Contrasting experiences at Colleges in the United Kingdom

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

Is it possible to upload the transcripts of these

talks on to the group for those people who cannot

attend.

 

Many thanks,

 

Rajiv

 

 

--- Vivekananda Centre <vivekananda

wrote:

> Let us share our Contrasting experiences of

> presenting Hinduism at colleges in the UK.

>

> Cambridge University:

> We had a very interesting talk at St John's College

> Cambridge. In the talk we mentioned

> that there are two kinds of scientists....The

> arrogant ones who claim to 'read the mind

> of God' and the more humble ones like Dirac who are

> astounded with what they discover

> and see a grander beauty yet to be uncovered by

> science. One of the students pointed

> out that Dirac was closely linked with St John's

> College. The unique feature about the

> Cambridge students was their very sincere, almost

> devotional approach to the subject

> matter. The 'reverence' with which they heard the

> presentation on Raja yoga and asked

> questions with so much humility was very touching.

> When we were about to depart, the

> delegation were prepared to leave the dining table

> and follow us to the car!! We had to

> request them not to do so but carry on with their

> meals. This is 'Reverence'

>

> Imperial College:

> The talk was well attended. Lots of freshers in the

> audience. They had come to

> hear what 'Hinduism is all about?' We made a

> presentation of the foundations of Hinduism.

> The unique feature of this group of students became

> evident by the calibre of questioning

> at the end of the talk. Very profound and well

> thought out. At the end of the talk we asked:

> How many want the next talk at Imperial to be on the

> 'dynamic face of Hinduism'

> i.e. Life and teachings of Vivekananda?? Loud

> applause confirmed the overwhelming

> approval by the audience. The next talk at Imperial

> in two weeks time will be

> " Vivekananda - Face of contemporary Hinduism " .

>

> King's College London

> We have done a total of four talks at King's

> covering basics to esoteric Hinduism.

> The audience at the last talk was over 200....This

> series of talks have been the most

> successful talks we have done at any college so far.

> We had bit of difficulty as some

> of the students were fixated on Hinduism as 'Katha

> and Vegetarianism.' We said it is

> nice to be drawn to religion by Mythological stories

> but at some stage one needs to

> graduate from Mythology to Philosophy. On

> Vegetarianism we quoted: What goes in

> the mouth is far less important than what come out

> of it... Do not forget two of the most compassionate

> personalities, Christ and Buddha were both

> non-vegetarian. These students

> had asked us for literature on Vivekananda. A

> devotee in Singapore discovering

> this need, couriered us a large selection of books.

> We presented some of these to King's.

> We have uploaded some of the photos of King's at

> http://www.vivekananda.co.uk/photos.htm

>

> jay

> Vivekananda Centre London

>

>

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Hi Jay,

May we know who the name of person who is in Red coat who is giving the lectures.(One of the sister's name is there as sister gayatriprana.)

Thanks

Sriram.

 

> We have uploaded some of the photos of King's at> http://www.vivekananda.co.uk/photos.htm > > jay> Vivekananda Centre London> >

 

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[Guest guest]

 

-

Sriram Popuri

Ramakrishna

Saturday, February 21, 2004 05:18

Re: [sri Ramakrishna] Contrasting experiences at Colleges in the United Kingdom

 

 

 

Hi Jay,

May we know who the name of person who is in Red coat who is giving the lectures.(One of the sister's name is there as sister gayatriprana.)

Thanks

Sriram.

 

Dear Sriram

That redcoat is me sir

jay

 

[Guest guest]

Pranams Jay ji,

Nice to know that you are the 'one'!! Godspeed all your efforts! I

also see you are elder to me so I want to express an apology for

addressing you with first name without any 'Ji' or 'Sir'. Back in

India, I was brought up to have a respectful attitude towards any

person elder to me and any person more knowledgeable than me even if

he is younger. We are to be respectful and humble to all people

infact because of the divinity inherent in every person. This is

almost in all eastern cultures like say even Japan and China etc.

Also I see the idea of " reverence " expressed in your one of comments

for the listeners who followed to see you off till your car.

Reverence is an idea totally forgotten it seems. Politeness is one

thing, and 'humbleness' or 'reverence' another. Politeness is used

because it is fodder for our egos - " If I am polite to him then he

will also be polite to me(!!?? and then 'I' will be 'happy'!!) " .

Humbleness arises from the fact that rich or poor, king or beggar,

every one has to die one day leaving behind everything we are

holding on to!. So there is nothing we can actually pride upon.

Lord Chaitainya says the Divine is to be realised by the person who

is 'humbler than the blade of grass'!. Also Thakur says in

vachanamrita, " Keshav Sen and the like - so called spiritual leaders

never used to bend. Its only when I met Keshav and bowed to him and

did pranams did he begin bending " . So we bow down in 'reverence' to

this divine in everyone, this is like digging the grounds of our

being, preparing a lower place, where the waters of Divine Grace can

descend to. Who knows when that auspiscious moment arrives . I also

think this may be why in many religious mythological stories,

animals and birds also speak like humans! They may just be stories

but what they are also conveying is the presence of the Divine in

every living being and to cultivate a feeling of reverence, and how

important this feeling is for a correct way of leading life.

Comments are welcome, I close for now, and also wish all the best in

all your efforts to spread universal concepts of Hinduism and

Thakur's message.

Pranams,

Sriram.

 

-----------------

> Dear Sriram

>

> That redcoat is me sir

>

> jay