Bhavaprana

December 3, 2014

How Karma Yoga Has Affected My Life   Br. Vivek

So, today, I’m going to talk about three items in brief. The first will be the common things that I personally struggle with regarding work. The second is how the practice and philosophy of Karma Yoga helps me to relieve these struggles. Lastly, I will provide a biological example of Karma Yoga at work on a much smaller scale within the very cells of our physical bodies as this has been a source of inspiration for me -- finding parallels between the science of Vedanta and the mainstream physical sciences.
April 1, 2014

The Power of Silence   Pravrajika Bhavaprana

“Silence is not an absence but a presence, not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is the enchanted space in which things open up, and surfaces fall away, and we find ourselves in the midst of absolutes. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say, is that we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink beneath our daily selves, into a place deeper than mere thought allows. Silence is a way of clearing space and staying time; of opening out, so that horizon itself expands, and the air is transparent as glass."
January 8, 2014

Pravrajika Varadaprana Passes Away

Varadaprana was born Doris Ludwig in Los Angeles in 1923. She was born with an innate musical talent, which she used and enjoyed her entire life. She began piano at the age of five and soon progressed to violin, organ, voice, harmonium and tabla. Her exquisite and original musical compositions were her greatest gift and are widely performed in Vedanta Societies throughout the country. While still a teenager, Doris discovered The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna at the Los Angeles Public Library and that discovery changed her life. When she turned 21, she became one of the original nuns of the Vedanta Society, joining its convent in Hollywood in 1944. She moved to the Santa Barbara convent in 1947 and remained in here until her passing.
November 1, 2013

The Art of Listening: Part 1 Pravrajika Virajaprana

In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, there is a conversation between the great sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi in which he said to her: “The Self, my dear Maitreyi, should verily be realized. How? “It should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon. By the realization of the Self alone, my dear, through hearing, reflection, and meditation, all this is known.”
June 1, 2013

Global Ecology and Vedanta: Part 2

By Pravrajika Vrajaprana This paper was delivered at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture during March 2013.  Pravrajika Vrajaprana is a nun in the Santa Barbara […]
May 1, 2013

Global Ecology and Vedanta: Part 1

By Pravrajika Vrajaprana This paper was delivered at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture during March 2013.  Pravrajika Vrajaprana is a nun in the Santa Barbara […]
February 1, 2013

Symbols in Hindu Spirituality

A symbol represents or recalls a thing by possession of analogous qualities or by association in fact or thought. The original Greek word symbolon means a sign by which one knows or infers a thing. Symbols express the invisible by means of visible or sensory representations—the immaterial via the material.