Vedanta Center of Atlanta: December events

12/31/2017 10:30 AM

Vedanta Center of Atlanta: December events

Vedanta Center of Atlanta: ​​December events

Times
10:30am-11am: silent meditation in the Chapel before each Sunday’s talk. 
11am-noon: talk and worship in the chapel.
noon-1:30pm: devotees and friends meet in the Monastery for tea, coffee, snacks and a continuation of our spiritual fellowship. 
Please join us!
PS: Please be on time. The service starts promptly at 11AM. 

Venue: 2331 Brockett Rd, Tucker, GA 30084 
Contact: (770) 938-6673 ; http://vedantaatlanta.org, http://vedantaatlanta.org/calendar-of-activities-events/

See Calendar for details about any particular Sunday.

December is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). A jnana yogi practices discrimination, reason, detachment, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). The goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers say that all miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. As a jnana yogi, you may break through this delusion and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.

 

(12/3) (Sunday) 11am-12pm - “The Jnani’s Method of Meditation” w/ Br. Shankara
Over time, a jnana yogi systematically sets aside the mirror that reflects everyday reality onto his or her consciousness. In the words of the Sage Vasistha, a jnani “annihilates” the mind. In its place, a jnani deliberately and persistently focuses on scriptural truths, such as: Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma, meaning All this is verily Brahman (Chandogya Upanisad, 3.14.1), and Tat tvam asi —That thou art. (Chandogya Upanisad, 6.8.7). This is a demanding transformation — as we’ll see, it requires a complete change in the form of the mind. Some teachers of the jnana path offer their students this technique — shravana, manana and nididhyasana — listening or reading; contemplation and assimilation; and meditation. On Sunday morning, we will explore and discuss how, as a jnani, you can use this method to achieve Self-realization.


December 9 (Saturday) - Special Holiday Seva Saturday

We will decorate the Chapel and Monastery for the holidays and in preparation for Mother's Puja the following day. Please join us. Pizza for lunch at 12:30pm. Yum!


December 10 (Sunday) - Holy Mother's Birthday Celebration & Prasad Potluck. Dhruva will be our pujari.

Followed by a potluck prasad lunch in the Monastery. Please bring food you wish offered during the puja to the Monastery Kitchen before 11am!
SCHEDULE:
10am - Shrine decoration and singing/chanting
11am - Puja Worship - Dhruva will be our pujari
12:30pm - Potluck Prasad Lunch in the Fellowship Hall

December 10, 4-6pm (Sunday) - Taste of Faith 2017
Your Center will again participate in this annual interfaith gathering that centers around food and fellowship. Patrick Horn has offered to be our organizer for the event, and requests dishes and volunteers to serve with him at our table that afternoon. The event will be hosted by Unity Atlanta in Norcross. For more information, please talk to Patrick or Br. Shankara soon!

December 16 - 17 (Saturday & Sunday) - Swami Yogatmananda will be with us for the weekend,
and will do a Saturday Workshop on “Holy Mother, the Non-Dualist” from 10:30am to 3:30pm (bring a bag lunch). On Sunday morning at 11am, the Swami will speak on “The Prophet” of Khalil Gibran. Later that afternoon, Swami Yogatmanandaji will speak at the Hindu Temple Society in Augusta from 4:30-6:30pm on “Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna.”

December 22 (Friday ) 7:30pm - National award-winning storyteller and singer-songwriter Andy Offutt Irwin will again present us with a holiday show that is sure to sweeten the Christmas weekend for us all.

December 24 (Sunday) 11am-12pm -
Since Christmas Eve falls on Sunday this year, we will have our Christmas Eve Service at 11am instead of in the evening as we have in the past. That evening, all are invited to return to the Center at 7pm'ish for caroling and some relaxed holiday fun.

December 31 (Sunday) 11am-12pm  - "Christ the Messenger" w/Br. Shankara.

What is a Messenger, an Incarnation, an Avatar?
This is from our vespers hymn, “Breaker of This World’s Chain,” by Swami Vivekananda. Addressing Sri Ramakrishna, he wrote:
“How great was Thy sacrifice, freely choosing Thy birth in this prison, our Iron Age, to unchain us and set us free…”
So much about the Master’s life is implied by just these few phrases. Yet, for you and me, the key words are “set us free” —
Vivekananda says an incarnation of God can free us from bondage to ignorance, suffering, and death.
To do this work, Divine Mother (Nature, Prakriti), is born in our world from time to time — she takes human form as Her daughters and sons.
To awaken us, these extraordinary beings say amazing things. For example, Christ affirmed these lines from Psalm 82 (the Divine Presence is speaking): “…5 They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness.. 6 I said, "You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High.”
And Jesus Himself promised, “In the world you will have trouble, but take courage for I have conquered the world.”
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
“Yes I am with you always, until the very end of time…”
In a talk titled Christ the Messenger, Swami Vivekananda said: “… (T)he three years of (Christ’s) ministry were like one compressed, concentrated age, which it has taken nineteen hundred years to unfold, and who knows how much longer it will yet take! … But mark this giant that came; centuries and ages pass, yet the energy that he left upon the world is not yet stretched, nor yet expended to its full. It goes on adding new vigour as the ages roll on…”
On Sunday morning we will talk about these quotes, and discuss other aspects of the Divine Incarnation we celebrate at this Holy Season of the year. Merry Christmas!

December 31 (Sunday) 11:30pm-12:15am (1/1/18) - New Year's Eve Meditation - In the Chapel.

January 1 (Monday) 2:30-3:30pm - Kalpataru Day Observance - Join us in the Chapel. Followed by snacks and fellowship in the Monastery, 3:30pm to 4:30pm.
In the Ramakrishna Vivekananda tradition, Kalpataru Day is an extremely significant occasion. It was on this day (January 1st) in 1886 when Sri Ramakrishna revealed himself as ‘Kalpataru’ (the 'wish-fulfilling tree') and spiritually awakened a large number of devotees who were present at the Cossipore Garden House on that sacred day. This event is commemorated annually to invoke the blessings of Sri Ramakrishna and to pray for the spiritual awakening of the devotees.


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