- LIVE ONLINE PROGRAM
Nov 1, 2023 – Jan 17, 2024
Self-Surrender and Self-Knowledge Cultivating Equanimity and Non-Attachment
Swami Brahmananda
12 WEEKLY SESSIONS, Wednesdays, 6:00-7:45pm ET
Course Description:
Join this 12-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 whole seventeenth chapter and verses 1 – 17 of the eighteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita containing some of the most important, most illuminating, and inspiring portions of the teachings.
Some of the topics included 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
- The faith or vision of life of each is in accordance with his nature or innate tendencies (vasanas). The person consists of his faith; as a man’s faith is, so is he.
- The whole world one experiences is a product of one’s faith or innate mental tendencies. Faith, or one’s vision of life is colored by the influence of the three qualities or gunas. Purity of faith or vision of life makes it easy for a person to attain Self-realization or the knowledge of the Self. Passionate faith throws one into incessant activity to manipulate the pairs of opposites. If Tamas or inertia prevails, faith is annihilated.
- The division of spiritual effort (tapas) and the types of food one eats according to the gunas and how to spiritualize the act of eating.
- The eighteenth discourse, which is the conclusion of the divine discourse of Lord Krishna, is a summary of the foregoing portions of the Gita. It covers numerous important points dealt with in the previous discourses. Here you behold the ultimate result or effect of the Lord’s teachings to Arjuna.
- The Bhagavad Gita’s central message is declared that it is in and through the performance of one’s respective duties in life one can qualify for the highest liberation, if one performs actions by renouncing egoism and attachment and surrendering all desire for selfish, personal gain.
- By regarding the performance of your duties as worship offered to God, you obtain the Grace of the Lord and attain the eternal One.
- In pure renunciation we neither hate unpleasant action nor are we attached to pleasurable action. As it is not possible for you to give up all action, the renunciation of egoism, selfishness and attachment in your activity is declared as true renunciation. Karma does not accumulate and bind one who is thus established in such inner renunciation.
Additional Information:
Offered as 12 weekly sessions on Wednesdays, November 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, December 6, 13, 20, 27, 2023 & January 3, 10, 17, 2024 from 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:
- 24 hours of on-demand video
- 12 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.