Evening Classes

Tuesday and Thurday evenings Swami Shantarupananda conducts scriptural classes at 7:30 in the Foyer.

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Tuesdays

Translated and with a biographical introduction by Swami Nikhilananda, this book describes the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna in his own words, faithfully recorded by Mahendranath Gupta ("M.") The following link from an on-line bookstore quotes many Eastern and Western scholars describing the Gospel:

Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Amazon.com also lists the Gospel, including reader comments worth seeing:

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Deb Platt, a liberal Christian who has created the Mysticism in World Religions website, has the following page describing the Gospel including an index of quotes from the book.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

Vedanta Sara of Sadananda, Thursdays

From the introduction by the translator, Swami Nikhilananda:

"The growing interest in Vedanta, even amoung people outside the pale of Indian thought is, in a very large measure, due to its freedom from all narrowness. While it does not discard faith, whatever religion or philosophy may inculcate it, it rests ultimately on the light of Reason (Buddhi), a fact which naturally appeals to all rationally inclined minds, in every part of the world. This is the secret of its strength as well as its attraction. Further, its special value lies in the fact that it seeks the fruit of the knowledge of Truth in this life, not in any world to come after death. It is the effect of Vedantic knowledge on man's life here below, that is of the highest consequence to the Vedantist. The teachings therefore lay great emphasis on moral discipline as a sine qua non of even understanding Vedantic truths."

Special Celebrations

Sri Chaitanya

Devotees of Krishna have published many pages on the World Wide Web in honor of Sri Chaitanya and the many Vaishnava teachers that have spread his message of divine love. Here is one link that summarizes Sri Chaitanya's life:

Sri Guru Vandana - THE LIFE OF SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU

Swami Yogananda

Swami Yogananda was one of the greatest disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Some details of his life can be found at the following page from the web site of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission in India:

Swami Yogananda

Ram Navami - Birthday of Sri Rama

For an eloquent description of the life of Rama and his significance to Hindus everywhere, visit the following page of the HinduNet:

Festivals of Bharat - SRI RAMA NAVAMI

Sunday School - 11:00 AM

Due to irregular and inadequate attendance of Sunday School children, the Vedanta Society of Portland has discontinued the Sunday School program as of January this year. If this concerns you, please contact Swami Shantarupananda.

Personal

Swami Shantarupananda will visit the Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Houston, Texas from march 17 to march 23.

Retreat

There will be no services at the Retreat Temple near Scappoose. However, the services will resume in the Spring.

World Thinkers on Vedanta

"What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like light of a higher and purer luminary, which describes a loftier course through a purer stratum free from particulars, simple, universal. It rises on me like the full moon after the stars have come out, wading through some far summer stratum of the sky."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Philosophy in India is what it ought to be, not the denial, but the fulfillment of religion; it is the highest religion; and the oldest name of the oldest system of philosophy in India is Vedanta, that is, the end, the goal, the highest object of the Vedas."

- Professor Max Mueller

"In all nations there are minds which incline to dwell in the conception of the fundamental Unity. The raptures of prayer and ecstasy of devotion lose all being in one Being. This tendency finds its highest expression in the religious writings of the East and chiefly in the Indian Scriptures, in the Vedas, the Bhagavat Geeta, and the Vishnu Purana."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"At this supremely dangerous moment in human history, the only way of salvation for mankind is an Indian way. The Emperor Ashoka's and the Mahatma Gandhi's principle of non-violence and Sri Ramakrishna's testimony to the harmony of religions; here we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family..."

- Arnold J. Toynbee

"In the whole world there is no study, except that of the originals, so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Oupnekhat (Upanishad). It has been the solace of my life; it will be the solace of my death."

- Arthur Schopenhauer