Vedanta Center of Atlanta: July events

7/26/2015 10:30 AM

Vedanta Center of Atlanta: July 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:

7/4 - 2pm
Please join us at the Center to celebrate our nation’s birth, and the contribution of two Swamis who helped lift our country's thought current. Both of these Swamis quite deliberately left the body on July 4th!
Fourth of July Schedule:
2-3pm Readings, Reflections, and Songs in the Chapel (Please keep your choice of reading to no longer than 3 minutes!)
3-3:20pm Break for preparations
3:20-5:30pm Festivities and Food in the Monastery

7/5 - 11am-noon, 

 
 

This Sunday's Talk
July 5th at 11am
“Do You Want Your Freedom?”
w/Br. Shankara

Patanjali

 
The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali teach the practice of yoga and meditation — Raja Yoga. You can learn, step-by-step, how to control your mind and achieve inner peace and freedom. According to Patanjali, liberation is possible without involving a Personal God (the jnani’s path). Yet, Swami Prabhavananda’s translation of and commentary on Patanjali (“How to Know God”) also says, "Devotion to a personal ideal of God ... sweetens the dryness of intellectual discrimination and calls forth the highest kind of love of which man is capable."

 

Sat 7/11 - 

This Saturday is Seva Saturday!

Many Hands Make Light Work"Many Hands Make Light Work!"

Come spend a few hours with fellow devotees and friends this Saturday as we all work together to make our Center sparkle and shine!

Because of the hot July weather and nature of work most needed, most jobs will be INDOORS this Saturday. There will be a detailed list of things to do… so 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. See you this Saturday!

Please note the 11AM Saturday Morning Class is suspended this Saturday so that members who wish to can participate in Seva Saturday.

 7/12 - 11am

“I Will Tell You a Secret”
w/Br. Shankara

Swami Brahmananda

Swami Brahmananda, the spiritual son of
 Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi, said:
“I will tell you a secret. You may not fully understand its meaning now, but in time its truth will dawn on you. And this truth is that every man’s will and mind lead him progressively toward good. Some are led along thorny paths and some are led along smooth paths, but all reach the same goal.” An inspiring assurance, since the goal is Self-realization — liberation from all bondage! Brahmananda also insisted that we can accelerate the process by our own efforts, by our spiritual practice.

Swami Shivananda, another of Ramakrishna’s direct disciples, said: “All that one has to do is establish God in one’s heart by any means. Then, one need make no separate effort to build up a moral character. All such divine qualities as truthfulness, kindness, love, etc., then come to one as a matter of course.”

Shivananda was echoing Sri Krishna’s promise: “Though a man be soiled with the sins of a lifetime, let him but love me, rightly resolved, in utter devotion: I see no sinner, that man is holy. Holiness soon shall refashion his nature to peace eternal; O (Arjuna), of this be certain: The man that loves me, he shall not perish.” (Bhagavad Gita, Ch. 9)

This Sunday morning, Br. Shankara will point to evidence of spiritual progress in your life, and explore how the principles and practices of Raja Yoga can be the means to “establish God in (your) heart.”

​7/19 - 11am:

“How To Know God”
w/Br. Shankara

How To Know God by Swami Prabhavananda

“How to Know God” through the power of Patanjali’s Yoga continues this month’s series of talks on Raja Yoga.

Swami Vivekananda wrote —
“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy — by one, or more, or all of these — and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.”

When Vivekananda said psychic control, he was pointing to the aims and practices of Raja Yoga. Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms (Sutras) teach the practice of this yoga — spiritual aspirants learn, step-by-step, how to control the mind and achieve inner peace and freedom.

Swami Prabhavananda (1893-1976) wrote a translation and commentary on Patanjali’s aphorisms, titled “How to Know God.” The swami said that, though these methods have been taught for over 2,000 years, they are “as alive and effective today as they have ever been.” He also said to a disciple, “I poured everything I am and everything I know into this book.”

Swami Prabhavananada served as Head of the Vedanta Society of Southern California from 1931 until his death on July 4, 1976. A disciple of Swami Brahmananda (“Raja Maharaj,” who was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna), Prabhavananda also served and learned from many of the Master’s other direct disciples.

This Sunday morning, we will discuss “How to Know God” and its very practical lessons on how to manifest your inner Divinity.

7/26 - 11am:

“You Have The Power”
w/Br. Shankara

Sunday’s talk concludes this month’s series on Raja Yoga. In August, we will once again take up Jnana Yoga, a path that emphasizes discrimination and reason.

You Have the PowerThe ancient Hindu Sage Patanjali says that, though you may not be aware of it at this moment, you have access to all power needed to achieve full spiritual realization.

Swami Vivekananda wrote the book Raja-Yoga as a commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In the Preface, he said:

“Raja-Yoga declares that each man is only a conduit for the infinite ocean of knowledge and power that lies behind mankind. It teaches that desires and wants are in man, that the power of supply is also in man; and that wherever and whenever a desire, a want, a prayer has been fulfilled, it was out of this infinite (power) that the supply came, and not from any supernatural being …

There is no supernatural, says the Yogi, (instead) there are in nature gross manifestations and subtle manifestations. The subtle are the causes, the gross the effects. The gross can be easily perceived by the senses; not so the subtle. The practice of Raja-Yoga will lead to the acquisition of the more subtle perceptions.”

That last paragraph is a huge promise, with these implications: Once subtle causes are seen and understood, their gross effects need not be manifested. This can yield relief from “the bondage of self,” since both your thoughts and actions are the effects of subtle causes. These assurances reflect the Samkhya philosophical system, which is the basis of both Raja Yoga and Yoga Psychology.

Vivekananda’s and Patanjali’s instructions focus, in part, on the increase in spiritual power that arises from step-by-step practice of Raja-Yoga. On Sunday, Br. Shankara will explore those teachings and what they can mean to your spiritual life.


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