- LIVE ONLINE PROGRAM
Towards a Bright Future
Christmas and New Year Unity in Diversity Symposium
December 22, 2021 – January 1, 2022
Sign Up for The Symposium:
Join us this holiday season for a joyous celebration during our annual Christmas & New Year Unity in Diversity Symposium. World-renowned spiritual leaders, musicians and artists from different religions and spiritual traditions will inspire us and help us navigate this time of change and new beginnings as we move forward towards a bright future. Through live lectures, workshops, concerts, and performances, we will deepen our understanding of the spiritual path and how we can march forward towards a bright future for ourselves and humanity. We will reflect on the past year and establish a new, enlightened vision for the coming year.
The teaching of Unity in Diversity was at the core of Swami Vishnudevananda’s mission. According to yoga and Vedanta philosophy, the one God or Ultimate Reality manifests as a multiplicity of names, forms, shapes, and colors. There is an underlying unity which supports our manifested diversity. “Unity” and “diversity” are one and the same and their essence is our own essence: pure existence, pure consciousness, and pure bliss.
Join us for this spiritual gathering and gain a direct glimpse of this truth. Through talks, concerts, spiritual practices, discussions, and more, we will participate in breaking down artificial barriers and experience the unity in our diversity.
This program is offered for free to all. If you are able to make a donation to help secure the future of the ashram it is very much appreciated.
Daily Schedule
*schedule is subject to change
December 27
noon workshop
The Principles and Practices of the Yogic Diet | Pranava Chaitanya
2pm workshop
Sohbet: Spiritual Association | Sheikh Abdul Haqq
evening satsang
Sohbet: Spiritual Association | Sheikh Abdul Haqq
December 28
noon workshop
The Principles and Practices of the Yogic Diet | Pranava Chaitanya
2pm workshop
Narada Bhakti Sutra | Rukmini Chaitanya
evening satsang
Interview with Jetsumna Tenzin Palmo
December 29
morning satsang
Resilience in Spiritual Practice | Lama Karma Chotso
noon workshop
Ayurveda Workshop | Mahadevi
2pm workshop
Narada Bhakti Sutra | Rukmini Chaitanya
evening satsang
Love and Gratitude: Celebration of the Campaign to Secure the Future of the Ashram | Swami Swaroopananda & Ashram Staff
December 30
morning satsang
Spiritual Accounting | Swami Paramananda
noon workshop
Ayurveda Workshop | Mahadevi
2pm workshop
Narada Bhakti Sutra | Rukmini Chaitanya
evening satsang
Unity in Diversity | Jeffrey Lloyd
December 31
morning satsang
Swami Vishnudevananda’s Message of Unity in Diversity | Rukmini Chaitanya
noon workshop
Yoga Nidra | Narayani Chaitanya
2pm workshop
Narada Bhakti Sutra | Rukmini Chaitanya
evening satsang
Invoking Our Bright Future New Year’s Kirtan with Acharya Mangalananda
January 1
noon workshop
Invoking Our Bright Future New Year’s Kirtan with Acharya Mangalananda
2pm workshop
Narada Bhakti Sutra | Rukmini Chaitanya
evening satsang
Invoking Our Bright Future New Year’s Kirtan with Acharya Mangalananda
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.
Swami Swaroopananda
Swami Swaroopananda is a senior disciple of Swami Vishnudevananda. A practicing yogi from a very young age, Swami Swaroopananda has dedicated his life to the practice and teaching of yoga. He taught in Yoga Teacher Training Courses around the world and is currently teaching advanced yoga philosophy courses and lectures internationally. He is Director of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat and acharya (spiritual director) for the Sivananda centers and ashrams in the Bahamas and the Middle East. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres.
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.
Daniel Matt
Daniel Matt, PhD, is a teacher of Jewish spirituality and one of the world’s leading authorities on Kabbalah and the Zohar, the chief text of the Jewish Kabbalah, which he spent 18 years translating and annotating. For this work, Daniel has been honored with a National Jewish Book Award and a Koret Jewish Book Award, hailing his translation as “a monumental contribution to the history of Jewish thought.”
