Jnana Yajna 11
Year & Dates:
May 14, 1955 to June 04, 1955
Yajna Topic:
Mundakopanishad
Place:
Ooty, India.
“What is That, my Lord, knowing which all these become known?” enquired the great householder Shaunaka after he respectfully approached Sage Angiras. So opens Mundakopanishad. Describing and detailing the thought-provoking Upanishad in his 11th Jnana Yajna, Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda prompted the audience in Ooty to reflect and evolve. An important outcome by the end of this 21-day yajna was the publication of the “Mundakopanishad” book which compiled all of Pujya Gurudev’s commentary taught during both the second Jnana Yajna in Chennai and the 11th yajna in Ooty. In His introduction to the book, Pujya Gurudev wrote: “The very concept of Jnana Yajna was conceived by me in a moment of love, and these Yajnas were worked out in an atmosphere of love depending upon love, demanding only love, and the workers working merely for love.”
Yajnas in Lasting Pages
Throughout the ten Jnana Yajnas that had awakened people to the glory of their Vedic heritage, Pujya Gurudev had envisioned with loving foresight that the word should spread far and wide. Hence, He systematized the reflections of every Yajna in the ‘Yajna Prasad” booklets that were distributed first free and then at nominal cost to thousands of seekers. It is an incredible feat how Pujya Gurudev would spend countless hours to dictate and record the scriptural teachings after His discourses for the world to keep reaping the benefits of those priceless reflections. The earliest ‘Yagna Prasad’ booklets sowed the seeds for his prolific writing that gave rise to “Chinmaya Publications.” To keep the spark of Awareness alive in all our pursuits in life, Pujya Gurudev gifted us with the precious pages, year after year. Like the famous imagery in Mundakopanishad, the sparks from the Vedantic fire that He kindled still glow in the pages of His Prasad booklets, books, and all His words.
In Admiration
Karthiayini G Nayar who was blessed to listen to Pujya Gurudev’s discourses in Ooty shares these impressions:
Listening to Swamiji speak, one would feel self reliant, self confident, bold enough to face any crisis knowing that everything in the world is ephemeral. An knowing what is good company or Satsang, one would not enjoy the company of ordinary people where the conversation is often about irrelevant and flimsy matters
Photo Gallery
Hot off the Press - Upanishad Commentaries selling like Hotcakes!!
The smile of Gurudev during a procession - that greets and energizes all
Looking up at the Om flag to stay inspired
A warm welcome to another blissful Jnana Yajna
The literature that shows the Goal, declares the path and gives rational arguments for both, is the Upanishads.
Thought-Provoking!
“Think,” Says Pujya Gurudev
Let us try an example: A driver at the steering-wheel, while driving, cannot be run over the same car.The moment the driver leaves his seat and rushes to the front of the car, since the car has no motion of its own, it stop and so cannot knock him down and run over him! Similarly, the Atman, the dynamic power behind the mind that vitalises the mind- that makes it possible for the mind to grasp things- cannot be grasped independently by the mind. Should the mind grasp the Reality, it should stand apart from the object it so grasp: and the moment the mind divorces itself from its connections with the Atman, it becomes a dead inert stuff which cannot grasp any idea anymore. Hence we say that the Supreme is ungraspable.
From Mundakopanishad Book
The Word ‘diligently’ (niyatam) is very pregnant. It does not merely suggest a faithful and blind performance, but insists upon a regular practice which is continuous, intelligent, fresh and cheerful. Rituals followed as a routine lose all their potency.
A routine in itself cannot constructively re-create a developed human personality. It is only a deliberate intelligent training of the head and heart of an individual, grained through diligent abhyas that can bring about this desired effect. A dull habit, or an inert routine pursued under the blind force of a dead faith is ineffectual and quite undesirable as a measure in the spiritual revival of an individual.
Rituals in themselves cannot and will not lead a seeker to his goal. An act, however noble, cannot, in its result, procure the Eternal, the act being itself a finite one.
From Mundakopanishad Book
The Light beyond light!
Explore the mystical realm of Mundakopanishad as we decode its enlightening verse that challenges our understanding of light, fire, and divinity. Witness the symbolic significance of aarati and the flame, realizing how our attempts to see the divine mirror our journey from the material to the infinite.