Due to our still being in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, your Center is currently closed to visitors except for the Chapel (the building closest to the parking lot) for evening Arati, private meditation, and to visit the self-serve bookstore. We respectfully ask that you not drop by unannounced in person at this time, other than to visit the Chapel. If you would like to speak with Br. Shankara, you are welcome to contact him at shankara@vedantaatlanta.org. Help us in making every effort to keep our congregation, friends and residents of the Center safe and healthy. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.
New Wed Night Class onSwami Vivekananda’s Jnana Yoga
Wednesdays, 8-9pm online via Zoom at https://tinyurl.com/ybq6r89p
WE HAVE FINISHED OUR STUDY OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA.
What does the word Maya mean, and why should you care? Why are there both good and evil in the world, and why does evil often seem triumphant? Is there a greater reality behind what we experience from moment to moment, day to day? In a collection of his talks and other works titled Jnana Yoga, Swami Vivekananda answers these and other questions.
No need to register for the class, and there is no charge. If you would like to join us, just click on the Zoom link above (passcode is embedded). If you would like a free digital copy of the book, email Br. Shankara at shankara@vedantaatlanta.org; he will send you a PDF copy of Vivekananda’s Complete Works.
Sunday's Online Talk & Discussion
Oct. 11, 11am to 12noon Your Spark of Reverence
w/ Br. Shankara
October is a month for study of Karma Yoga, a spiritual path leading to the abandonment of selfishness. As a karma yogi, you practice offering your actions and their results, as well as your perceptions, thoughts, and feelings to the Divine Presence.
Even before fully knowing this Presence, you hold firmly to the belief that the Presence is within each person or other living being that you interact with or serve. Working and abiding in this spirit, you are increasingly able to release attachment to your activities and their results. This yields the freedom and contentment promised by Karma Yoga.
“Even a little practice of this yoga will save you form the terrible wheel of rebirth and death …” — Sri Krishna, Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 2.
In the first act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Prince laments, “How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!”
Perhaps you also feel that way, at times. What can you do? During such a period of discontent — if you are fortunate —something outside your normal way of life will seize and hold your attention.
For one woman, it was a car speeding through a crosswalk, which missed her by less than 6 inches. For another, it was standing on a forest floor among giant sequoia redwood trees, suddenly completely overwhelmed by their age, their majesty and splendor.
The first was barely spared from death, the second offered a new sense of life. For both, it was a life-changing moment, the effects of which lasted for weeks. During those weeks, their gratitude and awe became reverence, and an intense desire to penetrate the mystery of what happened to them. Their strong yearning led them to explanations left to us by the great teachers of religion, and to a life of spiritual practice.
“Awe is the feeling of being overwhelmed by a reality greater than yourself and greater than what you encounter in ordinary life.
A curtain is drawn back and (you are) overtaken by a trembling awareness that life is astounding in its reality, vastness, complexity, order, surprise.” — Alan Morinis
This Sunday morning we will explore and discuss this mood of reverence, and its essential role in the opening, evolution, and glorious completion of a karma yogi’s life, centered in the Divine Presence.
10/17, Saturday, Navaratri Chanting (“Jai Sri Duga”)
Navaratri Chanting (“Jai Sri Duga”) begins on Oct. 17 and continues through Monday, Oct 26.
Chant “Jai Sri Durga” with us, for Navaratri.
Swami Sarvadevanandaji has let us know that Navaratri Chanting (“Jai Sri Duga”) begins on Saturday, October 17th and continues through Monday, October 26th. If you’d like to join us in this auspicious effort, please email your pledge right away, to shankara@vedantaatlanta.org. Let me know how many times you will chant Ma’s mantra each day during the Navaratri celebration. Any amount, in addition to whatever other mantra chanting you do each day, will be fine. FYI, a good rule of thumb is that most people say Jaai Sri Durga about 60 times per minute (1/sec.). By that measure, if you pledge to chant for 10 minutes each day, that equals 600 repetitions per day.
Saturday October 24th, from 11am-12noon, Durga Puja will becelebrated in the Center’s Chapel and live-streamed over Zoom. Aditya Chaturvedi will serve as pujari. Unfortunately, due to the virus, there can be no in-person attendance, and no lunch following the puja. If you would like to sing before, during or after the puja, please email me about that right away, at shankara@vedantaatlanta.org.