Vedanta Center of Atlanta: January events
Vedanta Center of Atlanta: January 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.
Note: 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.
Spiritual talks and classes are open to the public and free of charge.
Jan. 1, 2:30-3:30pm (Tues)
Kalpataru Day Observance, followed by snacks and fellowship in the Monastery until 4:30pm.
Jan. 5, 9-10am (Sat) - Chandi Hymns in Sanskrit.
Jan. 6 @ 11am (Sun)
Topic: Adi Shankaracharya’s Jnana Yoga
w/Br. Shankara
January is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). As a jnana yogi, you practice discrimination, reason, detachment, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth). Your goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers say that all miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. An earnest and persistent jnani may break through this misapprehension (maya) and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.
Adi Shankaracharya (Shankara) was a great sage of 8th and 9th Century India (788-820 CE). Though only 32 at his death, he wrote highly revered interpretations of many traditional Hindu scriptures, including the Upanishads and other Vedantic texts. Shankara also left us books of instruction such as Vivekachudamani (Crest Jewel of Discrimination).
His efforts, including an ability to defeat leaders of other philosophical schools in debate, helped change the spiritual thought current of medieval India.
During the 9th Century, time-honored customs of Indian religious life had been fragmented or discarded. Materialism, mercenary priestcraft, superstition, and bigotry were prevalent.
Shankara and his disciples helped restore non-dual (Advaita) Vedanta and the Vedic scriptures to their former prominence in Hinduism’s Perennial Philosophy (Sanatana Dharma).
Sunday morning we will define and discuss two practices that are central to Shankara’s teachings: viveka (
Shankara says that — with sustained attention — discrimination and release will certainly lead an aspirant forward in spiritual life. And so, at last, to realization and life as a jivanmukta — one who is liberated while still embodied.
Note: 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. We hope you’ll join us.
Jan. 12, 10-10:30am (Sat) - Chandi Hymns in English.
Jan. 12, 10am-2pm (Sat) - Seva Saturday
Help clean and prepare the Center for the winter. Pizza served for lunch at 12:30pm. No need to stay the entire 4 hours — come when you can, stay as long as you like.
Jan. 13 @ 11am (Sun)
Open Forum on Jnana Yoga
facilitated by Br. Shankara
Jan. 20 @ 11am (Sun)
Talk: Swami Vivekananda’s Jnana Yoga
w/ Br. Shankara
When we learn to see accurately, what will we see?
Swami Vivekananda said: “Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter. …
“Each (one of you) is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power that lies behind mankind. …
“(This) Knowledge of the Absolute depends on no book, upon nothing; it is absolute in itself. No amount of study will give this Knowledge. It is not theory; it is realization.
Cleanse the dust from the mirror, purify your own mind, and in a flash you will know you are Brahman … In one sense Brahman is known to every human being: he knows, ‘I am.’ But man does not know himself as he is.
We all know that we are, but not what we are … (Our) lower explanations are partial truths; but … the essence of the Vedas is that the Self in each of us is Brahman …”
On Sunday morning we will explore Swamiji’s ideas in more detail.
Jan. 27 @ 11am (Sun)
Swami Vivekananda’s Birthday Celebration
Followed by a potluck prasad lunch in the Monastery.
Please bring food you wish to be offered during the worship, to the Monastery kitchen no later than 11:00am.
Shrine decoration begins at 10am, followed by a short talk and the worship at 11am, then our potluck prasad lunch at 12:30pm.
If you are bringing food to offer, please have it here no later than 11am! As always, we need you to volunteer — you can help with puja prep, or serve in the kitchen. Puja assistants, please be here by 9:30am; kitchen people by 10:30am.
