We will be performing our annual Kali Puja, the elaborate ritual worship of the goddess Dakshina Kali, the same form of the Divine worshipped by Sri Ramakrishna at the Dakshineswar Temple in Kolkata. This is basically an all-night puja that combines elements from both the Vedic and Tantric traditions. During the ritual the goddess is”invoked” several times, in water, fire, the one who performs the ritual and in the little image of Kali who presides over the event. As I wrote in the last newsletter, we perform a prana pratishtha, calling forth the presence of the goddess in the image. Even though the Divine is everywhere and everywhen, once the invocation is performed the awareness of Kali Herself is both everywhere and precisely in the image at the same time, mysteriously present in the room. The best way to attend the worship is to keep in mind that She is present right there in that tiny image and simultaneously everywhere. At the very end of the worship we ‘break the tie’ and She happily returns to the Formless Ocean of Bliss.
You will have a chance to bring special offerings to the Mother. It can be flowers, food, make-up, jewelry, perfume- anything you might give to a beloved and respected Mother. Please remember that the puja restrictions apply: whatever you bring should be first for the Mother. That means it has not been tasted, smelled, overly handled or otherwise enjoyed by you or anyone else. If you are bring a food offering please bring it in new containers. We won’t be allowing anyone in our kitchen except for our designated helpers, so all food offerings must be fully prepared before coming.
There’s another kind of offering that the Mother loves: music! I am inviting any of you who can perform or lead bhajans/kirtan or any other kind of song to come and make an offering.
Here is the rough schedule:
10pm Gitaprana explains the puja
10:30-1 The main part of the puja
1-2 Homa Fire
2-3 The final ‘returning’ of the Mother to the Ocean
3am Prasad
As always you may come and go at any time during the night. If you need to rest for a few hours after the puja there will be a place w/o our usual suggested donation.
We really hope you can attend part or all of this wonderful night.
Author: thakur
Durga Puja Sept.23 / Retreat with Pravrajika Dayaprana Oct.7-8
Durga Puja
We will be performing our Durga Puja this coming Saturday. The puja begins at 10:30 but you can arrive and leave at any time during the celebration. Here is the rough schedule:
10:30 puja and kirtan
noon homa fire
1pm prasad meal
We are hoping that enough singers will attend so that we can simultaneously perform the puja and a kirtan. The kirtan will be performed for the Mother in memory of Sahaja, our former Ridgely staff member and friend, who was killed in an auto accident earlier this year. If you can lead bhajans and would like to participate, please RSVP.
Anyone can bring offerings/gifts for the Mother to the puja! Please remember that whatever you bring should be untouched. That means the offerings should not have been smelled, tasted, opened (if they are in a package) or put into containers that have been previously used to store leftovers, etc. The idea is that the offerings should be ‘enjoyed’ first by the Mother.If you are planning on bringing food for offering, please bring items that do not need to be heated up or cooked on site. We will not allow anyone but our designated helpers into the kitchen.
We are looking forward to our first celebration of the Mother season. Hope to see you on Saturday!
Upanishad Meditation Retreat with Pravrajika Dayaprana Oct. 7-8
We are happy to announce that Pravrajika Dayaprana, a sister of the Vedanta Society of So. Calif., will be visiting Ridgely for the first time. She will be conducting a meditation retreat in a format she has used many times in Los Angeles and Japan. It will be mostly silent with readings from the Upanishads followed by sessions of meditation. If you look at the schedule below you will see there is even a chance to practice calligraphy in the Japanese style.
What you need to know about Pravrajika Dayaprana is this: she is a multi-talented individual, who, many years ago, courageously left her home country of Japan and came to Los Angeles in order to devote her life to the teachings of Vedanta. She has faced many challenges learning a new language, living in a culture which is very different from the one she left, in addition to all the challenges monastic life offers to all of us who joined. We hope you will come and welcome Dayaprana to Ridgely and participate in this wonderful chance to look deeply into the heart of the Upanishads.
