Colleague:” Why aren’t you coming for the happy hour?”
Me: “I need to go to New Brunswick for a lecture on Bhaja Govindam (Seek the Eternal), a Vedanta text”.
Colleague: “Watch the recording. We won’t have any happy hours for next few months.”
Me: “I do not know if there will be any recording. This is an annual lecture, so I am not worried about missing the happy hour. Let me understand happiness first.”
It was early days learning Vedanta from Gautamji. He announced in our weekly class that Sunandaji, an internationally acclaimed philosopher was coming from India for a lecture series to explain Bhaja Govindam. That was the first time I heard about Sunandaji. I googled the “Bhaja Govindam” and learned that it is about looking at life through a spiritual lens. I was living in New York City, and going to Rutgers University, the lecture venue, meant 2.5 hours travel after work. I decided to attend the first day and decide if it would be worth going there the next three days.
So, here I am on Day 1 at the venue. Before the lecture, there was a short video on the Vedanta Academy in India. It was founded by eminent philosopher A. Parthasarathy, known as Swamiji, who wrote the commentary of Bhaja Govindam, which Sunandaji is going to teach today. Two hundred of us…
