09.30.08
Posted in Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts, Sunday Satsangs at 7:19 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This three hour Satsang spans a wide array of topics. After the opening kirtan, Babaji discusses and demonstrates the concept of svaras in music, which are the basis of rasa or emotion in music. The discussion then moves on to discussing the importance of theVedanta-Sutras, the meaning and importance of consciousness and ontology, and the philosophical deviations that creep in if we don’t understand or misunderstand these subtle concepts. All this and more in this Satsang!
Sunday Satsang 28 September 2008: Music, Consciousness, Ontology and Philosophical Deviations
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09.22.08
Posted in Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts, Sunday Satsangs at 10:00 am by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This Satsang starts off with an account of our nascent community outreach efforts, beginning with our visit to the local church in the context of which we discuss the spiritually damaging nature of religious organizational politics. Babaji then speaks about the door at the root of our consciousness – the door that we have to find our way to and knock on. “Knock and the door shall be opened”, as Jesus said. Krsna has to choose to open the door and reveal Himself to us, so we must approach Him in a way that would make him want to reveal Himself – and that is pure devotional service. In the middle of this deep discussion, Conor unexpectedly gets his spiritual name – Kānāi Dāsa!
Sunday Satsang 21 September 2008: The Door at the Root of Our Consciousness
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09.21.08
Posted in Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts, Sunday Satsangs at 3:19 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This Satsang starts off with a lively kirtan and we are treated to double camera shot: a view of both Babaji and the devotees during the ecstatic proceedings. Babaji then compares spiritual life to a kirtan; It just keeps getting better! The two kinds of happiness described in the Bhagavad-gita are explained: material happiness being like nectar in the beginning and poison at the end whereas spiritual happiness is nectar at the end but seems like poison in the beginning. Babaji further expounds on why we won’t be deceived when we know absolute truth and how philosophies like voidism are the cause of evil in the world today. Ugra Karma (unnecessary work) is then discussed and how sharing things cuts down the use of resources. We then find out that Krsna rewards our past pious activities by providing us with association with devotees.
Sunday Satsang 14 September 2008: The Joy of Spiritual Life
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 9:05 am by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This evening we discuss the source of the expression of music, the transcendental quality of consciousness, how Kṛṣṇa reveals Himself to His devotees, how Vedic knowledge is inconceivable, realizing the essential nature of consciousness, knocking on God’s door, Kṛṣṇa is the eternal Companion, the Vedic wisdom is passed down from Lord Brahmā, how Kṛṣṇa responds to us, He is the real Doer, and the things in life that never change.
Evening Darshan 20 Sep 2008: The Secret of Music, Realizing the Nature of Consciousness
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 9:00 am by Nava-yauvana dāsa
We talk about the financial crisis, truthfulness and making commitments; Kṛṣṇa’s transcendental qualities, that He is the eternal Friend and perfect Companion, who protects and maintains His devotees; since everything is actually created by Him and belongs to Him, its real use is to be engaged in His service; mixed devotional service versus pure bhakti; seeing reality instead of illusion, and consensus management as described in the Esoteric Teaching of the Vedic literature.
Evening Darshan 19 Sep 2008: Truthfulness, Sincerity and Love
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09.16.08
Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 1:10 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
Last evening we started off with a kirtan followed by another Sanskrit Pronunciation class using the prologue of the Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma , at the end of which Babaji says a few words about the significance and meaning of the prologue spoken by Bhishma.
Listen to Part 1
Later, over evening milk, we had a deep discussion about how the development of consciousness is an internal and subjective matter and how we should be careful not to fall into the mode of expertly following the externals while having a hollow inner spiritual life. We look forward to questions and comments on this subtle but very important topic.
Listen to Part 2
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 1:07 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This Darshan is quite a discussion! It begins with Babaji explaining to us the salient aspects of the musical art of kirtan. Then we had a short detour into the positive aspects of the regulative principles – that they’re there to foster positive qualities though they may appear to be negative restrictions. Finally, we had a deep discussion about the meaning of consciousness, the difference between the conscious platform and the mental platform and what it means to observe our own consciousness.
Evening Darshan 04 September 2008: The Art of Kirtan and Observing Our Consciousness
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 1:05 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
In this Darshan Babaji discusses the purpose and mission of this website and the forums provided. In that context we discuss epistemology, the dangers of impersonalism, dealing with trolls and other related topics.
Evening Darshan 03 September 2008: The Purpose of the Forums and Related Topics
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 12:59 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This Darshan begins with a sweet and soft evening-mood (śayana) kirtan followed by another Sanskrit Pronunciation class using the ślokas from the Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma . After this, we recorded our conversation over dinner prasādam. The discussion starts off with a question about the meaning of one of the names mentioned in the Śrī Viṣṇusahasranāma and from there it wanders into various subjects such as the Mahābhārata, the kinds of recommended spiritual practices in past ages (yugas) and many other enlivening topics.
Evening Darshan 02 September 2008: Kirtan, Sanskrit Pronunciation and Varied Discussion
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Posted in Darshan, Esoteric Teaching, Podcasts at 12:57 pm by Nava-yauvana dāsa
This evening we had a wonderful discussion. Conor had an intense experience while chanting his sixty four rounds, which he kindly shared with us. What followed was a very tender and deep discussion about the potency of the Holy Name. We hope this gives everyone spiritual strength on their own personal journeys, and also an idea of what to expect on this path.
Later on the discussion moved on to other topics such as the necessity of having proper spiritual knowledge to understand our own experiences in the proper context, the changes at the ashram and premature retirement options 
.
Evening Darshan 31 August 2008: The Cleansing Experienced by Chanting the Holy Name
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