Sunday, February 4, 2024
Philosophic Worship Service
11:00 a.m.
“Shared Consciousness”
Service conducted by
Srimati Karuna, Minister
Sunday Bulletin
Learning to identify ourselves with the source and perfection of life—
Learning to transcend the self-limiting concepts of space, time and causality—
Learning to give up the idea that our inmost self is separate from others—
Learning to perceive everything in this universe as divine manifestation—
We begin to delve into that expanse of pure consciousness shared by every aspect of creation.
“Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself,
(for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—
What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
—Walt Whitman
“On the surface of our being we have the ever-changing phases of the individual self, but in the depth there dwells the Eternal Spirit of human unity beyond our direct knowledge. It very often contradicts the trivialities of our daily life, and upsets the arrangements made for securing our personal exclusiveness behind the walls of individual habits and superficial conventions. It inspires in us works that are the expressions of a Universal Spirit; it invokes unexpectedly in the midst of a self-centered life a supreme sacrifice. At its call, we hasten to dedicate our lives to the cause of truth and beauty, to unrewarded service of others, in spite of our lack of faith in the positive reality of the ideal values.”
—Rabindranath Tagore