abilities. The Swami left Poona very soon after this. Two or three years thereafter Swami Vivekananda returned to India with world-wide fame owing to his grand success at the Parliament of Religions and also after that both in England and America. He received an address wherever he went and on every one of such occasions he made a thrilling reply. I happened to see his likeness in some of the newspapers, and from the similarity of features I thought that the Swami who had resided at my house must have been the same. I wrote to him accordingly inquiring if my inference was correct and requesting him to kindly pay a visit to Poona on his way to Calcutta. I received a fervent reply in which the Swami frankly admitted that he was the same Sannyasin and expressed his regret at not being able to visit Poona then. This letter is not available. It must have been destroyed along with many others, public and private, after the close of the Kesari Prosecution of 1897. Once after this, during one of the Congress sessions at Calcutta, I had gone with some friends to see the of the . There Swami Vivekananda received us very cordially. We took tea. In the course of the conversation Swamiji happened to remark somewhat in a jocular spirit that it would be better if I renounced the world and took up his work in Bengal while he would go and continue the same in Maharashtra. "One does not carry," he said, "the same influence in one's own province as in a distant one." (Vedanta Kesari, January 1934)

Vedanta Society of Toronto Minister and Teacher- Swami Kripamayananda, Ramakrishna Order of India CALENDAR OF EVENTS January 2020 THE VEDANTA SOCIETY OF TORONTO WILL BE OBSERVING WINTER RECESS FROM DECEMBER 25, 2019 TO JANUARY 31, 2020. NO SUNDAY SERVICE, SCRIPTURE CLASS, VIGIL AND RAMNAM DURING THIS PERIOD. Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 12:00pm 2 3 4 KALPATARU 9.30am NO 9.30am CELEBRATION Soup SCRIPTURE Soup Kitchen CLASS Kitchen

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NO LECTURE 9.30am 9.30am NO 9.30am Soup Soup SCRIPTURE Soup 1.30pm Kitchen Kitchen CLASS Kitchen VVM

12 11:00am 13 14 15 16 17 18 Birthday 9.30am 9.30am NO 9.30am Celebration Soup Soup SCRIPTURE Soup Kitchen Kitchen CLASS Kitchen of SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 NO LECTURE 9.30am 9.30am NO 9.30am 1.30pm Soup Soup SCRIPTURE Soup VVM Kitchen Kitchen CLASS Kitchen 26 27 28 29 30 31 NO LECTURE 9.30am 9.30am NO 1.30pm Soup Soup SCRIPTURE VVM Kitchen Kitchen CLASS Happy New Year! May peace and spiritual blessings be yours in the coming year and always!

AN APPEAL FOR DONATION Vedanta Society appeals to the devotees and well-wishers to kindly come forward and donate generously, so that we can pay-off all loans and build up funds to secure ourselves for our regular operations. Donations are required for ongoing maintenance of Ashram, facilities and functions, as well as repayment of interest free loans from our members in coming years. For those who wish to donate full or part of the loan amount to receive donation tax receipt for Year 2019 may do so by sending email to the Swami with cc to Anupam .