Widely featured in the media, including Time, Newsweek, and National Public Radio, he has published over a dozen books, including The Essential Kabbalah, which has been translated into eight languages and God and the Big Bang: Discovering Harmony between Science and Spirituality.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo became a Buddhist while still in her teens. At the age of 20, she traveled to India and become one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. The international best-seller Cave in the Snow by Vicki Mackenzie chronicles Tenzin’s 12 years of seclusion in the Himalayas. In 2008, the head of the Drukpa Kagyu lineage gave her the rare title of Jetsunma (venerable master). Deeply concerned with the plight of Buddhist nuns, Jetsunma Tenzin established Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India. She has written two books: Reflections on a Mountain Lake and Into the Heart of Life.
Jeffrey Lloyd
Jeffrey Lloyd was born in New Providence, The Bahamas. He is the former Minister of Education in The Bahamas Parliament. He is a leader in Christianity and an active member in his Roman Catholic church. He is also a practitioner of Siddha yoga. Mr. Lloyd is married to the former Michelle Donna Marie Mitchell. He is the proud father of 5 daughters and also has 5 grand children.
Shaykh Abdul Haqq
Shaykh Abdul Haqq is the national director of the Naqshandi Haqqani Sufi Order of America. He is a disciple of the famous Sufi Master, Shaykh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqani from Cyprus. He travels all over the world teaching Sufism and Islamic mysticism in universities, churches, synagogues, temples, and spiritual centers of diverse faiths.
Lama Karma Chötso
Lama Karma Chötso is a Buddhist nun and has been practicing within the Kagyu lineage for more than 35 years. She is the resident teacher of the Open Awareness Buddhist Center in Miami, and she practices as a meditator, teacher, writer, singer, and painter. Her sangha has built four Tibetan stupas at the Lama Residence in South Florida, and she is now helping in the building of a stupa for her sangha in Peru.
Acharya Mangalananda
Acharya Mangalananda is a direct disciple of Sri Anandamayi Ma, a venerated Indian saint of the 20th century. Though an American by birth, a lifetime of Indian culture has given him a deep immersion into the traditional spiritual music of India. He is now a kirtan singer well-versed in the traditional kirtan style of India’s rural villages.
Devoted to Sri Anandamaya Ma and her direct disciples, he helped establish a spiritually-based school for local village children after living in her ashram. After teaching in the school for twelve years, he toured internationally to give kirtan presentations and spiritual workshops. In 2013, he returned to the United States and now hosts a small ashram in the San Francisco Bay area, sharing kirtan and classes.
Krishnan Namboodiri
Krishnan Namboodiri is a Tantric priest from South India, trained in the classical tradition of mantras (sacred sounds), pujas (prayer ceremonies), homas (fire rituals), and yantras (sacred geometric designs). He performs many daily and special rituals for the ashram.
Swami Paramananda
Swami Paramananda is the manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Ranch and longtime teacher of Sivananda Yoga Teacher Trainings in the Bahamas, New York, and India. A much-loved teacher admired for his humor, warmth, and devotion to the practice, he seamlessly weaves classical yoga teachings into modern daily life.
Rukmini Chaitanya
Rukmini Chaitanya is a senior staff member of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas, and the personal assistant to Swami Swaroopananda, the Acharya, or spiritual director of the Ashram. She regularly teaches the Bhagavad Gita during the Sivananda Yoga Teacher training as well as other courses on the Bhagavad Gita, Vedanta, positive thinking, meditation, and yoga philosophy.
Rukmini Chaitanya is known for her enthusiastic and inspiring teaching style as well as for her devotion to the lineage and the scriptures. She is dedicated to each of her students and has an innate desire to share knowledge with them. She brings a great deal of clarity to every topic and is highly appreciated for her capacity to unfold complicated topics and present them in a coherent and pure way.
Jnaneshwari Chaitanya
Jnaneshwari Chaitanya is a senior teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. She joined the Sivananda organization in 2001 and was initiated into Brahmacharya in 2016.
An experienced and devoted practitioner of Yoga, meditation and philosophical studies, she regularly teaches Yoga and Vedanta in the ashram programs and the Bhagavad Gita in Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Courses. Jnaneshwari Chaitanya is known for her clear and pure way of communicating yogic knowledge and its application in daily life.