CURRENT PROGRAMMES



Please click here for:

  1. Yearly Programme 2010 (html version): Yearly Programme 2010.html
  2. Yearly Programme 2010 (pdf version): Download


Sunday programmes in Berlin

Swami Baneshananda conducts monthly Vedanta-Retreats in Berlin at 11:00 a.m. on Sundays (Please see dates below.) for about two hours in the meeting room of the vegetarian restaurant “Satyam”, Goethestraße 5, 10623 Berlin, (U-Bhf. Ernst-Reuter-Platz or S-Bhf. Savignyplatz).
Programme:
(i) Opening-Bhajan;
(ii) Reading, discussion, Question-Answer (about 30 minutes);
(iii) Talk on the theory of meditation (about 25 minutes);
(iv) Gayatri-chanting (about 10 minutes);
(v) Chanting of OM (about 5 minutes);
(vi) Guided meditation (about 30 minutes);
(vii) Closing song/reading.
Those who want to take part in the retreats may kindly contact Mr. P. K. Ghosh (Co-ordinator), Dahlemer Weg 161 a, 14167 Berlin, Tel.: (030) 8 17 44 52, Fax: (030) 84 70 70 98, E-Mail: pradeepk.ghosh@gmx.de
Dates for Sunday programmes at “Satyam”, Berlin:
March: 28; May: 23; June: 27; September: 26; October: 24; November: 14; December: 12

Saturday programmes in Mühlheim am Main

We conduct regular Saturday programmes (Please see the dates below.) at Pestalozzistraße 2
Programme till April 2010:
15:30 – Tea
16:00 – Class on the Yoga-sutras/Bhagavad-gita
16:45 to 17:00 – Break
17:00 to 17:45 – Prayer and meditation
Programme from May 2010:
15:00 – Sanskrit class
16:00 – Tea
16:45 – Class on the Yoga-sutras/Bhagavad-gita
17:30 to 17:45 – Break
17:45 to 18:30 – Prayer and meditation
Dates for Saturday programmes at Pestalozzistraße 2:
January 2010: Yoga-sutras: 30
February: 6, 13, 27.
March: 6, 13, 27.
April: 10, 25 (Sunday).
May: 1, 8, 22, 29.
June: Bhagavad-gita (No Sanskrit class): 5, 19, 26.
July: 3, 10, 17, (Yoga-sutras): 31.
August: 7, (Bhagavad-gita)(No Sanskrit class): 28.
September: 4, (Yoga-sutras): 11, 25.
October: 2, 9, 23, 30.
November: 6, 13, (Bhagavad-gita)(No Sanskrit class): 27.
December: 4, 11.

Lessons in Sanskrit-language

Swami Baneshananda will give lessons in Sanskrit-language from 1st May 2010 (Please see the dates below.) at Pestalozzistraße 2. The one-hour class begins at 3 p.m. For registration, please contact us after 28 February 2010. One has to oneself procure one's own book and other materials. The following books will be helpful:
(i) A Sanskrit Manual: Part - I, by R. Antoine, published by Allied Publishers Private Limited, India;
(ii) A Sanskrit Manual: Part - II, by R. Antoine, published by Allied Publishers Private Limited, India.
Dates for Saturday Sanskrit-lessons at Pestalozzistraße 2:
May: 1, 8, 22, 29.
July: 31.
August: 7.
September: 11, 25.
October: 2, 9, 23, 30.
November: 6, 13.
December: 4, 11.

An eight-day summer retreat in August 2010 (14 to 21 August) in Bindweide with Swami Baneshananda and Swami Bhaswatananda

Topics: “Transformative Action”, “Devotion vs. Emotion”, and “Inner Realities”
(As usual, the discourses will be translated sentence-for-sentence into German.)

Since it is vacation time, kindly enrol yourself well in advance so as to help us arrange for your accommodation in or near the Ashrama.

Mahendranath Gupta, the recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, once asked his Master: ‘Sir, how may we fix our minds on God?’ Sri Ramakrishna replied: ‘Repeat God’s name, sing His glories, and keep holy company; and now and then visit God’s devotees and holy people. The mind cannot dwell on God if it is immersed day and night in worldliness, in worldly duties and responsibilities; it is necessary to go into solitude now and then and think of God. Ton fix the mind on God is very difficult, in the beginning, unless one practices meditation in solitude. … If you enter the world without first cultivating love for God, you will be entangled more and more. You will be overwhelmed with its danger, its grief, its sorrows. The more you think of worldly things, the more you will be attached to them. … The world is water and the mind milk. If you pour milk into water they will become one; you cannot find pure milk any more. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practise spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep that butter in the water of the world the two will not mix. The butter will float.’

Vedanta Gesellschaft has organized this 8-day summer spiritual retreat with a view to providing spiritual seekers a suitable opportunity in a natural and pure environment where they can try to follow the above teaching. The programme includes discourses on subjects like ‘Transformative Action’, ‘Devotion v. Emotion’, and ‘Inner Realities’ by Swamis Baneshananda and Bhaswatananda.