10:30 Introduction
Chanting
Meditation 1
About “Sun”. Prashna Upanishad 1
About “Prana” Prashna Up 2
About “OM”. Prashna Up 5
Chanting
1:00 Lunch & Free Time
1:45 Calligraphy (OM)
2:30 Meditation 2
About “OM” Prashna Up 5
About “Purusha”. Prashna Up 6
Chanting
3:35 Tea Time (Discussion)
4:00 End of Program
6:00 Arati
Part 2
6:00 Meditation
8:00 Walking Meditation (Optional)
Prashna Up 1
9:00 Free Time
10:30 Introduction
Chanting
Meditation 1
About “Our Waking, Dreaming, Sleeping States”
Prashna Up 4
Meditation on “Purusha”
Prashna Up 6
12:45 The Peace Chant
1:00 End of the Program
September 2-3 Retreat With Swami Yogatmananda “ Daydreaming and Meditation, the Vedantic and Jungian Approach”
We are happy to welcome Swami Yogatmananda back for our Labor Day weekend retreat. As many of you know, he has been conducting retreats here every Labor Day weekend, saving those with hurricanes and other pressing events! This year he will be speaking about daydreaming and meditation. He will look at this topic from both the Vedantic and the Jungian perspective. Sometimes meditators confuse the two! Our schedule will follow our usual format:
Saturday, September 2
10:30-1 first session
1-2 lunch
2-4 second session
Sunday September 3
10:30-1 third session
1pm lunch
All are welcome to attend. If you wish to stay overnight at the retreat please go to ridgely.org and fill out the online application found at the end of the “Visit” section. For those who wish to attend as day visitors, there is no charge for this program but please RSVP so we know how many people will be attending.
Thinking about making a day visit to Ridgely? Please read this:
First of all, we are happy to show people this wonderful place where Swami Vivekananda stayed. If you would like to visit Ridgely, you must schedule a tour at least a day in advance. Right now we have so many day visitors we are asking groups to come at the same time so we can give one tour instead of many. Ridgely is not a museum; it is a private residence and retreat center. We live here and there are usually people on retreat, enjoying the peace and quiet of our shrine room and retreat houses. The same people who give tours are also the people who do most of the interior and exterior work at Ridgely. We are very happy to arrange our schedules to accommodate tours if you call in advance. We always ask people to call us if it is necessary to cancel or if you will be late. Please do this.
When Ridgely is holding an organized retreat or some other program like a meditation day, we do not give tours. You are welcome to attend the program and, if we have time, we usually show people around in a limited way.It all depends on the retreat schedule.
Once in a long while we will tell you that it will not be possible for you to visit on a particular day. It could be that we are all scheduled to attend an event off-site. Or, we know that the weather is going to be dangerous-tornado warnings, snow and ice etc. We do not want to have extra people here when we know there are going to be dangerous conditions. If we ask you not to come, please don’t come anyway! We have had visitors ignore this and drive for 2 hours only to find the place closed and locked.
And, last but not least, please be aware that we live in an area where there are many ticks that carry Lyme Disease. If you are planning to walk on our property, especially the shrine trail, you need to come dressed appropriately-long pants, socks and enclosed shoes. You need to check yourself and your children for ticks when you return home.
Retreat with Pravrajika Satchitprana: Bhagavad Gita Chapters 10-11 August 3-6 and 8-9
We are very happy to welcome Pravrajika Satchitpranaji, a senior nun of Sri Sarada Math in India, back to Ridgely this summer. Many of you know her from the previous inspiring retreats she has given here. Sri Sarada Math is the women’s monastic organization founded on the same principles and with the same mission as the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Pravrajika Satchitprana , in addition to her work in India, travels overseas to many places, giving talks and talking to individual seekers.
The Bhagavad Gita retreat will be held in 2 installments with a break in between. Here is the schedule:
Aug. 3,4,5 and Aug. 8-9: 10:30-4:00 with a lunch break on each day
Aug. 6 10:30-1 this will be a half day with lunch but no afternoon program
Aug. 7 will be a rest day. Individual interviews w/Satchitpranaji will be scheduled for this day
Please join us for this wonderful opportunity to study with Satchitpranaji. As of right now, the overnight spaces in the women’s house are completely filled. We have space in the men’s house for 2 more retreatants. If you wish to reserve one of those spaces, please do so soon. If you wish to be put on a waiting list for the women’s house, please email us at info@ridgely.org.
