Our spirituality meet this Sunday, June 3rd

Our next meet up will be on Sunday, June 3rd, and we have an interesting speaker, Kumar Padmini, who will be talking to us on a verse from the Katha Upanishad ( the book that was translated as "A Dialogue with Death" by Eknath Easwaran..we have this book in our library).  In spite of the title, the book is more about life than death :)  

• Please RSVP here:  https://goo.gl/zPNZ9x 
• Invocation to God/ Meditation - 3min
  
• Discussion topics:
  • A verse from Katha Upanishad - Talk followed by Q &A  (by Kumar Padmini) - See details below. 
  • Meditation Techniques - ( if we have time left)
• Surrendering to the Divine  - 3min
• Book share/ Networking: 30 min max

The verse Kumar has chosen is " na thathra sooryo bhaathi, na chandhra thaarakam" which according to him gives us  a peak into concepts such as knowningness, knower, known, and knowledge.   The literal meaning would be " the sun does not shine, nor do the moon and the stars "
See details below for the full meaning in the right context.
Checkout the Amazon review of the book: Dialogue with Death by Eknath Easwarean.

https://www.amazon.com/Dialogue-Death-Spiritual-Psychology-Upanishad/dp/0915132249


Now, here is the full verse and the meaning

Na tatra suryo bhati na candra tarakam
nema vidyuto bhanti kutoyam agnihi
tameva bhantam anubhati sarvam
tasya bhasa sarvam idam vibhati

There the sun does not shine, nor do the moon and the stars. These streaks of lightning do not shine there either, (so) what to speak of this fire? That, shining, makes all others shine. By virtue of its luminosity, all these (manifestations) are illuminated.

My own understanding of this verse is that at an individual level, the self or consciousness (or life energy) resides in all of us, without which the organs of the body or the mind, cannot function. At a macro level, the same energy resides in everything, whether it is sun or moon or stars, without which they cannot function!
It may be worth noting that in vedic astrology, all these planets (and earth) are actually considered conscious beings ! 

Anyway, great topic and relevant...most of us consider us weak and burdened with issues...our problems are much bigger and we are always too small to handle them...we are never good enough for Mr. Mind... scaring us with this or that... ..and here is this verse telling us everything is shining only because of the Self, which is present in us as the Observer!