PROGRAMME
Saturday (14.08)
18:30 Prayer and meditation
19:45 Dinner
20:45 Introduction/Announcements

Sunday (15.08) to Friday (20.08)
06:00 Meditation
06:30 Prayer and reading
07:45 Breakfast
08:30 Karma Yoga
10:30 Reading from holy books
11:00 Gayatri-chanting, and meditation
12:15 Lunch
13:30 Silence and rest
15:00 Tea
15:30 Discourse and Question-Answer
17:00 Reflection and Free time
Silence period: 18:30 to 7:30 (next day)
18:30 Singing and meditation
19:45 Dinner
20:45 Reading from holy books and discussion
21:45 Retiring to bed

Saturday (21.08)
06:00 Meditation
06:30 Prayer and reading
07:45 Breakfast
08:30 Karma Yoga
10:30 Discourse
11:30 Prayer
12:15 Lunch, silence and rest
15:00 Tea
15:30 Room cleaning

Registration: Please register your name latest by 7.8.2010 by post or by telephone with Vedanta Gesellschaft, Pestalozzistraße 2, 63165 Mühlheim am Main, Tel.: 06108-823 105.
Retreat Cost: (per person) € 110 for the whole retreat including food (accommodation extra), or € 30 per day.
Accommodation: The Society does not have many single-bed or double-bed rooms. Elderly persons and ladies will be given preference in the mater of room allotment. People generally donate an amount of € 20 for three-bed, € 22 for double-bed and € 25 for single-bed rooms, per head per night.
Please pay the retreat cost in advance and also your donation, if any, to our account No. 406262, in favour of Vedanta Gesellschaft, with Volksbank Gebhardshain, BLZ: 573 614 76.
Please bring your house shoes and bed linen. Bed linen is also available at the ashrama for € 5.


Retreat in September 2010 (17 to 19 September) in Bindweide with Swami Baneshananda and Swami Bhaswatananda

Topic: The Ultimate Question
(As usual, the discourses will be translated sentence-for-sentence into German.)

Kindly enrol yourself well in advance so as to help us arrange for your accommodation in or near the Ashrama.

Sri Ramakrishna says: ‘If one analyses oneself, one doesn’t find any such thing as “I”. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and you won’t find anything inside. … In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego.’

Then ‘Who am I?’—that is the question.

Ignorant people identify the Self with external things: thorough materialists consider the body to be the Self; certain others believe the mind to be the Self; and most confuse the Self with the ego. According to Vedanta, however, all these notions of the Self belong really to the category of the non-Self. Vedanta analyses the non-Self into five ‘sheaths’ that conceal the real Self. They are figuratively described as one inside the other. Through ignorance a person identifies the Self with one or more of these sheaths. As this ignorance is stubborn, persistent, and hard to overcome, Vedanta takes considerable pains to demonstrate their illusory nature and exhort aspirants to negate them. Only when that is done, that is to say, when one cultivates total detachment towards them through discrimination, is the true nature of the ‘I’ revealed.

Swami Baneshananda and Swami Bhaswatananda of Vedanta Gesellschaft will jointly conduct a three-day interactive retreat on the above subject.

PROGRAMME
Friday (17.09)
18:30 Prayer and meditation
19:45 Dinner
20:45 Introduction/Announcements

Saturday (18.09)
06:00 Meditation
06:30 Prayer and reading
07:45 Breakfast
08:30 Karma Yoga
10:30 Discourse
12:15 Lunch
13:30 Silence and rest
15:00 Tea
15:30 Discourse and Question-Answer
17:00 Reflection and Free time
Silence period: 18:30 to 7:30 (next day)
18:30 Singing and meditation
19:45 Dinner
20:45 Discussion / Evening programme
21:45 Retiring to bed

Sunday (19.09)
06:00 Meditation
06:30 Prayer and reading
07:45 Breakfast
08:30 Karma Yoga
10:30 Discourse and Question-Answer
11:30 Prayer
12:15 Lunch, silence and rest
15:00 Tea
15:30 Room cleaning

Registration: Please register your name latest by 10.09.2010 by post or by telephone with Vedanta Gesellschaft, Pestalozzistraße 2, 63165 Mühlheim am Main, Tel.: 06108-823 105.
Retreat Cost: (per person) € 50 for the whole retreat including food (accommodation extra), or € 25 per day.
Accommodation: The Society does not have many single-bed or double-bed rooms. Elderly persons and ladies will be given preference in the mater of room allotment. People generally donate an amount of € 20 for three-bed, € 22 for double-bed and € 25 for single-bed rooms, per head per night.
Please pay the retreat cost in advance and also your donation, if any, to our account No. 406262, in favour of Vedanta Gesellschaft, with Volksbank Gebhardshain, BLZ: 573 614 76.
Please bring your house shoes and bed linen. Bed linen is also available at the ashrama for € 5.


Important Information

Please help us serve you better!

We are happy to inform you that if you wish to stay some more time than the retreat period, you may come one day before and/or stay on one day after the retreat. You may donate some amount for these two extra days. Those who volunteer to help us prepare for a retreat and reorganize things after the retreat will get priority for accommodation for these two extra days.

If you like us to arrange for your accommodation for a retreat when the ashrama is already full, we will try to do it for you. The availability and rates of outside accommodation is not always certain.

If you wish to be received or seen off at Betzdorf railway station, you may want to pay € 8 for each trip. Please check our website for availability of bus services from Betzdorf to Bindweide (or even to Steinebach or Rosenheim, which are just a kilometer away), and then book your railway tickets.

Those who want to leave on Sunday morning should arrange for their own conveyance.



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