A special Satsang was held on Sunday 20th July 2014 in memory of Dr. Patanjali Jayadeva Yogendra’s (15th July 1975 – 24th July 2012) birth as well as death anniversary. Dr. Patanjali was the son of Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra. He was the Secretary and Treasurer of The Yoga Institute, Assistant Editor of the monthly journal, Yoga and Total Health and also taught Samkhya philosophy to the students of the teacher training course at the Institute.
In his honour, an English Satsang on ‘Spirituality in Today’s Times’ was conducted. It began with a beautiful presentation on Dr. Patanjali’s life and personality. Followed by this, some Sadhakas of The Yoga Institute who were also friends of Dr. Patanjali, shared their memories with the audience. The teacher trainees then made an intresting presentation on the theme of the Satsang, which was followed by Dr. Jayadeva and Hansaji’s thoughts on the same.
Following is the transcript of the speech made by Smt. Hansaji Yogendra on the topic.
Listen to the Audio:
“I think the things were explained very well (in the Satsang). One thing is very clear that we don’t have to mix spirituality and materialism. Life is life and all these things (that were explained) are needed. And that is why it is said that we should practice the Purusharthas. Do your duty, earn money, have recreation and see to it that all the things we are doing are always with some purpose, understanding, some discipline to reach a better level of consciousness.
If there are strong likes and dislikes, hatred, etc in whatever we do, that takes us away from spirituality. For the spiritual path, it is imperative not to have any desire, but to do our duty. If you see, even in our son, Patanjali’s life is filled with stories. Each story has a message. Even his book is called The Stories that Stir. So if we learn from such stories, we can call it being spiritual. But if we just suffer, it is not spiritual. Even animals suffer throughout life, they don’t learn. May it be a mosquito or a lion, they have to suffer hunger till they find food, they live in fear.
But every human is potentially divine. He can reach higher reality. He can avoid pain and can learn from suffering too. This learning and progressing is only possible in human life. Every situation contains spirituality in it. So from Patanjali’s life, many people learnt many thing. We learn many things from others’ lives. So let’s remain in a learning state always, let’s be better human beings and reach a godly state. This should be our aim in life.”
– Smt. Hansaji J. Yogendra
Here are some pictures of the event.
Satsang is an open meeting held every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 am at The Yoga Institute, Santacruz East, Mumbai. It involves an interesting presentation to the public, made by the students of the Teacher Training Course. Each week, a new presentation of a Yogic concept is made in a simple way through skits and decoration for the general public, followed by a short speech from our Gurus, Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.