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Stone Mountain Park |
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| Transcendental World Tour Swami B.S.Tirtha Maharaj's visit to Atlanta His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Swarup Thirtha Maharaj, Founder Acharya of Gaudiya Vaishnava Association (GVA), was in Atlanta delivering discourses in English on Bhagavat Gita As It is, Sri Brahma Samhita & The Ultimate Goal of Human Life. The Acharya hails from Tamil Nadu in South-India. From the early childhood, he was introduced to fundamental spiritual concepts and received a trained exposure to various theological expositions of contemporary schools of thoughts as he gradually grew up. He became familiar with the concepts of monist philosophers like Shripad Shankaracharya, Ramkrishna, Vivekananda, Chinmayananda as well as Dr. Radhakrishnan and J. Krishnamurthy. He is well versed in several languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit and Bengali. The month long program started with a wonderful Harinam Sankirtan (Chanting of the Holy Names of Lord Sri Krishna) on 3rd July at Stone Mountain Park. People who were visiting the park became jubilant up on hearing the Holy Names of the Lord and started dancing with the devotees enthusiastically. On that day, Stone Mountain Park became witness to the Sakirtan Yajna inaugurated by Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. On July 4th, devotees celebrated the Vyasa Puja Day(Appearance Day) of Srila Maharaj and at dusk the children participated in the fireworks display with Srila Maharaj.  Srila Maharaj gave the Bhagavat Gita discourse from 5th July to 23rd July from 6.30 PM to 8.30 PM. Each day started with Mangala Arathi at 7.00 AM followed by Tulasi Arathi and Guru Arathi. The evening program started with Guru Arathi followed by Srila Maharaj’s lecture and concluded with a question and answer session. Srila Maharaj, presented every verse from the Bhagavat Gita in Sanskrit with word by word meaning and detailed, in-depth explanation to them. Srila Maharaj describes Bhagavat Gita as a complex philosophical treatise for a common man to understand. Being a pure devotee of Lord Sri Krishna, He presented the subject matter of the Bhagavat Gita with appropriate examples and analogies. Srila Maharaj explained the difference between a Guru and an Acharya very nicely as: Guru is a person who is well versed in the Vedas and is knowledgeable whereas an Acharya is a person who has read all the scriptures and have understood the essence of them and who practices it himself. Thus an Acharya leads by His personal example. A Guru may not be an Acharya while an Acharya is already a Guru. He also explained that only by approaching a bonafide spiritual master, surrendering to him, serving him and by submissive inquiries we can learn the truth. "tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā upadekṣyanti te jñānaḿ jñāninas tattva-darśinaḥ" (Bhagavat Gita Chapter 4, Text 34)
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