If you will be joining us as a day visitor, please RSVP. This gives us an idea of how many people will be joining us for the lunches. As always, there is no charge for this retreat, although we do appreciate donations to help us with food costs.
If you have the opportunity, it is always a good idea to come to the retreat prepared by reading chapters 10 and 11 of the Bhagavad Gita beforehand. It’s not a requirement, but thinking about the teachings beforehand means the questions/discussion during the retreat will open the door for Satchitpranaji to really delve deeply into the subject.
Pravrajika Sevaprana Retreat Sunday, June 25 10:30-4:00
please join us for this one-day retreat with Pravrajika Sevaprana, a senior nun of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Here is her description of the retreat:
Why do we Suffer? Can suffering actually broaden our hearts and lead us to compassionate action whichin turn can free us from our isolation?
We see so much suffering in this world and
much of it seems inexplicable, yet on closer
scrutiny we see that this very suffering can
lead us to a Compassionate Heart, an awareness
that we are all One. This Unitive Awareness
can broaden our perspective and
bring us to a state of mind that is so inclusive
that we are freed from suffering itself.
Ridgely 2017 Calendar of Events
We have been organizing our 2017 schedule. Here it is as it stands today. There will be additions. This is a work in progress.
May 13 Swami Sarvapriyananda retreat “The Heart of Awareness”
June 25 Pravrajika Sevaprana retreat “Swami Vivekananda’s Ideal of Service”
July 4 Vedanta Society of New York Annual Retreat
August Pravrajika Satchitprana, Sri Sarada Math (details to be announced)
Sept. Labor Day retreat Swami Yogatmananda
Sept 24 Durga Puja
Oct. 19 Kali Puja
Nov. Swami Sarvadevananda
In addition we always have our weekend classes:
Saturday 2:30 Svetashvatara Upanishad
Sunday 10:30 Bhagavad Gita
We will have volunteer Saturday mornings 2 days in April- 4/15 and 4/29. We would love it if we had some help with some of our outside tasks during the “on season”.
Retreat w/Swami Sarvapriyananda: May 13 10:30-4 THIS RETREAT IS NOW CLOSED TO FURTHER ENROLLMENT
Many of our local friends have not met Swami Sarvapriyananda, the new Head Minister of the Vedanta Society of New York,recently transferred from the Vedanta Society of Southern California where he served as Asst. Minister.He is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who has held many posts in India, including serving as teacher at the monastic training center at Belur Math in Kolkata. Swami Sarvapriyananda is renowned as a speaker on Vedanta, traveling to many centers and university campuses worldwide to give lectures and talks, mostly on Advaita Vedanta. You can find his talks on YouTube.
Because Swami Sarvapriyananda is such a popular speaker, our overnight accommodations began to fill up when his coming to Ridgely was only a rumor. There are still a few places left.
If you wish to stay overnight for this retreat DO NOT WAIT AND THINK ABOUT IT. We guarantee your place will be gone! Please apply by visiting ridgely.org and filling out the online application in the Visit section. As always, we cannot accommodate children under the age of 17. At this time, you will most likely be sharing a room. Alternatively, you can book a room at a local motel and attend during the day.
DAY VISITORS PLEASE RSVP FOR THIS RETREAT. WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY WILL BE JOINING US AT LUNCH THAT DAY.
All are welcome. There is no charge although we appreciate it when people give donations to help with the costs of the retreat.
Swami Sarvadevananda Retreat “Life After Death” March 28 and 29.
Ridgely will be open with a retreat given by Swami Sarvadevananda on Life After Death. WITH A HUGE CAVEAT: IF THE WEATHER IS SNOWY OR ICY, WE WILL CANCEL SO CHECK THE WEATHER AND CHECK WITH US IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO ATTEND.
Here is the schedule:
March 28 7:30pm Session 1
March 29
10:30am Meditation
10:45 Session 2
12noon Session 3
1pm lunch
2:30 Session 4
All are welcome to attend. If you wish to stay overnight you must apply via our website application no later than Thursday, March 23.
Ridgely is closed again due to big snow
A winter blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow here yesterday, March 14. More snow is forecast for later on this week. There is no chance of the snow melting. Instead it will slowly turn to ice on our roads and make conditions very unsafe for visitors. We will post again when the snow is gone and we are re-opening for the spring.