***BERA Indo-American Association & Asian Pacific American
Association***

**invite you in celebrating**

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height="0.6986111111111111in"}

**A dialogue on *[YOGA, MEDITATION & MIND ]{.underline}***

# with Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati

**June 6, 2006 (Tuesday)**

**at 4.00 p.m. *Berkner Hall***

## The Lecture is Free and All are Welcome

Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati has been a distinguished teacher of
Vedanta and Sanskrit for more than thirty years. He will advance a
dialogue on Vedanta started by his guru, Swami Dayananda at BNL last
fall, with a focus on *YOGA, MEDITATION AND MIND*.

The word ***yoga***, from the Sanskrit word *yuj* means to yoke or bind
and is often interpreted as \"union\" or a method of discipline. Yoga is
a vast collection of techniques and practices all aimed at integrating
***mind*** and body to achieve a state of enlightenment or oneness with
the universe. The Indian sage Patanjali is believed to have collated the
practice of yoga into the *Yoga Sutra,* an estimated 2,000 years ago.
The Sutra is a collection of 195 statements that serves as an empirical
guidebook for most of the yoga that is practiced today. It also outlines
eight limbs of yoga: the *yama* (restraints), *niyama* (observances),
*asana* (postures), *pranayama* (breathing), *pratyahara* (withdrawal of
senses), *dharana* (concentration), ***dhyani*** (meditation), and
*samadhi* (absorption). As we explore these eight limbs, we begin by
refining our behavior in the outer world, and then we focus inwardly
until we reach samadhi (enlightenment).

Today most people practicing yoga are engaged in the third limb, asana,
which is a program of physical postures designed to purify the body and
provide the physical strength and stamina required for long periods of
***meditation***. Meditation is defined as a ***practice of mind*** to
maintain a flow of thought on any one subject or it may be
contemplation, on issues like acceptance, compassion, or the order, in
the quest to achieve real knowledge. This dialogue is intended to
augment our understanding of such issues in the daily life.

[NB:]{.underline} Vedanta comprises the metaphysical teachings of the
Veda. Originally an oral teaching tradition in India, the Veda was first
recorded in writing not later than 1500 B.C.E. Vedanta, its final
portion, inquires into the nature of reality, teaching that the reality
of the self, the world, and its source is one non-dual consciousness
which both transcends and is the essence of everything. This reality
being non-dual, the self, the one who is inquiring, is identified as the
source of the world. It is advanced, not as theory or dogma, but as a
fact, an equation, which, like any other equation, can be understood.
The understanding of this equation is accomplished through a
well-developed method of teaching.

Refer to this link for additional information:
http://arshavidya.org/teachers_swamivid.html.

### **Contact Vatsal Bhatt x5453, Ramesh Gupta x4805 or Ila Campbell x2206 for more information.**

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