This lecture was delivered on September 1, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat.1 – Spiritual Wisdom and the Power of Selfless Work-Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, and Shankaracharya are examples of spiritual teachers who had developed a spiritual faculty capable of penetrating into the true nature of everything. Coupled with the complete awareness of being instruments in God’s hand, they could do tremendous impactful work without any fatigue.2 – The Ability to do Good without Any Expectation of Reward-"If you love any human being you will have to suffer for it. He is blessed indeed who can love God alone. There is no suffering in loving God." – Holy Mother -A person for whom you have done everything, there is at least a 50 percent chance that that person will become your enemy. Help and do your duty, but remember that love is for God alone. 3 – The Wisdom to Look Beyond the Body-"Everything - husband, wife, or even the body - is only illusory. These are all shackles of illusion. Unless you can free yourself from these bondages, you will never be able to go to the other shore of the world. Even this attachment to the body, the identification of the self with the body must go. What's this body? My dear, it is nothing but three pounds of ashes when it is cremated. Why so much vanity about it? However strong or beautiful this body may be, its culmination is in those three pounds of ashes. And still people are attached to it too much. Glory to God. The happiness of the world is transitory. The less you become attached to the world, the more you enjoy peace of mind. These earthly ties are transitory, today they seem to be the all and all of life but tomorrow they vanish. Your real tie is with God." – Holy Mother-The story of Chitraketu from the Bhagavata Purana illustrates the fact that life cycle after life cycle, we have temporary associations with different parents and relations. These relations are indeed sacred, but we should not wait for fate to teach us the hard way that these relationships are temporary.4 – The Real Meaning of Suffering: God in Vedanta-"You see my son, it is not a fact that you will never face dangers. Difficulties always come but they do not last forever. You will see that they pass away like water under a bridge." – Holy Mother-Difficulties and happy experiences are both transitory. Vedanta teaches that suffering is not suffering from a spiritual perspective. They are natural, inevitable stages in our spiritual evolution. -Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, was grief-stricken over the loss of a family member. Buddha asked him to find one single home that had not suffered from death, old age or disease. He could not find one and was then consoled. -The real cause of suffering is our constant expectation that what is essentially changeable, the empirical world, should be the unchanging. When we take our priority to be the unchanging transcendental reality, we are able to see suffering as part of God’s grace. This unknown factor is what makes life profound and meaningful and is often needed for us to be able to grow in spiritual life.-This perspective also resolves the major objections of Agnostics and Atheists such as Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens to religion. -We should recognize God's grace as God's grace. A man asked for 1000 dollars from God. He promised to give 500 dollars if he got it. He found 500 dollars on the street, pocketed it and said, "God, you have already taken your share." We often interpret God's grace in our terms instead of recognizing it as God's grace.-In a famous Sanskrit verse, God says, "If I want to bless somebody, I will take away all his wealth, I will make his sycophants and flatterers desert him, I will isolate him, and if instead of losing faith in me, he persists in his devotion, I shall elevate him to such a position that he will be an envy of angels.”-Prahlada says in the Bhagavata Purana: Every wise person should try to turn to God at the beginning of his or her life instead of waiting for fate to open one’s eyes.5 – Japa: Evolution from Mechanical to Spontaneous Communion with God-Disciple: "I practice japa but I cannot concentrate my mind." Mother: "Repeat the name of God whether your mind is concentrated or not. It will be good for you if you can repeat the name of God for a fixed number of times daily with concentration. Otherwise, repeat the name of God whether your mind is concentrated or not." -In this case, Mother advises that even mechanical repetition of God’s name is useful but it is not the most effective way. -Disciple: "Mother, shall I practice repetition of the holy name having in mind a fixed number of repetitions?" Mother: "If you repeat with an eye to number, your mind may be concentrated on number alone. Therefore, I advise you to repeat the name of God without being particular about the number. Repeating the name of God a fixed number of...
