A video recording of a talk by Dr Debashish Banerji, in Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham, Lodi, CA, USA. This theme is based on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri.
Dr Debashish Banerji conducted a series of Skype classes on The Life Divine (Book 2, Part One) with two sessions including readings and discussions per month. These sessions were organized by the Center for the Promotion of Indian Sacred Culture (CPISC). Please see below the audio recordings.
Sri Aurobindo has translated this opening hymn of the Rig-Veda several times over many years. There exists also an unpublished translation of the first verse, to which Sri Aurobindo has added a detailed explanation of the main terms that occur therein. “I seek with adoration the God-Will, divine priest of the sacrifice placed in front, sacrificer in the seasons, offerer of the oblation, who most ordains the ecstasy.”
In his characteristic maroon and yellow wrappings, but sporting on his head a red cap with USC written on it, the Dalai Lama came in with a group of USC academics – a teacher of Zen Buddhism, a professor of law working at the intersection of ethics and consciousness, a neuro-biologist, a social psychologist and a novelist Pico Iyer. The Lama also had an interpreter who sat next to him. Iyer who has been a close associate of the Dalai Lama for the last several years, was moderating the discussion.
A talk (downloadable mp3 audio) by Debashish Banerji, invited by a radio channel based in Chinatown, Los Angeles, California.
When the vast majority of people say “I”, it is a part of them, of their feeling, their body, their thought, indifferently, which speaks; it is something that always changes. Therefore, their “I” is innumerable, or the “I” always varies. What is the constant thing therein?... The psychic being, evidently. For, to be constant a thing must first be immortal. Otherwise it cannot be constant.
what they want is a scientifically demonstrated proof. But in the first place, are they really referring to the soul? You understand, they are all in a terrible confusion: for them, the soul is just anything. Do they want to prove the existence of the soul, which is eternal, immortal, or the existence of an afterlife?
Click to play a small portion of 1984 new year meditation music and 1994 new year meditation music. Or download from the Ashram website by clicking
It is a word to express "something" you do not know but are trying to attain. Well, if you have received a religious education, you are accustomed to call this "God". If you have received a more positivist and also a more philosophical education, you are accustomed to call this by all sorts of names, and you may at the same time have the idea that it is the supreme truth.
Individual: One's first reference to a "person" is oneself. That is where the world starts being real. An agnostic asks himself/herself, "Let me start from scratch. Do I exist? Wait a second, if I don't, then how do I know that the world exists? Is there anything at all which is concrete, indestructible, unconditionally actual, real?" The answer is not known and life becomes compelled to pretend, a compromise, a flow of…
