- LIVE ONLINE PROGRAM
November 17, 2021 – January 19, 2022
Self-Surrender and Self-Knowledge Cultivating Equanimity and Non-Attachment
Swami Brahmananda
10 WEEKLY SESSIONS, Wednesdays, 6:30-8:30pm 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 first and second 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
- Life’s crisis and challenges as a manifestation of the inner conflicts of the forces of purity and impurity in one’s heart
- Grief and delusion as the two forces of bondage within samsara
- Self-surrender to God allows us to proceed safely and wisely through obstacles and adversities
- Jnana Yoga or the knowledge of the indestructible reality or Self, which pervades all beings
- The wisdom and practice of Karma Yoga in which there are no contrary results and there is single one pointed application of the will power
- One has the right to work only, but not for the fruit or result of action. One should not act with the result as the motive of the action
- How to cultivate evenness or equanimity of mind and balance is success and failure
- Yoga is skill in action, by which one goes beyond the dualities of life and the bondage of Karma
- The description of the sage who is established in wisdom, whose all desires are satisfied, whose mind is not shaken by adversity, everywhere without attachment, in whose peace all pains are destroyed
- The chain of suffering: thinking of objects leads to attachment which leads to desire, from whom anger is born, which leads to delusion and loss of memory, and hence to destruction of the power of discrimination, by which one perishes
- The peace into whom all desires enter as waters enter the ocean from all sides and yet the ocean is unmoved
Additional Information:
Offered as 10 weekly sessions on Wednesdays, Nov 17, 24, Dec 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, Jan 5, 12 & 19, 6:30-8:30pm 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.