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!  

RSVP here: https://goo.gl/7ejkXS
Discussion topic: Form-based and Formless Worship of God!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tentative Agenda: 
Location: Inner Sanctuary Wellness, 2641 Crow Canyon Road, Suite #4, San Ramon
Time : 3PM - 4:30PM + 15-20 minutes of networking, as needed

- Initial intros : 5 min
- Invocation to God -silent meditation : 3 min 
- Astrology Talk: By Aparna : 30 min
- OPTIONAL: Synopsis of books read (Since last meetup) : 5 to 10 min
- March Special : The Wealth Mantra : Shreem Brzee  5 min 
- Round the table discussion: Worship of God, with and without form? -30 -45 min (Moderated: we would like the moderator role rotating amongst us)
- Methods and techniques
- Personal experiences
- Books/references

- OPTIONAL : Learn/share a meditation technique ( If time permits)

- Closing meditation -silent : Let Go & Surrender! : 3 min 

- Book share/ Networking : 30 min max

join our Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/neospirituality/

Last week, we discussed how we can establish a connection with God, on a day-to-day (hour -to-hour) basis..We all recognize how important it is to have a regular practice to stay connected with God, Here is a short list  of some common methods...We encourage you to start one or more of these (if you are not already doing)..

A year from now, we would like to see all of us as an advanced group of spiritual practitioners, who can manifest whatever they want in life :) :)

- Chanting a mantra you like
- Carrying a picture, statuette etc
- Watching the actions, like walking, sitting etc (that we are not lost in thoughts)
​
- Basic breathing exercises
- Watching the breath
- Watching /witnessing the mind

- Surrendering to God on a continuous basis
- Prayerful attitude to everything
- "Who Am I" enquiry

- Traditional methods like visiting places of worship

- Reading spiritual books, scriptures and seek company of spiritually oriented people/places
- Listening to music that elevates the mind from the mundane and evoking devotion 


For March 4th meeting: 
We are deciding on the topic... What about "Form and Formless worship of God"    We have a good number of people who support formless aspect of God, and interested in Advaita (non-dual) form of worship.   My silly question  would be, if God is formless, then what about all the forms in the world? We all live in a world full of names and forms! 
Are they "non-God" ??

Based on our request, Aparna has kindly agreed to talk on "Astrology" for 30 minutes. She is a practitioner and it would be great to get some basics..
Our education and reliance on science and technology has made us believe that planets do NOT have any influence on our lives. Personally, I had some stunning revelations from both Vedic astrology and Nadi astrology readings... There is lot of knowledge out there and we don't want to miss it !! 

Some other takeaways from last meetup was  
-  No Intros: To save time, we will get rid of initial intros, but request people to say their name before they speak first time.. That way, we get more time to discuss the topic at hand.
-  Arrive on-time: We will request everyone to arrive 2 or 3 min prior to the start of the meeting, just so that we don't get distracted by people traffic.

Thank you all for attending our first meet up! It was fun, informative and interesting, to the say the least !! Hope you all enjoyed it.. 

It was great to see so many fellow seekers of God, who have done significant soul-searching and some fairly advanced in this path. 

Please feel free to join us in Facebook for spiritual discussions, or sharing of spiritual content.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1973648486243094/


Discussions:
Participants expressed interest / some of the discussions were focused around:
- Form /Formless worship of God. Certain personal gods in the Hindu pantheon, like Ganesha., Shiva etc. Some expressed deep interest in worship of God as Absolute, pervading everything and everywhere!
- Rituals like Pooja etc
- Different paths to God
- Traditional (temple-based) worship of God,, why and why nots. some were pretty disappointed with temples :)
- Spiritual experiences/ miracles: At least one person narrated an incident
We also spent some decent time networking.

Books:
We also started sharing spiritual books.. The idea is to share spiritual books with  others (which otherwise may be gathering dust in your shelves)..and circulate them with interested participants who will read and return by next meeting so that we can further circulate them

Hosting:

If you are willing to host a meeting, kindly let us know.

Next Meet up:
We are shooting for Sunday, Feb 4th..Will keep you posted. Please feel free to spread the word and invite your friends..

Thanks again for attending in spite of a somewhat chilly weather. Couple of people couldn't attend due to last minute urgent issues.

Look forward to seeing you all for the next meetup,

Bowing down to the Divine!

Vijay
spiritualityneo@gmail.com
https://neospirituality.weebly.com/