first visit

on my first visit to the Vedanta Society of New York (my previous choice for this project is no longer open) i sat in the third and last row of the bleachers on the left. the other side had more rows, and as people walked in only one or two sat anywhere near me. an old man was playing the piano right in front of me. at the front of the podium was a heavily decorated frame with a photograph that i later learned was of Sri Ramakrishna. to the right and left are photographs of Holy Mother Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda, respectively. members of the congregation would come in, approach the picture of Swami Ramakrisna, kneel and bow with their foreheads on the floor, and sit down in the bleachers. Only one person preceded to bow before the other two photos. when the minister came in to present a sermon, he sat on chair in the left hand corner of the stage and spoke trough a microphone. His sermon entailed most of the service aside from a short verse in english, and lasted from 11 am to about 1 pm. on sundays he gives these speaches, while daily morning prayer is at 6 am weekday evening prayer is at 6:30 pm and on the weekends 6 pm. on tuesdays and fridays there are lectures and meditation. on tuesdays these lectures are on the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and on fridays they are on the Bhagavad-Gita. the Vedanta Society of New York is the first vedanta Society in the west Swami Vivekananda founded it in 1894, and the minister giving the sermon i went to see is Reverand Swami Tathagananda, a Senior Monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India. members participate in meditation devotional singing, informal reading, discussion classes and receive recommendations from the swami in charge. i was rather nervous while i was there, worried that i would unwittingly offend someone. as such, didn’t get to talk to anyone, though at the end, when i asked what holidays were coming up, i was shown where the pamphlets and general information was kept.