644. Pravrajika Divyanandaprana Mataji

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Rick Archer

Pravrajika Divyanandaprana is a monastic member of Sri Sarada Math and is currently the Editor of the English journal Samvit published in New Delhi. She has been Principal of Nivedita Vidya Mandir School from 2014 to 2019.

She specializes in Yoga-Vedanta. In addition to studying the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature, she has extensively studied the Yoga-Vedanta texts based on these twin philosophies which include the Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Raja Yoga, Upanishads, and the Prakarana Granthas (auxiliary scriptures of Vedanta like Vedantasara, Vivekachudamani, etc.) along with their commentaries.

A gold medallist and topper, Pravrajika Divyanandaprana has a unique combination of knowledge in the conventional sciences and traditional Yogic and Vedantic texts. Pravrajika Divyanandaprana has been lecturing all over India since 2010, including at the Indian Institute of Technology campuses in Madras, Delhi (she has spoken many times at Vivekananda Study Circle of IIT-Delhi), Kharagpur, Mumbai, and Kanpur; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore; Delhi University; Vivekananda International Centre; Ramakrishna Mission; Engineering and Medical Colleges in Mumbai, Pune, and Kolkata; and sometimes in schools. She offers courses on Yoga-Vedanta every semester at IIT Delhi. The courses are available on YouTube at IIT’s official channel: NRCVEE IIT Delhi.

She has traveled to hold classes or deliver lectures in South Africa at Cape Town, Durban, Ladysmith, and Kwa Zulu Natal University among other places. Subsequently, she traveled to Ireland, Great Britain, UAE, and recently to Canada for talks, lectures, and scriptural discussions. She has spoken at Imperial College and Logan Hall, London University in 2013. In May 2018, she was in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, and Nova Scotia where she gave a number of talks on Self-Knowledge, exploring the Subjective Sciences, and finding the interface between Subjective-Objective Sciences. She has extensively traveled in the US and addressed Vedanta Societies of Iowa, Washington DC, and so on. Purdue University hosted her talk on Mind Management recently.

LinkedIn Page
“Eternal Truth” YouTube channel with many videos, including the Upanishads classes mentioned in the interview. If you subscribe to the channel, you’ll be notified when classes resume.
VivekaVani YouTube channel with many more videos.

Books:

Science of Happiness (Amazon India)
Self-Discovery (Amazon India)
U.S. Book Contact – (Ask to be notified when books become available.)

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded May 1, 2022.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

608. Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, 2nd Interview

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Rick Archer

This interview centered around Sadhvi’s new book, Hollywood to the Himalayas: A Journey of Healing and Transformation. Her website dedicated to the book is hollywoodtothehimalayas.com.

Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati, Ph.D. is a renowned spiritual leader, author, and motivational speaker based in Rishikesh, India. Originally from Los Angeles and a graduate of Stanford University, Sadhviji has been ordained into the sacred order of Sanyas by her guru HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji and has been living at Parmarth Niketan Ashram for the past twenty-five years. She is the Secretary-General of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, an international interfaith organization dedicated to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; president of Divine Shakti Foundation, a foundation that runs free schools, vocational training programs, and empowerment programs; and director of the world-famous International Yoga Festival at Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh—which has been covered in Time, CNN, the New York Times and other prestigious publications and has been addressed by both the Prime Minister and Vice President of India. She serves on the United Nations Advisory Council on Religion and on the steering committees of the International Partnership for Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD) and the Moral Imperative to End Extreme Poverty, a campaign by the United Nations and World Bank. She was also the Managing Editor for the monumental project of the 11-volume Encyclopedia of Hinduism. She oversees a variety of humanitarian projects, teaches meditation, lectures, writes, counsels individuals and families, and serves as a unique female voice of spiritual leadership throughout India and the world.

Some of the topics discussed in this interview:

How Sadhvi’s journey has bridged spirituality and humanness.
Grace doesn’t discriminate. Spirituality is available for everyone!
The ecstatic story of Sadhvi’s awakening on the banks of the Ganga and the healing and transformation that followed.
The lifelong process of integration and embodiment of spiritual awakening experiences.
How we can see the Divine in all beings and how that increases our spiritual experience.
The role of the guru: the guru shines the light that enables us to see our own light, thus dispelling our darkness of ignorance.
How Sadhviji’s guru Pujya Swamiji inspires her to dedicate herself to awareness of that which is eternal rather than things that quickly fade.
Becoming a vessel for the flow of grace.
Everyone enters the world with their own karmic packages, and awareness of our own and others’ packages is key.
Mindfulness teaches us how to stay conscious and present.
In order to experience grace, sometimes there’s a lot of work to be done!
Sadhviji’s childhood trauma and how she was taught to forgive and let go so she could be free.
Forgiveness: regardless of what others have done we deserve to be free. Freedom is our birthright, our highest dharma, purpose, and calling.

Websites:

Sadhviji.org (personal site)
Sadhviji’s TED talk
@SadhviBhagawatiSaraswati (Sadhviji’s Facebook page with announcements of events, videos, etc.)
@ParmarthNiketan (Parmarth’s Facebook page where they stream Sadhviji’s satsangs live daily when she is in town.)
Youtube channel with all of the videos of Sadhviji’s lectures (and also a lot of other good stuff…)
Twitter: @SadhviBhagawati

Book: Vegetarianism: For Our Bodies, Our Minds, Our Souls & Our Planet

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

First BatGap interview with Sadhvi.

Interview recorded July 25, 2021.

Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

599. Stephen Cope

Posted on June 2, 2021 by Rick Archer

Stephen Cope is the Scholar Emeritus at the renowned Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of many best-selling books on the topic of yoga and meditation. For over thirty years, his interest has been in bringing important but esoteric yoga scriptures to the mainstream, including, most recently, the two-thousand-year-old spiritual classic called The Bhagavad Gita, or “The Song of God.” His new book on The Gita, entitled The Dharma of Difficult Times, will be released later this year.

Some of the points discussed in this conversation:

Stephen’s background.
Dharma – “Sacred Duty”, “That course of action most conducive to your spiritual development” – with particular reference to the Bhagavad Gita.
Indra’s net – the connection between the soul’s good and the common good.
Dharmic hierarchies: individuals, families, communities, nations, planets.
The evolutionary opportunities of the human realm as compared with higher realms.
Being honest, humble, and discreet about one’s progress on the path.
The value of long-term practice.
The value of meditation for musicians, athletes, and others whose success demands sharp focus.
The four pillars of karma yoga: discerning one’s dharma, applying oneself to it, being unattached to the outcome, and “turning it over to God”.
Overcoming the habit of reaching and grasping. The distinction between motivation and grasping.
How to determine your dharma.
You can still live your dharma even if your job does not fulfill it.
You may have many dharmas, both simultaneously and sequentially.
To live your dharma is to surrender your life to a higher power and become a channel through which the world benefits.
Examples from the lives of Whitman, Beethoven, Frost, Gandhi, Keats, etc.
The Gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you, if you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you”.
Suffering can break us open and enable us to receive new information.
Just vs. unjust wars.
Living your dharma may require sacrificing some attractive things that are not aligned with it.
During periods of dharma transition, we may experience doubt and uncertainty.
The importance of commitment: “Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Living a disciplined and holy life bears fruit. “The means collect around sattwa.”
Focusing our energy and attention rather than scattering it.
The difference between happiness and fulfillment.
Fulfillment independent of gain and loss.