Vedanta Center of Atlanta: December events
Vedanta Center of Atlanta: December 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.
December 3 - 10am (Saturday)
SPIRITUAL CAFE: “Spiritualizing Relationships”
w/ Swami Harinamananda.
In the Fellowship Hall. Please bring a brown bag lunch.
Potluck Supper & Reception
(Sat evening) December 3 7:30pm
for Swami Harinamananda
In the Monastery; followed by spiritual fellowship until 9:30pm.
December is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). Jnana Yoga moves you toward self-realization through discrimination, reason, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). The goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers say that all our miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. As a jnana yogi, you may break through this delusion and see only the Truth of Being (Divine Presence) everywhere and in everyone.
Dec 4 - Creating Spiritual Habits
w/ Swami Harinamananda
Do you ever find it difficult to create good or spiritual habits? And how do you sustain them? This talk will explore the science of creating habits and finding ways we can put them into action. It will also explore your own personality type to see what spiritual habits work for you.
December 10, 10am-2pm (Saturday)
SEVA SATURDAY
We will decorate our Center for the Holidays … Lunch provided.. please join us!!
Come spend a few hours with fellow devotees and friends on Saturday, December 10th, to help Decorate your Center for the Holidays!
A yummy lunch will be provided… drink, chips, and a sandwich or salad made to order from Subway. Free food, free fun, priceless fellowship and invaluable seva service to your Center… all at the same time!
If you can’t be with us the entire time, please come and stay as long as you are able.
Please note the 11AM Saturday Morning Class will not meet on December 10th so that members who wish to can participate in Seva Saturday.
Dec 11 - You Are the Reflected Glory
w/ Br. Shankara
December is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). Jnana Yoga moves you toward self-realization through discrimination, reason, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). The goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers say that all our miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. As a jnana yogi, you may break through this delusion and see only the Truth of Being everywhere. This is Brahmajnana.
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, toward the end of Chapter 40:
MASTER: “…One can attain (Brahmajnana) by following the path of knowledge, that is to say, discrimination. … (Jnanis) analyse the world through the process of ‘Not this, not this’; it is māyā. When the world vanishes, only the jivas, that is to say, so many egos, remain.
Each ego may be likened to a pot. Suppose there are ten pots filled with water, and the sun is reflected in them. How many suns do you see?”
A DEVOTEE: “Ten reflections. Besides, there certainly exists the real Sun.” …
MASTER: “All right. Suppose you break nine pots. How many suns do you see now?”
DEVOTEE: “One reflected sun. But there certainly exists the real sun.”
MASTER (to Girish Ghosh): “What remains when the last pot is broken?”
GIRISH: “That real sun, sir.”
MASTER: “No. What remains cannot be described. What is remains. How will you know there is a real sun unless there is a reflected sun? …”
Swami Vivekananda wrote, “Speech cannot hold Thee, nor mind. Yet without Thee, we think not nor speak.”
And Swami Prabhavananda said, “The chosen ideal (the aspect of the Divine Being to which you are drawn) is you, yourself, no different. Learn to feel that living presence.”
The self that you know, that you see in a mirror, is a reflection of that which “cannot be described.” The implications of what these statements may mean for you as a spiritual aspirant will be explored and discussed on Sunday morning.
Sunday, Dec. 11th @ 7:30pm
Special Christmas Show: Storytelling and Music Concert w/ Andy Offutt Irwin
Our beloved friend, loved-around-the-nation, award-winning storyteller and funny person, Andy Offutt Irwin, will delight us once again, along with his charming Dr. Aunt Marguerite, head and founder of Southern White Old Lady Hospital in Covington GA, with a Christmas time show you that will take you, your funny bone, and your tender heart right through the holidays. A rare opportunity to see this amazing talent locally. Come join us! Doors open 7pm; Show starts at 7:30pm. In the Fellowship Hall. Suggested donation: $10.
Dec 18 - NO TALK - Holy Mother's Birthday Puja!
Dhruva will perform the puja worship in much the way that Mother herself worshipped Sri Ramakrishna (as in the photo below), which will include "Making chapatis with the Holy Mother," and be very special for all in attendance. Please join us!
Schedule is as follows:
10am-11am – Shrine preparation, singing and chanting
11am-12pm – Worship
12:15pm-2pm – Potluck Prasad Lunch
Note: Please bring food you wish offered during the worship to the Monastery kitchen no later than 11am! Thank you!
December 24, 6:30pm (Saturday)
Christmas Eve Worship and Celebration
In the Chapel, followed by light prasad supper and caroling in the Monastery.
Dec 25 - Christ the Messenger
w/ Br. Shankara
December is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). A jnana yogi moves toward self-realization through discrimination, reason, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). Your goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers tell us that life’s miseries are caused by seeing inaccurately. As a jnana yogi, you may break through this delusion and see only the Divine Presence everywhere.
“Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth …”*
Indeed, the incarnations of God say they take human form to remind us of our great birthright — the divinity within us.
Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, “When goodness grows weak, when evil increases, I make myself a body. In every age I come back to deliver the holy, to destroy the sin of the sinner, to establish righteousness.”**
Jesus said, “I am the light that is over all things. I am all: From me all has come forth, and to me all has reached. Split a piece of wood, I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there … Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me; I myself shall become that person, and the hidden things will be revealed to that person.”***
On January 7, 1900, Swami Vivekananda spoke about “Christ the Messenger” in Pasadena, California. This Sunday morning we will review the Swami’s talk, and discuss what he told us about the incarnations of God.
* From the Christmas carol “O Holy Night”
** Prabhavananda-Isherwood translation
*** The Gospel of Thomas, logions 77 and 108, Marvin Meyer translation
