1.  RETREAT  in  SEPTEMBER 2008  in Bindweide with Swami Jyotirupananda from Moscow

 

 

Topic: Spiritual Life and Worldly Duties

(As usual, the discourses will be translated sentence-for-sentence into German.)

We all busy ourselves with various kinds of activities we usually call duty, and very often we find that these activities bring restlessness and misery. If this is true, there must be something wrong with our ordinary conception of duty. We do work, but we do not know how to turn it into yoga, a spiritual technique, a means for Self-realization.

 

What is duty? Says Swami Vivekananda: ‘To give an objective definition of duty is entirely impossible. Yet there is duty from the subjective side. Any action that makes us go Godward is a good action and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil and is not our duty.’ So everybody must strive for spiritual perfection and must at all costs give up unrighteousness, which is fraught with passion, falsehood and greed.

Over and above all duties is our duty to ourselves — to our higher Self. Since every soul is part of the Universal Soul, when we discharge our duty to our higher Self, we fulfil all other obligations. Our higher Self is waiting for its manifestation, but in the din and bustle of day-to-day life it is constantly being eclipsed by our lower self. If we are to avoid weariness and discontentment, all our duties must have the unfoldment of the higher Self as their integral aim. Then alone will life appear meaningful.

In this spiritual retreat Swami Jyotirupananda, a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order and head of its Moscow centre, will address this important but less understood topic.

There will be sentence-for-sentence translation of the discourses and question-answer sessions in German. Kindly enrol yourself well in advance so as to help us arrange for your accommodation in or near the ashrama.

 

PROGRAMME

Friday (19.9)

18:30   Prayer and meditation
19:45   Dinner

21:00   Introduction/Announcements

 

Saturday (20.9)

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    Walk
16:30    Discourse and Question-Answer

17:45    Reflection

Silence period: 18:30 to 7:30 (next day)

 

18:30    Singing and meditation

19:45    Dinner

20:30    Discussion/Evening programme

21:45    Retiring to bed

 

Sunday (21.9)

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    House cleaning
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Please register your name latest by 12.9.2008  by post  or by telephone with: Vedanta-Gesellschaft, Rosenheimer Straße 13 (Old: Bindweide 2), 57520 Steinebach/Sieg. Tel.: 02747-930493. 

 

Retreat cost (per person): € 50 for the 3-day retreat including food, or per day € 30.

Accommodation: The Society does not have many single-bed or double-bed rooms. They are allotted on ‘first come first served’ basis. People donate an amount of € 20 for three-bed, € 25 for double-bed and € 30 for single-bed rooms, per head per night.

You can pay the cost of the retreat and also your donation, if any, to our account No. 406262, in favour of Vedanta Gesellschaft, with Volksbank Gebhardshain, BLZ: 573 614 76. Or you may pay it to us during the retreat.

Please bring your house shoes and bed linen. Bed linen is available at the ashrama for € 5.



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2.  RETREAT  in  OCTOBER 2008  in Bindweide with Swami Yogatmananda from USA 

 

Topic: Selected Topics from Chhandogya Upanishad

(As usual, the discourses will be translated sentence-for-sentence into German.)

The Chandogya Upanishad is the second biggest of the major Upanishads, next only to the Brihadaranyaka. In it the central teaching of Advaita Vedanta is brought home to us by striking similes and matching metaphors, and through a threadbare analysis of appearance and reality. At the same time it points out the one spiritual Entity underlying the diversity of names and forms, namely Atman or Brahman. One of the great sayings of Vedanta, ‘That thou art’, belongs to this Upanishad. The Upanishad also makes another grand declaration: ‘All this is verily Brahman’, thus providing a direct revelational basis for Advaita. The scripture contains some sublime flashes of spiritual light capable of dispelling the darkness of our ignorance. And when we study it along with requisite spiritual practices, it will lead us to a correct understanding of the true nature of the Self.

 

There are several currents of meta-physical and mystical thought flowing in the Chandogya Upanishad. It goes to Shankar-acharya’s credit that his great commentary on it unites these diverse currents into a single stream of philosophy; but for it, the true import of many of the obscure passages and the meaning of several of the archaic images and meditations would have remained beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Swami Yogatmananda, head of Vedanta Society, Providence, USA, and a monk known for his scriptural scholarship, will conduct a retreat on this subject.

There will be sentence-for-sentence translation of the discourses and question-answer sessions in German. Kindly enrol yourself well in advance so as to help us arrange for your accommodation in or near the ashrama.

PROGRAMME