This lecture was delivered on September 2, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat. 1. Real Faith Holy Mother: “Is faith so cheap, my child? Faith is the last word. If one has faith, the goal is practically reached." There is faith at the beginning in spiritual life. There is also real faith, the end of spiritual life, which is the same as experience or is based on experience. 2. Sincere Prayer and Sincere Recognition of Grace: A Guaranteed...

This lecture was delivered on September 1, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat. 1. From Ritualistic Devotion to Highest Devotion Disciple: "Once I had wanted to take my grandmother on a pilgrimage, but as the time was inauspicious, my grandmother refused to start. I referred the matter to the Holy Mother for her guidance." Holy Mother: "Son, some say that a man loses the merits that he has already earned if he visits a pilgrimage center at an...

This lecture was delivered on September 1, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat. 1 – Spiritual Wisdom and the Power of Selfless Work Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Vivekananda, and Shankaracharya are examples of spiritual teachers who had developed a spiritual faculty capable of penetrating into the true nature of everything. Coupled with the complete awareness of being instruments in God’s hand, they could do tremendous impactful work without...

This lecture was delivered on August 31, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat. Holy Mother: One utterance of ‘japa’ with great concentration of mind and with focus on the meaning of the mantra is equal to a million mechanical repetitions of the mantra with the mind elsewhere. ‘Japa’ has four stages: The first stage is verbal repetition of the holy ‘mantra.’ In the second stage, the verbal repetition has no sound. In the third stage, there is only...

This lecture was delivered on August 31, 2019 as part of the Labor Day Vedanta Retreat held in the Olema Vedanta Retreat. Holy mother Sri Sarada Devi is the embodiment of motherhood. Because she was a nun, her motherly regard was able to transcend all national, cultural, religious, and racial boundaries and reached the transcendental spiritual dimension. Because she was more than a conventional ‘acharya’ and a conventional mystic, her spiritual insight and spiritual experiences were far...