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Faith & Worship

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FESTIVALS THIS MONTH:

OCTOBER 4: RAMADAN

OCTOBER 10: DUSSEHRA

OCTOBER 12: VIJAY DASHAMI


TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG/CLEARWATER

Hindu Temple of Florida: 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday; 5509 Lynn Road, Tampa, FL 33624; (813) 962-6890.

JAIN SOCIETY OF TAMPA BAY: monthly lectures by Samniji and Dev Darshan, Days Inn hotel at Fletcher Avenue and Interstate 75; call Kini Shah at (813) 503-0715 or (813) 968-4088.

Vishnu Mandir: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday only, discourse by Pandit Vishnu Sharma; 5303 Lynn Road, Tampa, FL 33624; (813) 654-2551

Sanatan Mandir: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sunday; 311 East Palm Avenue, Tampa, FL 33602; (813) 221-4482

Shri Saraswati Devi Mandir: 9:30 a.m. to noon Sunday only; officiating priest is Pandit Purnanan Sharma; 16220 Livingston Avenue, Lutz, FL 33559; (813) 264-1539

Baps Shri Swaminarayan Mandir: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily; Darshan is closed between noon and 4 p.m. but reopens at 4 p.m.; 9226 E. Fowler Ave. (between Interstate 75 and U.S. 301); (813) 986-5473.

MANAV DHARMA ASHRAM: sumiran is from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. first Thursday of every month; satsang is 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, followed by dinner; yoga classes begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday; bhajans are 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. every third Sunday; 7520 Caron Road, Tampa, FL 33615; call the ashram at (813) 889-7155, Himatlal Parekh at (813) 969-1661 or Ashok Modh at (813) 935-3439.

SHREE YAMUNA PREETI SEVA SAMAJ: Pushtimargiya Satsang Mandal invites Vaishnavs of Tampa Bay area to weekend Satsang sabhas and kirtans; 1340 Robin Road S., St. Petersburg, FL 33707; call Smitabein Patel at (813) 961-3816 or Himatlal Parekh at (813) 969-1661.

Islamic Society of Tampa Bay Area Mosque: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily; 7326 E. Sligh Ave., Tampa, FL 33601; Tel: (813) 628-0007

Gurudwara: 8 a.m. till 8 p.m. daily; 15302 Morris Bridge Road, Thonotosassa, FL 33592; (813) 986-6205.

ORLANDO AREA

HINDU SOCIETY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, 8:30 a.m. to noon and 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; 1994 Lake Drive, Casselberry, FL 32707; (407) 699-5277.

Shri Shivdham Hindu Temple and Brahmrishi Yogashram: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily; 460 O’Berry Hoover Road, Orlando, FL 32825; (407) 380-2661 or e-mail ymcco@yahoo.com

GURDWARA, SIKH SOCIETY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: 11:30 A.M. to 1 p.m. Sunday; 2527 W. Aloma Ave. (west State Road 426), Oviedo; (407) 805-0404.

MASJID AL-RAHIM, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA, WEST ORLANDO: five times daily prayers and pray on Friday; 4962 Old Winter Garden Road, Orlando, FL 32811; (407) 523-7882.

SHRI SHIVDHAM HINDU TEMPLE AND BRAHMRISHI YOGASHRAM: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily; 460 O’Berry Hoover Road, Orlando, FL 32825; (407) 380-2661 or e-mail ymcco@yahoo.com

SANTOSHI MA TEMPLE: bhajan and aarti first Friday of every month; 10900 Park Ridge Gotha Road, Windermere, FL 34786; (407) 996-2830.

SHRI LAXMINARAYAN MANDIR: 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Sunday; 269 N. Klondike Ave., Pine Hills, FL 32811; (407) 877-7916.

SHRI SWAMINARAYAN MANDIR (BAPS): 1325 W. Oak Ridge Road, Orlando, FL 32809; (407) 857-0091.

ALACHUA (ALACHUA COUNTY)

ISKCON OF ALACHUA (International Society for Krishna Consciousness): founder is A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, P.O. Box 819, Alachua, FL 32616; (386) 462-2017.

INVERNESS (CITRUS COUNTY)

Shirdi Sai Center: 4707 Pleasant Grove Road, Inverness, FL 34452; for timings of the center and any other information, call (352) 860-2181 or e-mail shirdi@gowebco.com


Send information on upcoming events to Nitish S. Rele, Khaas Baat, 18313 Cypress Stand Circle, Tampa, FL 33647
or e-mail editor@khaasbaat.com
Deadline for submissions is the 18th of each month to be included in the next issue.



