Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on January 9, 2011.

In this informal and personal talk, Swami Brahmatmananda shares the story of his pilgrimage to India for his sannyas vows. After briefly introducing the Ramakrishna Order and its worldwide service work, he describes how young men in India join the monastic life, the rigorous training they undergo, and the challenges they face in leaving behind family, career, and social expectations. He reflects on his own unexpected path—from being twice rejected because of age, to receiving a sudden call years later inviting him to India for final vows.

Swami Brahmatmananda also offers vivid recollections of life inside the training center at Belur Math, including the humility, discipline, and dedication of the young monks, as well as the moving experience of witnessing the traditional funeral rites of a departed brother monk just hours after arriving in India. Throughout the talk, he emphasizes the spirit of service, the transformative power of spiritual aspiration, and the sense of being inwardly “called” to monastic life—a journey he describes with gratitude, honesty, and gentle humor.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on January 2, 2011.

In this first talk on the Hindu concept of mind, Swami Bhaskarananda introduces the subject with humor and relatable examples to show how little we understand our own thoughts. He explains the classical Vedantic view that the mind is not immaterial but a very subtle form of matter, distinct from consciousness, which is all-pervading and independent of the body. Using analogies of ice, water, and vapor, as well as dream and waking states, he describes how consciousness becomes more or less manifest depending on the medium through which it shines.

Swami Bhaskarananda discusses the difference between conscious and unconscious states, noting that the mind’s primary function is knowing, and that this function ceases when the mind becomes unconscious, such as under anesthesia. He also outlines the ancient understanding of the antahkarana, the “inner instrument,” and its four functions: manas (cognition and doubt), buddhi (determination and reasoning), chitta (memory), and ahamkara (ego-sense). The talk sets the foundation for the next lecture, where he will describe how the mind knows and how it can be refined for spiritual growth.

Recorded at the Vedanta Society of Western Washington on December 26, 2010.

In this talk, Swami Bhaskarananda explains the Vedantic understanding of God as the timeless, formless source behind all creation, and how divine incarnations appear on earth as “large windows” through which we glimpse that divinity. Sri Ramakrishna is seen as one such incarnation, and Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi as the perfectly complementary manifestation of the Divine Mother—the compassionate face of Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Bhaskarananda describes how God, though beyond gender, can be lovingly approached as father, mother, friend, or child, and how Sarada Devi’s life reveals the motherhood of God in a concrete, approachable way.

Through vivid anecdotes, he shows Sarada Devi’s unconditional love, her refusal to reject anyone who came to her, and her insistence that all were her children—good and “wicked” alike. She accepted offerings from thieves, comforted those burdened by guilt, and assured devotees that she would “clean them” and then place them on her lap. Her compassion ignored social boundaries of caste, nationality, and religion; she could bless an Englishwoman’s sick daughter in colonial India, yet also declare that the British were her children too. Swami Bhaskarananda concludes by highlighting her universal benediction—that her blessings extend to those who came to her, those who will come, and even those who never come—affirming her as an ever-present, all-embracing spiritual mother.