A Prostitute as Guru

By G. L. Krishna

An introspective involvement with the sensate is often the gateway to the spiritual. Feeling the ugliness of evil is perhaps the surest way to get rid of it. Here is the story of a prostitute whose life exemplified this truth. Krishna narrates it to his beloved friend Uddhava in the Bhagavata.

Pingala spent her evenings looking for mates in the busy streets of Videha. "Ah...he's my amour," she would think, casting longing glances at handsome passers-by. Whenever someone got enticed, she would spiritedly chase him - only to discover, at the end of the liaison, that the experience was superficial and unfulfilling. "Had, having, and in quest to have extreme," she would thus chase man after man.

One fine evening, a strange weariness came over her. She had grown tired of endlessly looking for the right man - a man who would satisfy her needs of both love and money. The search was tiring, but so were superficial liaisons. Coupled with the weariness was remorse about the life she had lived.

The Holy Lure of Sri Ramanashramam

By G. L. Krishna

I have been a regular visitor to the ashram of Sri Ramana Maharshi in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu (South India). Spending about 4–5 days in the holy precincts of the Ashram has become a cherished biannual ritual for me. 

I have often reflected on what pulls me toward this sacred place. As devotees of Arunachala would attest, while the pull is deep and real, its full nature defies definitive description. A devotee is like Matthew Arnold’s poet, who feels that sharing the deepest truths is challenging: 

Some secrets may the poet tell, 

For the world loves new ways; 

To tell too deep ones is not well 

It knows not what he says. 

I cannot, I am afraid, fathom those deeper aspects of Arunachala’s pull. So, this piece will focus only on those “secrets that I may tell.” 

Tell the Truth, with Love

By Dawn Raffel

In October, I attended Swami Yogatmananda’s talk at Divya Dahm in Queens, NY. I had gone to this temple twice before, both times to hear Swami speak. The first time, I entered tentatively. As someone who does not come from a Hindu background, I was somewhat taken aback by all of the deities—dozens of them, all throughout the temple. Initially, it felt overwhelming. Yet as I continued to sit, what I had tried to understand intellectually began to sink in: There were so many deities that, paradoxically, they had to be One, with many aspects.

This time, I entered the temple eagerly. It was the month of the Durga puja, and Swami’s talk centered on the divine feminine and Holy Mother. The lecture was beautiful, and yet it was an exchange during the question and answer period that has continued to reverberate most powerfully in my mind. The question was posed in a language I don’t understand. Perhaps the specifics of the question don’t matter, because Swami’s answer, in English, is universally applicable: “Tell the truth, with love.” To this, he added, “because the truth is love.”

Lessons from a Recent Train Ride

By Dawn Raffel

In August I rode the train from New York to Vedanta Society of Providence for Krishna Janmashtami. My plan was to reach Providence by early afternoon the day before the festival, but my train was beset by engine troubles. An anticipated brief delay became longer and longer until, in the end, I arrived four hours late.

Fortunately, I reached the Vedanta Society in time for the evening meditation. This was followed by Swami Yogatmananda’s remarks to the children who were enjoying their final evening of residential camp. As one would expect, these comments were invaluable to the adults present as well. Swami posed this question: If you are on a train from New York to Providence and while onboard, you keep running in the direction of New York, where will you end up? The answer is obvious and the analogy demonstrates that everything is up to God.

Complaints Unraveled

By An Aspirant

Complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction with a situation and an unwillingness to accept it, exacerbated by the inability to endure the resulting discomfort or to put in the effort required to adjust it to meet our preferences! Digging further into that feeling makes it evident that the situation is not absolutely unchangeable, but we'd rather not take on that responsibility because we don't trust the strength/longevity of the driving preferences! Thus, complaints reflect an evasion of personal responsibility and a tendency to blame external factors. Simply put, complaining is a demonstration of one's cowardice!

This deep-rooted trait requires introspection, effort and immense Grace to overcome. Awareness that this malady is "in" us and not a problem outside transforms us into an active and willing patient in the treatment process. Some efforts that I find helpful are:

1. Acceptance:
Initially, "don't complain" amounts to bottling up the emotions, which leaves little room for the intellect to operate effectively. Instead, we have to first accept that we are dissatisfied without justifying it.

What Is "Real" Worship?

By Dawn Raffel

While traveling in Italy, I visited several sacred sites—some of them archeological ruins and others active places of worship. In Paestum, south of Naples, three massive Greek temples built some 500 years BC stand largely intact; the goddesses Hera and Athena were worshipped here. A few hours north is Pompeii, an ancient city whose life was extinguished almost instantaneously when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD, burying everything under lethal ash while at the same time preserving buildings, their contents, and even some bodies for thousands of years. Every day, throngs of tourists make their way through what’s left of what were once remarkably sophisticated homes and public places. Here, too, one finds temples erected for the worship of Greek and Roman gods who, unlike their ancient counterparts in the Hindu and Jewish religions, are now “extinct.”

Standing amid the remains of Pompeii's temple of Apollo—the god of music, song, dance, and poetry—I overheard a tour guide explain to her group that these pagan gods often behaved in ways that were reprehensible, and that worship of them was extremely transactional. (And yet, I thought, don't many people continue to pray in a transactional manner, requesting a particular worldly outcome, bargaining with God?)

“Love, Love–That’s The One Thing”

By Dawn Raffel

On a recent visit to Vedanta Society of Providence, the morning’s reading was from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda—specifically, the ending of a lecture given at Kumbakonam in 1897. As I listened, I was again reminded of how, even when addressing “current events” of the nineteenth century, Swami Vivekananda’s words seem urgently pertinent today. The lecture, titled “Mission of Vedanta,” begins by elucidating the spiritual underpinnings of Indian society, and goes on to stress the whole world’s need for awareness of the universality of religions and the oneness of all things.

The latter part of the lecture speaks to the topic of social reform in India. “Personally, I have no fault to find with these reformers,” he said. “Most of them are good, well-meaning men, and their aims too are very laudable on certain points; but it is quite a patent fact that this one hundred years of social reform has produced no permanent and valuable result appreciable throughout the country.” The error, he explained, is that real change can’t be affected by “platform speeches” and “denunciation.” It comes about only through spiritual progress, through love.