Vedanta Center of Atlanta: November events
Vedanta Center of Atlanta: November events
Time: There is silent meditation in the Chapel from 10:30-11am, before each Sunday’s talk. After the talk, devotees and friends meet in the Monastery from noon to 1:30pm, 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.
Dates:
November 1st @ 11am
“What Is Concentration?”
w/ Br. Shankara
Concentration (image) Your ability to concentrate is one measure of how successful you can be in life. Challenges are met more easily, pleasures enjoyed more fully, when you have control of your attention.
As we take up Raja Yoga during the month of November, we will study closely the role of concentration. It is fundamental to each step of that eightfold spiritual path. Swami Vivekananda said —
“All knowledge that we have, either of the external or internal world, is obtained through only one method — by the concentration of the mind. No knowledge can be had of any science unless we can concentrate our minds upon the subject. The astronomer concentrates his mind through the telescope… and so on. If you want to study your own mind, it will be the same process. You will have to concentrate your mind and turn it back upon itself. The difference in this world between mind and mind is simply the fact of concentration. One, more concentrated than the other, gets more knowledge.” — CW Vol 4: CONCENTRATION (San Francisco, March 16, 1900)
On Sunday morning Br. Shankara will define concentration and how it relates to study of your mind.
November 8th @ 11am
“Hold Your Horses!"
w/ Br. Shankara
Hold Your Horses!November is a month for study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual path of self-control, meditation, and liberation. Progress on this path relies on your ability to live in the world but be not of the world.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras refer to this as non-attachment (or detachment). This Sunday we’ll define and analyze detachment. In the Katha Upanishad we read: “Know the Self as Lord of the chariot, the body as the chariot itself, the discriminating intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins. The senses, say the wise, are the horses; selfish desires are the roads they travel.”
Spiritual liberation is freedom from all limitation. Those restless horses — our outgoing senses — are all too ready to run after the world’s attractions. They keep us on the roads of selfish desires, our greatest limitations.
Raja Yoga teaches us how to use the mind to hold those horses in check. On Sunday morning, Br. Shankara will explore detachment and how it helps enable you to study your mind’s deepest levels.
Talk on Kali Worship
Tuesday, November 10th, 7-7:30pm (following arati)
“The Worship of Mother Kali” w/Br. Shankara
Seva Saturday
Saturday, November 14th, 10am-2pm
Come spend a few hours with fellow devotees and friends as we all work together to make Your Center sparkle and shine. "Many hands make light work!" You can pick what suits you. A yummy lunch will be provided… drink, chips, and a sandwich or salad made to order from RolyPoly. Free food, free fun, priceless fellowship and invaluable seva service to your Center… all at the same time. Can’t beat that with a stick! ;-)
If you can’t be with us the entire time, please come and stay as long as you are able.
November 15th @ 11am
“Mother Holds Your Key!”
w/Br. Shankara 
November is a month for study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual path of self-control, meditation, andsamadhi (liberation, or knowledge of Brahman).
Yet, Swami Brahmananda, one of Sri Ramakrishna’s foremost disciples, said, “Mother has the key to the knowledge of Brahman. Unless she shows her grace and opens the door, no one can enter into the realm of Brahman.”
He also said, “Spiritual life begins after samadhi!”
Can you or I attain samadhi? Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras say yes. These sutras are lessons on what Patanjali called the “Eight Limbs of Yoga.” This Sunday we’ll discuss limbs seven and eight: dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (liberation).
Meditation is concentration, sustained for two-and-a-half minutes or more. Spiritual liberation is freedom from all limitation — a state of being beyond all thought and speech.
On Sunday morning we’ll see how Raja Yoga teaches us to use the tools of our human form to reach the door that Divine Mother may open, by her grace.
Swami Sarvadevananda’s visit
Thursday, November 19th, 7:30pm
Reception & Potluck Dinner for Sw. Sarvadevanandaji
Friday, November 20th, 8-9pm
Talk by Sw. Sarvadevananda in the Chapel (topic Bhagavad Gita and Meditation)
Saturday, November 21st, 8-9pm
A second talk by Sw. Sarvadevananda in the Chapel (topic Nididhyasana — a form of meditation taught by Yoga Vasistha Sara)
Swami Sarvadevanandaji
NEXT Sunday's Talk
November 22nd @ 11am
“Samadhi & Liberation”
w/Br. Shankara
November is a month for study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual path of self-control, meditation, samadhi, and liberation.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are lessons on what Patanjali calls the “Eight Limbs of Yoga.” This Sunday we’ll take up limb eight —samadhi, and its outcome, liberation.
Patanjali promises, “The impression which is made upon the mind by (lower) samadhi wipes out all other past impressions;” and, “When the impression made by that samadhi is also wiped out, so that there are no more thought-waves at all in the mind, then one enters the samadhi which is called ‘seedless’ (nirvikalpa).” Chapter 1, S50-51.
According to Samkhya Philosophy, all thought-waves are produced by the threegunas (fundamental forces of nature). In the last sutra of his treatise, Patanjali says, “Since the gunas no longer have any purpose to serve … they resolve themselves back into Prakriti (the eternal, undifferentiated stuff of mind and matter). This is liberation. The Atman shines forth in its own pristine nature, as pure consciousness.” Chapter 4, S34.
Yet, the glorious liberated yogi may remain, embodied and powerfully active. This great mystery will be the subject of our discussion on Sunday morning.
Thanksgiving Celebration
Thursday, November 26th, 2-5pm
Come celebrate Thanksgiving with your Center family. We’ll provide the basic holiday fixings; please bring a dish to share!
Sunday, November 29, 2015 @11am
“Where Is Your Non-dual Mind?”
w/Br. Shankara
November is a month for study of Raja Yoga, a spiritual path of self-control, meditation, samadhi, and liberation.
Regarding yoga, Sri Ramakrishna said, “The mind must withdraw totally from all objects of form, taste, smell, touch, and sound. Only thus does it become pure. The Pure Mind is the same as the Pure Ātman.”
Pure mind and non-dual mind are identical. Yet, immersed in ignorance and sense entanglements, our ordinary minds seem far from purity, from that non-dual Reality that is said to be our birthright and the core of our being.
This coming Sunday morning, Br. Shankara will read and comment on selections from Swami Yogeshananda’s book Waking Up, and Swami Vivekananda’s letter To A Friend. Writing from what seem to be entirely different perspectives, the two swamis come to very similar conclusions about why and how we “hide” from our non-dual consciousness.
The swamis’ unavoidably accurate observations, and their prescriptions for how to dispel our spiritual ignorance, will be the subjects of Sunday morning’s discussion.
