Green Satsang and Pledge for Navratri
#Navratri Pujya Swamiji and Sadhvi Bhagawatiji were warmly welcomed to the Hindu Temple in Louisville, Kentucky, by the residents and devotees. The priests expressed their gratitude for Pujya Swamiji’s care, compassion and concern towards the temple from the very beginning of the temple’s formation. Pujya Swamiji offered a beautiful sacred green Bhel sapling as a symbol and reminder to celebrate the Navratri festival as a Green festival.
The evening satsang began with the divine chanting of the sacred Rudram and beautiful mantras of Lord Shivato welcome Pujya Swamiji.
Sadhviji spoke on how to perform our actions and what kind of actions we can perform so that we fill our lives with joy and purpose.
She explained, “Pujya Swamiji shared a beautiful mantra with me when I first came to Rishikesh, nearly 20 years ago. He said that we must ‘engage ourselves in Karma, under the shade of Dharma, with an awareness of Brahman. ‘”She elaborated, “According to Bhagawan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, we cannot abstain from acting. Even when we restrain our bodies, our minds are still acting. So the question becomes HOW we act, WHO we see the as the do-er, for WHOM we are acting and the intention of each action.” .”
She elaborated that actions should be free of expectation and attachment with an awareness that we are truly just instruments of the divine grace. However, this is often not an easy task because of our addiction to distraction, our sense of doing rather than being, the ego and desires often are in the way. She explained the second part of the mantra, “Perform your karma under the shade of dharma with an awareness of Brahman.”
Later, Pujya Swamiji enlightened those present by sharing, “Need, greed and speed requires direction and discretion. Our scriptures have always said God pervades everything, is everywhere, as Sadhviji just shared so beautifully, and continues on to say renounce and rejoice in your actions. Perform your actions not with any expectation or attachment to the fruits of your actions and never hoard that which is not yours. Our scripture also shares that nothing is really ours anyways, we don’t bring anything into this world and we won’t be able to take anything with us.”
He gave the example of Alexander the Great, who conquered everything but ordered that in his coffin his hands were to be left out as a symbol that the greatest ruler had yet to conquer his own self. Pujya Swamiji shared that a life of simplicity, with the full awareness of this truth, of purity, of Bhakti (devotion/divine love) is the best way to experience God’s Divine Grace in our lives.
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