RELIGION: IN A SERIES
WISDOM OF THE ‘YOGA VASISTHA’
By SWAMI SURYADEVANANDA



Swami Suryadevananda
Rama’s Observations (cont’d…)

Lord Rama continues to present his uncertainties and doubts to the sage Visvamitra when asked about his indrawn condition.

Childhood is commonly considered a carefree and joyful stage in our life but it is the period where impressions are taken on and we formulate our perceptions, which we will use for the rest of our lives.

This is a most precarious stage as we seem personally incapable of dealing with the never-ending unfolding drama of events and find ourselves at the receiving end. The conditioning begins at a stage when we are most vulnerable and, in this state of subjugation, we take on modes of understanding and thinking as absolute truths that we may carry around till the high walls of circumstances confronts us.

We find ourselves incapable of dealing with the stock answers in our never-questioned arsenal of life’s understanding. Youth dawns with the turning pages of time and we are filled with impulses to action in our environment.

It is here that we are unable to reconcile what we have been subjugated to earlier in our childhood with what we seem to experience. Memory has been taking place and this memory is nothing but the ability to recollect the impressions of experience. We try in this stage to reconcile understanding with the unfolding of events and find ourselves unable to do this satisfactorily. When we attempt to question the conditioning that we have been subjugated to earlier, we find ourselves out of place in a setting with others.

Hence, there is a vehemence with which the inner questioning is hushed and we begin simply existing in external settings all for the promise of acceptance amidst others in the same inner plight. This is indeed a travesty and the effects of this ‘hushing’ will be experienced for much of our lives as restlessness and a general dissatisfaction based on matters unresolved. Every question that arises must be answered satisfactorily and life is a series of questions, every situation is like a question before us you may say. When we answer these rising questions later, we will find the ‘hushing’ as an inadequate resolve but may not have the means of finding answers beyond the taught. Hence, distraction seems to become a new vista for release.

We move further in our lives and now carry the scars of ‘subjugated conditioning’ of our childhood, the ‘hushing’ when questions arise and ‘distractions’ when all else fails. These three become our modus operandi; dwell in our mental diet of conditioning from our childhood; when this menu of acceptable and unacceptable is rendered inadequate – throw a blanket of ‘hushing’ or disregard to the rising tides of questions and when this doesn’t answer the mail adequately – seek comfort in the avenues of diversion that we have cut for our shelter.

This trident of ‘triple-error’ is the foundation for dealing with things, people and circumstances in our life. With the armor of error; we enter the corridors of life’s mainstream to make our mark, create a space where we will make our livelihood and surround ourselves with those things or people that are amicable in the best mix possible given the circumstances and the drive we feel rising from within. Life becomes something purely external to our own selves and we begin to see things as events that must be somehow negotiated or manipulated in our favor if possible and our interaction as a sort of series of oppositions or a war, so to say.

This way of dealing with life as something external can only continue for some time as when young age, energy and warm blood is on our side, we appear stronger than what we may find ourselves confronting. We feel invincible and appear to have achieved a sort of mastery over life or circumstances if you wish to call it. But, this momentum is not long lasting as soon circumstances change with young age gradually giving way to a not-so-youthful condition, a sense of fatigue from this external fighting and tiredness with the need for seeking shelter in the distractions we have cut for ourselves.

Incorrect understanding cannot be kept unresolved for too long and is akin to debts unpaid; they will rise and demand adequate answers or a realignment in our modes of thinking. We find ourselves gradually stripped of the earlier momentum; the energy of our younger days but still faced with all that we thought was out of sight and hence out of mind. Time is patience in itself and will bring back to bear all that has been shelved when you are bereft of the momentum to drown the unresolved.

We run hither and thither for sense satisfaction and try to drown the cry from within. But how can we run from our own selves? There is a crying within that has been sitting patiently and wishes resolve, a higher understanding and does not accept partial fragmentary positions. We are not left alone in our old age and restlessness wrestles us constantly when we are most vulnerable. There arises a feeling of a journey not well used and thoughts of doing things differently if the tides of time could be reversed.

Time cannot be reversed and Rama feels that it is imperative to have a proper understanding and reconciliation between the learnt and experienced so a life may be lived as it was meant to be -- free of regrets and remorse. With this, we come to the end of the first section of the Yoga Vasistha; let us see what the great sage Vasistha has to say in the next issue.

Swami Suryadevananda, presently residing in St. Petersburg, is with the Divine Life Society founded by Sri Swami Sivananda in Rishikesh, India. He can be reached via e-mail at suryadevananda@gmail.com.





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