"Ever Striving" April 30, 2023

Sunday, April 30, 2023
Worship Service
11:00 a.m.

“Ever Striving”

Service conducted by
Srimati Karuna, Minister
Sunday Bulletin

What happens when we lose sight of the spiritual idealism of life? Do we become so engrossed with the material life that we are oblivious to the true nature of ourself? Why do we struggle with this perception? What use is philosophy if it doesn't help us to live life fully? Even if we abandon our spiritual aspirations, they merely await our election to take them up once again.

 

“He who strives never perishes.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

“Dharmakshetre-Kurukshetre may be translated into English as “on the holy field of Kurukshetra.” The entire human body is the spiritual kingdom. But the field of the subjective battle between the qualities of the soul, the Pandavas, and the propensities of the ego, the Kauravas, is the spinal column encompassing the region between the Muladhar, the coccygeal center at the base, and Ajna, the spiritual eye, located in the brain, back of the point between the eyebrows. That part of the body which lies below the coccygeal center is to be considered as relatively physical, and is designated by the term Kurukshetra.

“The Sahasraram, the sphere of the symbolic thousand-petalled lotus, situated at the top of the brain, is known to be purely spiritual, Dharmakshetra. Accordingly, the area extending from the Kurukshetra below, to the Dharmakshetra above, is designated by the compound expression Dharmakshetra-Kurukshetra. It is Kurukshetra because it is still the domain of psychosensory perception, and Dharmakshetra, as well, for the reason that the preliminary revelation of the soul is also attained therein. This is the mystic battleground of the Bhagavad-Gita. This is the holy field of the subjective struggle between the qualities of the soul and the propensities of the ego. Such is the mystic setting of the Bhagavad-Gita.”

—Swami Premananda
Introduction to “Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita: The Revelation of the Supreme Self”

“Being established on this truth, the spiritual aspirant should conquer his doubt and other weaknesses in subjective life. No other duty is superior for man than to wage the spiritual struggle, in order to establish the kingdom of righteousness within himself and to realize his own absolute perfection.”

—Swami Premananda
Spiritual interpretive text to
“Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita: The Revelation of the Supreme Self”