Jnana Yajna 80
Year & Dates:
February 06, 1961 to March 07, 1961
Yajna Topic:
Shrimad Bhagavad Gita- Chapter 13, 15 & 16
Place:
Chennai, India.
The Yajnashala: The spacious lawns of the well-established P.S. Higher Secondary School in the Mylapore neighborhood of Chennai took on a spiritual glow as the thoughtfully adorned Pandal sprung up, awaiting the 80th Jnana Yajna of Pujya Gurudev.
The Inauguration: After Pujya Gurudev was received with traditional honors, the Om flag flew high to signal the start of the Jnana Yajna. The fact that the invocation for the Gita Jnana Yajna was sung by Shri Bhakta Majeed, a muslim by faith, indicated the universality of the text.
From the Inaugural Message: Shri Pethachi, President of the Madras Chinmaya Mission, inaugurated the yajna and expressed with respectful honesty that “the purposeful and kindly play of the Divine Hand of Providence in the unforeseen delays in the starting of the Sandeepany Sadhanalaya” resulted in good fortune for the Chennai seekers in the form of that 80th Jnana yajna.
Unshaken, Divine Vision
Pujya Gurudev’s Opening Address: In Pujya Gurudev’s previous Upanishad yajna discourses in Chennai on Mandukya and Gaudapada’s Karika, “the great Rishi refused to come down from the olympian heights of Brahman realization to our levels of common, work-a-day-life, but simply beckoned us to scale the rocky, precipitous heights by pointing out the path.” In contrast, the approach in Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Pujya Gurudev described thus: “Supreme Lord Krishna comes down to our level, enters our very cowshed and with the familiar flute, the cowherd’s stick and butter in hand, stands shoulder to shoulder with us and takes us step by step to the summit of Perfection.”
Illustrating how science neglects a deeper enquiry on an important front, Pujya Gurudev gave an analogy of a six-year-old who thought he no longer needed his parents after he got home from school and saw the refrigerator at home full of milk, fruits, and other eatables. “Just as the little boy, in his innocent immaturity, could not enquire as to who had put those fruits and milk inside the fridge, the modern scientists while proudly claiming to discover the Laws of Nature, do not contemplate on that Potent Agency that had ordained these laws and maintained them with a beauty and rhythm that could never be done by man. This Concept is God.”
The Audience: To the huge gathering that attended every day, Pujya Gurudev explained how the misaligned contact between the body-mind-intellect equipment and the experiential field became the source of all suffering. They were awestruck by Pujya Gurudev’s way of indicating the Supreme through the verses of Purushottama Yoga. The Prashnopanishad classes in the mornings made the serious seekers contemplate on the unifying essence which also seamlessly echoed in the Gita discourses.
For Reflection: Pujya Gurudev was unperturbed by the challenges and delays that cropped up before the opening of Sandeepany Sadhanalaya. His mission and vision through the Jnana Yajnas continued with the same enthusiasm.
Photo Gallery
The better understanding of things is always reserved for the Man of Knowledge.
Let our prayer be - Oh Achyuta! Please be the helmsman to my boat-of-life.
Seems like our spirits are not only soaring but also sharing a good laugh! Who knew enlightenment could be this hilarious?
Who needs a GPS when you can just follow the crowd to the spiritual talk? Gurudev is the spiritual magnet drawing in all the seekers of wisdom!
Gita has been an inviting art of divine beauty to me ever since i read it. I find that every word in it is a detail, at once revealing and inspiring.
The beautiful rendition of the singer not only has the audience mesmerized, even the divine master seems to be in a trance!
Gurudev enjoys another bhajan rendition!
“Think,” Says Pujya Gurudev
Vedanta preaches not so much the negation of the world as it advocates a re-evolution of the things, beings and happenings constituting the world. Generally we perceive our own pet ideas and emotions coloured by our own unsteady understanding and changing emotions. To see the world not through these equipments but with the clear eye of wisdom is to recognise perfection and bliss, divinity and sanctity, in the very drab and dreary world of today, amidst its own sorrow and ugliness. Erroneous perception of Reality through maladjusted equipment’s is the perception of the world which in its turn is throttling the individual so perceiving it.
From Tyagi Magazine
Bhagavad Gita on Suicide!
Explore a profound twist on the concept of “suicide” in the Bhagavad Gita—is it more than just the conventional meaning we know? Delve into the intriguing idea of how we may be limiting ourselves while still alive, and why this could be considered a greater form of self-restriction. Curious? Let’s uncover the deeper insights together.