Vedanta Center of Atlanta: May events
Vedanta Center of Atlanta: May 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.
May 4 (Sat), 9-10am
Chandi Hymns will be chanted in Sanskrit in the Chapel. All are welcome, and no prior experience is necessary. Led by Rita Bhandarkar Mathew.
May 5, 11am-12noon:
Talk: What Is the Jnana in Jnana Yoga?
w/ Br. Shankara
May is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). As a jnana yogi, you practice 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. An earnest and persistent jnani may break through this misapprehension (maya) and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.
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. …”
Jnana means Knowledge — spiritual wisdom, born of realization, that is beyond our ability to think or speak about it. Yoga means both union and detachment. Therefore, the illumined jnana yogi is one with the deepest Truth of her or his being, and detached from the limitations of Maya (our apparent, relative reality).
Swami Vivekananda gave a number of lectures here in the West, on Jnana Yoga and how to practice it. In this coming Sunday’s talk we will explore and discuss what Swamiji said, and how his teachings can be integrated into our daily lives.
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.
May 11 (Sat) @ 10-10:30am
Chandi Hymns will be chanted in English in the Chapel. All are welcome, and no prior experience is necessary. Led by Br. Shankara.
May 11 (Sat)@ 11am - 2pm
SEVA SATURDAY
So much needed work gets done when you show up! We need your commitment to our success! Come and stay as long as you can; a delicious lunch will be served at 12:30pm.
May 12 (Sun) @ 11am
Mother’s Day
Talk: The Non-dualism of Sri Sarada Devi
w/ Br. Shankara
When we study the life of Sri Sarada Devi — Holy Mother — what do we find most inspiring? She worked almost continuously for others, cooking and serving meals, keeping house, mending clothing, and tenderly looking after her relatives’ children. In fact, her daily life was so taken up with these tasks that some people thought of her as nothing more than an ordinary, overworked village woman.
So how can we think of her as a conscious non-dualist? In the dead of night she could be seen counting her beads for hours on end — not for herself, but for her disciples. Then during the day, Holy Mother lovingly conducted worship of Sri Ramakrishna at appointed times. Is this not all dualism?
This Sunday morning, we’ll hear, in her own words, what Holy Mother said about her life, who she was, and what motivated her. We’ll find that her life was consciously lived for us — that she intended her efforts to be an example of love and devotion to the One Divine Presence that appears in human and other forms.
UPDATE: Seva Saturday and Chandi Hymns chanting in English will be held on May 18th (on the 3rd rather than the usual 2nd Saturday).
May 19 (Sun) @ 11am
Talk: What Deserves Your Attention?
w/ Br. Shankara
An infinite ocean of knowledge and power, and yet: Though you may start each day with clear priorities and a plan of action, often – by the end of that day – you can hardly say where the time went.
What happened? The short answer is you got distracted: In the moment, something else seemed more important than what you intended; or, an incident occurred that left you feeling angry, dejected, worn out. Either way, the day is gone and you’re not much closer to what you planned than you were in the morning.
Must this continue? Why are we so easily distracted, and why does what happens frustrate, confuse, even anger us? Here’s one explanation, from Swami Yogeshananda’s article, “A Closer Look Through the Looking-Glass”:
“In a lecture in which he clarifies the … doctrine of Maya, Swami Vivekananda says, ‘I may be dreaming all the time. I am dreaming that I am talking to you and that you are listening to me. No one can prove that it is not a dream. … We are walking in the midst of a dream, half-sleeping, half-waking, passing all our lives in a haze; this is the fate of every one of us… When we dream, the things we see all seem to be connected; during the dream we never think they are incongruous. It is only when we wake that we see the want of connection.
When we wake from this dream of the world and compare it with the Reality, it will be found all incongruous nonsense, a mass of incongruity passing before us, we do not know whence or whither, but we know it will end; and this is called Maya.’”
In Sunday’s talk we’ll look further into Swami Vivekananda’s definition of Maya, and discuss Adi Shankaracharya’s explanation of how we can wake from Maya’s spell.
May 26 (Sun) @ 11am
Talk: Sage Vasishtha, Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda, Ramana Maharshi
w/ Br. Shankara
The great Sage Vasistha lived many thousands of years ago. He was spiritual counselor to the court of King Dasaratha, the father of Lord Rama. While still a young prince, Rama made a a tour of Ayodhya, the kingdom he will inherit. When Rama returns home depressed and disillusioned, his father worries that the prince is about to renounce the world.
Vasishta tells Prince Rama: “O my dear child! How strange is this world-bewitching maya! Being deluded by this maya, one cannot know the Self; though the Self has pervaded all through the limbs of the body … As (a magic show) or as the mirage water in the desert, are not true, in the similar manner this observable universe is not true.”
Vasistha explains: “This creation, which is merely of the form of a vibration of consciousness alone, is dissolved by accurate knowledge.”
On Sunday we will explore the meaning of those verses, and how three other master teachers of advaita vedanta — Adi Shankaracharya, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramana Maharshi — taught us how to experience maya’s “magic show” and still realize the all-pervading, non-dual Self, your true original nature.
June 2 @ 11am
Talk: Seven Sayings of Swami Prabhavananda
w/ Br. Shankara
Please mark your calendar for a weekend Retreat in mid-JULY. Swami Chandrashekharanandaji of the Portland, OR center will visit with us on a Saturday and Sunday, to offer his wisdom on Karma Yoga. Exact dates and schedule TBD; they will be announced soon online and here in your e-news.
Please note that your Center will be closed in AUGUST — there will be no activities except for Arati. This is now our routine for each summer.
