- LIVE ONLINE PROGRAM
April 6 – June 8, 2022
Self-Surrender and Self-Knowledge Cultivating Equanimity and Non-Attachment
Swami Brahmananda
10 WEEKLY SESSIONS, Wednesdays, 6:00-7:45pm ET
Course Description:
Join this 10-week course with Swami Brahmananda to learn what makes our spiritual life fulfilling and fully integrated with our everyday activities. Throughout this course you will learn how to overcome emotional disturbances and attachments and gain tools to cultivate mental equanimity and inner strength based on the teachings of Yoga and Vedanta as taught in the Bhagavad Gita. The teachings and practices are meant for new and experienced students alike.
The Bhagavad Gita is acclaimed as the teaching that guides us how to put in practice and apply directly in our life the sublime teachings of Yoga and Vedanta.
Throughout the Bhagavad Gita the attitude of surrendering oneself to the Divine and accepting life’s dualities and challenges as God’s grace is given as a means for attaining peace and equanimity. When the mind is thus purified from binding attachments and emotions one can attain Self-knowledge and abide in one’s true nature as the all-pervading, limitless Self.
What You'll Learn:
The course is an in depth study of the fifth and sixth chapters of the Bhagavad Gita with traditional commentary.
Some of the main points of the teachings we will be covering are:
- What makes our spiritual life fulfilling and fully integrated with our everyday activities
- How to cultivate mental equanimity
- How to overcome emotional disturbances and attachments
- How to attain Self-knowledge and inner freedom while engaging with the world
- How to cultivate the attitude of surrendering oneself to the Divine and accepting pleasure and pain, success and failure, gain and loss as the Lord's grace, thereby finding peace in the unavoidable challenges of life
- The ignorant, not the wise, speak of knowledge of the Self and the Yoga of action or the performance of action as though they are distinct and different.
- He who performs actions, offering them to Brahman and abandoning attachment, is not tainted by sin as a lotus leaf by water.
- The Lord does not create agency or doership for the souls. He does not press anyone to do actions. He never tells anyone, “Do this or do that.” he does not bring about the union with the fruit of actions for the souls. It is Prakriti or Nature that does everything.
- Sages have equal vision, seeing the One in a learned person, in a cow, in an elephant, and even in a dog and an outcaste. Samsara is overcome by those whose minds rest in equal vision; Brahman is spotless indeed and equal; therefore, they are established in Brahman.
- With the self unattached to the external contacts he discovers happiness in the Self; with the self engaged in the meditation of Brahman he attains to the endless happiness. The enjoyments that are born of contacts are generators of pain only, for they have a beginning and an end, O Arjuna! The wise do not rejoice in them.
- Let a man lift himself by the Self; let him not lower himself by the lower mind, for the mind is the friend of oneself and the mind is the enemy of oneself.
- The practice of meditation by which the mind becomes pure and controlled, by which one beholds the Self and is unshaken even by heavy sorrow.
- Yoga is the severance from union with pain.
- With the mind harmonised by Yoga he sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self; he sees the same everywhere.
- The mind is restless, turbulent, strong and unyielding and difficult to control as it is to control the wind. Through repeated practice and dispassion it is controlled.
- Whatever levels we attained in our spiritual evolution, from there we continue in our next birth. No effort is ever lost.
Additional Information:
Offered as 10 weekly sessions on Wednesdays, Apr 6, 13, 20, 27, May 4, 11, 18, 25 June 1 & 8 6:00-7:45pm ET
This program is offered live through Zoom webinar with the availability for students to interact through Q&A with the presenter.
For enrolled students, a video recording will be available after each class in the event you miss a class or would like to review the content.
It is possible to register and take the course at any time. You can catch up on any classes you miss with the recordings.
Requirements and Recommendations:
- No experience necessary. This program is open to beginners as well as advanced practitioners.
- Viewing Device: Desktop or laptop computer will provide the best experience, although you can also connect via a tablet or smartphone.
- Internet connection: High-speed broadband wired or wireless is best.
- Video: Download Zoom to your computer, or install the Zoom app to your device. For interactive group sessions, a webcam or integrated camera will allow others to feel more connected with you.
- Audio: Headphone speakers are recommended. If you wish to participate vocally, a headset with a microphone will be ideal.
Course Includes:
- 16 hours of on-demand video
- 8 live sessions of 2 hours of study from the Patanjali Yoga sutras and guided practices. Each class includes teachings, practice time and dedicated time for questions and answers
- Home guided practices – including recorded guided meditations
- Feedback and personal guidance on student’s home practices
- Availability to ask questions about the studies and practices between classes
- Course Manual
Swami Brahmananda is a monk and senior teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and is the current Manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas. Swami Brahmananda joined the Sivananda organization in 1999 and was initiated into Sannyasa (monasticism) in 2006.
A long-time practitioner of yoga, meditation and philosophical studies, he regularly teaches meditation and yoga philosophy for the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses as well as the Advanced Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses. He also teaches online courses on the Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Vedanta. Swami Brahmananda is a much-loved, inspiring, and knowledgeable teacher.