Jnana Yajna 108
Year & Dates:
September 17, 1962 to October 03, 1962
Yajna Topic:
Shrimad Bhagavad Gita- Chapter 12 & Atmabodh
Place:
Ranchi, India
Auspiciousness marked the opening day of Pujya Gurudev’s 108th Jnana Yajna in Ranchi on September 17,1962. The enthusiastic group of young aspirants of the Heavy Engineering Corporation Colony, who had energetically organized the yajna, stood glowing as Pujya Gurudev made a majestic entrance into the yajnashala at the “Satsang Bhavan” in the capital of the Jharkhand state. Dr. A Nagaraja Rao, the President of the Heavy Engineering Corporation welcomed Pujya Gurudev as the gathering waited with bated breath. Then, Shri Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, then the Governor of Bihar, inaugurated the yajna expressing how he felt fortunate to get a second opportunity to inaugurate another yajna of Pujya Gurudev’s. The Jnana yajnas were “bringing the masses in touch with our hoary scriptural texts,” praised the Governor. Speaking about the significance of the Gita, he remarked, “Don’t be under the impression that it is all meant only for the sannyasins; a sannyasin is already an evolved person. The Gita is addressed to us.”
Toward Perfection- Self and the World
For Pujya Gurudev, the 108th Jnana Yajna was no different nor more significant than the first in which He had roared the message of the Upanishads. From where He functioned, the unconditional giving of Knowledge alone mattered. Commencing the yajna, He stated firmly:
“For the revival of the grand old spiritual harmony of the land, a bold enquiry into the past and into our scriptures – in a spirit of research and scholarship, and not in blind faith is very essential.” He referred to the “wide gorge” between generations. While the older generations lived by the injunctions of the prophets and sages, the new generations often did not feel there was anything worthwhile in the ancient scriptures. However, Pujya Gurudev was optimistic about the awakening among the educated youth who were re-examining Vedanta. With conviction, He invited the youth in the audience to continue their analysis, asserting, “No other scripture in the world can face the ruthless attack of logic and reasoning as was available in the Vedantic Scriptures. Their logic is so tight and complete that many of our misconceptions will be removed once we begin to go through them.”
“Our prejudices and misconceptions about our scriptures have made everyone of us a spiritual zero; and the community comprising such individuals cannot be anything better than that. It is therefore essential that individuals should better themselves. The message of the Rshis is – world perfection through individual perfection.”
The young and the old of Ranchi assembled in large numbers to listen, reflect, and absorb. During that 16-day yajna, Pujya Gurudev recreated the introspective atmosphere of Kenopanishad during His morning discourses at the School Hall of the Dhurwa Colony. The evenings devoted to Bhakti Yoga (chapter 12) made the audience rise in love for the Divine.
The 108th Jnana Yajna of Pujya Gurudev was just the beginning. Those formative years of Chinmaya Mission sowed the seeds of everything divine in millions of lives who began their quest and saadhana. In the years that followed, through all His 532 Jnana Yajnas, He infused the yearning – His lofty love made every seeker strive to be a Mumukshu, desiring Liberation. He guided all toward Viveka – the relentless enquiry into the real, Vairaagya – the joy of dispassion, and the sixfold wealth, Shat Sampatti, of spiritual values and discipline. Through every yajna, He lit the path of self-unfoldment through Shravana and Manana to gain the bliss of Nididhyaasana.
Flowing down from Uttarkashi with grace and pure Knowledge, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda initiated a pilgrimage that started with those momentous first 108 yajnas and still continues…
A Meditation Minute:
कृतज्ञता या च हृदि स्थिता मे वक्तुं न शक्या खलु यत्नतोऽपि ।
गुरो प्रसीद कृपया विधेहि त्वत्पादभक्तिं परमानुरक्तिम् ॥११॥
kṛtajñatā yā ca hṛdi sthitā me vaktuṃ na śakyā khalu yatnato’pi ।
guro prasīda kṛpayā vidhehi tvatpādabhaktiṃ paramānuraktim ॥11॥
- The gratitude in my heart can never be expressed fully in spite of my best efforts. O Teacher ! Be gracious and bless me with devotion, of the nature of Supreme love to your feet.
Let us seek the Grace and blessings of Pujya Gurudev, as we walk the Chinmaya path to live devoted to what He taught tirelessly. Words dissolve into silence as we try to express our endless gratitude and reverent love for the Yuga-purusha, our beloved Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda. At His Feet, we offer our all. Hari Om!
Photo Gallery
A hearty welcome address delivered for the auspicious 108th yagna to the enthusiastic attendees and an 'all-attentive' Gurudev!
Gurudev's inimitable talks, laced with humor and eloquence, carries the huge audience to the shores of profound understanding, and ignites the flame of inner transformation.
Every scripture is a mirror, that reflects faithfully the student's own mind and intellect.
No yagna is complete without the Prasad Pustika handed out with love and blessings by Gurudev!
The respected guests on stage are listening in awe to Gurudev, as wisdom flows like a river, washing away the barriers of the mind and opening channels to the infinite.
In the sacred space of shared laughter between Gurudev and the devotee, the veil of seriousness is lifted, revealing the pure essence of their connection
“Think,” Says Pujya Gurudev
It is the ego (Jeeva) that brings an individual again and again to bondage, and it is the ego again that keeps him bound to the world of ignorance. When the duality is removed, when even the thought “I am the Brahman” is dissolved in the all-consuming Knowledge of the Self, there remains but one all absorbing experience of the One Supreme Self, Eternal, Infinite. This subjective experience alone is the final culmination of all spiritual seeking because the Self is not an object of cognition. It is the very Light which illumines all our experiences.
So by constant “Jnana-Abhyasa” we have to eliminate all the Vasanas, end the mind and come to experience that Self which is our real essential nature. Just as the medicine we take of its own accord gets ultimately eliminated from us, so too the experience “I am Brahman” is also dissolved in that spiritual glow.
From Atmabodh Book
“Those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me”.
To renounce all our actions to an Institution, to an idea or to a power is to end our individual limitations and identify ourselves with it. Thus an ordinary man, as ambassador of a country, becomes a mighty personality in the foreign courts, because he talks, acts, thinks and expresses the will of an entire people. Similarly, one, as a devotee of the Infinite Lord, when one has learnt the art of surrendering oneself totally at the feet of the Lord and acts as a messenger or a representative of the Will of the Lord, one becomes, not only divinely ‘dynamic’, but in and through one’s own activities one becomes constantly aware of the presence and grace of the Universal Spirit.
“Regarding Me as the Supreme Goal”:- a dancer never forgets the rhythm of the drum to which she is to step on. A musician is ever conscious of the background hum. Similarly a devotee is advised here not to take up religion as part-time entertainment or a temporary escapism but to consider the Lord as the Supreme Goal to be achieved in and through life. In short, we are advised that in order to ascend to the higher summits of our cultural perfection it is necessary that we direct all our contacts, transactions, experiences in our life towards the achievement of this cumulative goal of Self-Perfection as symbolized in the Lord of our heart.
From Tyagi Magazine
The Secret to know God!
Just as one doesn’t need another light to see a lit lamp, one’s own consciousness is sufficient to perceive the Self. No external instruments are necessary to know the nature of consciousness, as it illuminates all experiences without the need for additional perception tools.