Jnana Yajna 90

Year & Dates:

July 29, 1961 to August 08, 1961

Yajna Topic:

Shrimad Bhagavad Gita- Chapter 13

Place:

Prayagraj (Allahabad), India

Considered one of the holiest cities of pilgrimage for the Hindus, Prayagraj, also known as Allahabad, is renowned for its Triveni Sangam – the confluence of the sacred rivers – Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati. The city sanctified in the Puranas and the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata is revered also as the place of God Brahma’s first yajna called the Prakrishta Yajna – the yajna of Creation. In such a hallowed place highly associated with spiritual learning and literature, Pujya Gurudev conducted His 90th Jnana Yajna.

The previous yajna of Pujya Gurudev’s at Prayagraj was in October 1958 when He enlightened the seekers on the glory of Bhakti Yoga with His discourses on Gita’s chapter 12. Knowing that the branch of Chinmaya Mission at Prayagraj needed continuity, Pujya Gurudev chose to teach Gita’s 13th chapter along with His morning classes on Ishavasyopanishad.

A Bee of Spirituality

The venue for the short 11-day yajna was aptly chosen; it was the Kali Prasad Inter (K. P. I) College founded by the greatly respected Munshi Kali Prasad Kulbhashkar who gave all of his land and property to educate the less fortunate in the late 1800s.

In His summary of the 13th chapter, Pujya Gurudev called it one of the most brilliant chapters in the Gita which provides “a direct subjective method of meditating upon and realizing the Imperishable and Eternal in ourselves.” He pointed out how the plurality of all experiences of perception, feelings, and thoughts in the “Field” are supported by the One Indivisible and Changeless Knower.

The theme of All-pervasiveness continued in the morning classes on Ishavasyopanishad when Pujya Gurudev eloquently guided the aspirants to contemplate upon the how the All-Pervasive must also be something that cannot move. He explained: “Since Consciousness is all-pervading, it cannot move, and nothing that moves in the Universe can ever move except in the medium of Consciousness.”

Just as in that 90th yajna, in every Jnana Yajna, Pujya Gurudev’s depth of spiritual expression astounded the large group of seekers. 

A Meditation Minute: The verses of Chinmaya Ashtakam written in poetic Sanskrit echo the reverence that many thousands began to feel in that spectacular first decade of Pujya Gurudev’s Vedantic Renaissance. In the momentous 108-yajna pilgrimage, Pujya Gurudev illumines the way and embodies the goal; thus, to meditate on Him turns our attention to the Highest.

ओंकारसूनमकरन्दरसं पिबन्तम् अध्यात्मभृङ्गमवनीतलभाग्यशृङ्गम् ।

आनन्दपूर्णमतिमप्रतिमप्रभावं श्रीचिन्मयं गुरुवरं हृदि भावयामि ॥१॥

oṁkārasūna-makarandarasaṁ pibantam adhyātmabhrnga-mavanītala-bhāgyaśṛngam, 

ānanda-pūrna-matima-pratima-prabhāvaṁ śrīcinmayaṁ guruvaraṁ

“I meditate in my heart upon Sri Chinmaya, the best of teachers, the bee of spirituality that drinks the nectar in the flower of Omkara, the greatest blessing upon the earth, whose mind is full of bliss, and whose glory is incomparable.”

  • Chinmaya Ashtakam verse 1

Pujya Gurudev wanted the ‘educated yet lost’ to taste the unparalleled sweetness of Vedanta that He enjoyed. His great compassion made Him go from place to place proclaiming that secret to true happiness. To that inimitable blessing “Sri Chinmaya,” our heartfelt prostrations.

Photo Gallery

“Think,” Says Pujya Gurudev 

All things in the world that are born both the world of inert matter (unmoving) and the world of Conscious beings (moving) arise neither from the Field (Prakriti) nor from the Knower-of-the-Field (Purusha). The source is from the marriage between Prakriti and Purusha. This combination of Matter and Spirit is not an accomplished nuptial but it is only a mutual super-imposition. 

In every super-imposition a delusion is recognised upon a substratum: the ghost on the post. Not only the form, and all attributes of the ghost come to be projected upon the post but also the post lends its existence to the non-existent ghost.  As a result of its mutual exchange we find that the non-existent ghost comes to exist in our experience, while the existing post becomes a non-existent ghost with illusions of physical limbs and ghastly behaviors. This process, which is the trick of the human mind, is called mutual superimposition. In the pure Consciousness there is no Field of Matter. The fields of matter have neither existence nor sentiency. But the Spirit plays in the Field and becomes the Knower-of-the-Field (Purusha) and when this purusha works in Prakriti the combination breeds the entire phenomenon universe constituted of the moving and the unmoving.

Through careful discrimination when we successfully discover this play in ourselves the vision of the plurality recedes and we understand that the ultimate Truth is the Substratum on which both Prakriti and Purusha come to play.

From Tyagi Magazine

The Story of Miss Electricity!

In this video Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda critiques the Western perception of Hindu gods as terrible and explains the omnipresent nature of divinity using the analogy of electricity. They elucidate how consciousness enlivens all aspects of existence, from bodily functions to inanimate objects, emphasizing the omnipresence of divinity in all manifestations. Ultimately, they assert that the essence of divinity transcends physical forms and exists beyond material constructs.