Category: Announcements

Visitor Information

During April and May we will only be giving tours on Saturdays at 2pm. During this time we won’t have the staff to arrange tours on other days. You must call us at least 3 days in advance to register for a Saturday tour.

Our staff members have many responsibilities here at the retreat. We don’t have someone whose only job is to give tours. Staff members have to rearrange their busy schedules in order to give tours. We do not give impromptu tours to visitors w/o prior notice.

THE RETREAT WILL BE CLOSED TO ALL VISITORS APRIL 16-19. That includes people who just wish to visit the shrine. The Vedanta Society of New York is holding an intensive retreat here during this time.  This retreat is full and closed to all  people except those who have already registered.

OVERNIGHT STAYS: We are taking reservations for overnight stays. You must book a retreat at least 5 days in advance. Please note that we do not allow children under the age of 17 to stay overnight here.

You are welcome to use the shrine and walk on the grounds w/o making a reservation. The shrine is open from 6am to 7pm daily. The grounds are open for walking during daylight hours only. If it will be your first time using the shrine room, please call us in advance so we can give you a very short orientation. After that you are free to use the shrine during open hours.

ORGANIZED PROGRAMS/RETREATS

We are working on finalizing the 2025 schedule. We will announce those programs as soon as the schedule is finished

Ridgely News

This winter has been a challenge for us here at the retreat. As usual, the weather has been the main problem. It turned very cold earlier than usual, forcing us to close the retreat early. The weather has remained cold, which means we have spent more of our budget keeping the houses heated. In February our area experienced an ice storm that covered everything w/ a very slick sheet of ice for more than a week until it finally melted. Walking outside was downright dangerous. Even being extraordinarily careful, we slipped and slid but, fortunately, no-one was hurt.

 We also had 3 incidents where large trees/tree limbs crashed down on our power lines. In two of the incidents, the huge crashes also broke our power poles. In our area the utility company does not deal with ‘customer-owned power poles’. We had to have a company replace the poles and hang the lines back up. Fortunately for us, the company we use is very quick to come and finish the work so we did not have to go for days w/o power in the middle of the winter.  Unfortunately for us, replacing the poles etc. was expensive. Replacing all the other lines-internet etc., took many days.

We have been short-staffed most of the winter due to vacations and the flu that caught all 3 of our caretakers. We will continue to be short-staffed until the middle of May.

The good news is that it is now spring here. Hallelujah! The leaves are just beginning to appear, the daffodils are starting their bloom and the grass is turning green. Spring is gorgeous here. It also is our most labor intensive time as we clean up the property, take down the deer fences and all the other jobs that we must do to get ready for our ‘on’ season. We have a work/ seva crew that meets every Saturday morning. The crew usually works outside, weather permitting, focusing on the shrine trail maintenance and our vegetable garden. If you would like to join us, we will welcome you! As you know, the maintenance here at the retreat is huge and we frankly need all the help we can get!

We are not open right now due to snow and ice on our internal roads, making walking and driving dangerous. If conditions improve in January we may re-open. We will post here when we re-open.

Saturday, October 5: 11am-4pm Durga Puja

We will be celebrating Navaratri on this day with a puja, homa fire and prasad meal in honor of the Goddess Durga. All are welcome to attend all or part of the celebration. If you wish to bring an offering, we would suggest that you bring flowers or desserts.

Thursday, October 31: 6pm-11pm Kali Puja

This is our elaborate annual celebration in honor of the Goddess Dakshina Kali. As always, it includes a full, many part worship, homa fire and prasad meal. All are welcome to attend all or part of this celebration. Suggested offerings: flowers, perfume,incense,jewelry, bath oil, desserts.

Note: We will not be giving tours Oct. 4-6 or Oct.30-Nov.2

This summer of 2024 we have had many more visitors than ever before. While we enjoy having visitors,  trying to accommodate all the requests has sometimes stretched our small staff to the limit. I am taking the opportunity to re-state the procedure for visiting Ridgely. Please read and follow:

Please plan your visit in advance. You need to schedule a visit with us either by phone or by email. Phone is better. (845) 687-4574 . Read on for instructions:

Overnight Vistors: All overnight visitors need to schedule at least 5 days in advance. We do not allow children under the age of 17 to stay overnight at the retreat. This is for insurance reasons and also because of our local health dept. classification. If you have children you can book a local hotel room and visit us as a day visitor.

Day Visitors: You need to schedule a visit at least 1 day in advance if you want a tour. We do not allow people to wander around our houses unguided as we also live in these houses. Ridgely is not like a museum where self-guided tours are possible. Our tour guides also have many other responsibilities here. If we tell you that a certain day or a certain time is not possible, instead of pleading or arguing, please try to find a mutually convenient time. Please do not get into your car and then call us, saying “We are coming”. WE WILL NOT GIVE TOURS TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT MADE A RESERVATION  ONE DAY OR MORE IN ADVANCE. WE WILL NOT GIVE TOURS TO PEOPLE WHO JUST SHOW UP W/O NOTICE.

Meditators and Walkers: If you are coming only to sit in our shrine room or to walk on our property, you do not need to let us know. The shrine is open from 6am to 7pm except Sunday, when it closes at 4pm. If you have not come to sit in our shrine before, please give us a call so we can give you a very brief orientation when you arrive. After that you don’t need to tell us when you come and go, If you are walking on our property, please do so only during daylight hours. Please observe the Private signs that mark our neighbor’s property. Be aware that we are located in an area where ticks are known to carry Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses and dress appropriately.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Pravrajika Gitaprana

We are happy to have these three swamis for another retreat here at Ridgely. Swami Sarvadevananda is the Head Minister of the Vedanta Society of So. Calif. Swami Tyagananda is the Head Minister of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Boston. Swami Atmajnanananda is the Resident Minister of the Vedanta Center of Greater Washington DC.

The topic for this retreat is not finalized yet. Here is the schedule:

June 11 7:30-8:30pm. Session 1

June 12 10:30-5pm. Sessions 2 and 3 (lunch included)

June 13 10-11am Session 4

All are welcome to attend all or part of this retreat. There are limited spaces available for overnight guests. If you wish to reserve an overnight stay please do so ASAP. These spaces will fill quickly.

Day attendees need to register as well. For the purpose of providing lunch, we need to know how many people will be present.

Swami Medhananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order currently posted at The Vedanta Society of Southern California. Many of you may know him through his books, INFINITE PATHS TO INFINITE REALITY and SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S VEDANTIC COSMOPOLITANISM. You might also be acquainted with his talks and classes posted on YouTube. We are happy that he has made the time to stop by Ridgely to give an in-person retreat.

To accommodate his schedule the retreat hours will be different than our usual weekend programs. Here is the schedule:

        Thursday April 25

         1pm Lunch

         2:30-4:30 Session 1

2:30-3:30: Talk: “Sri Ramakrishna’s Philosophy of Vijnana Vedanta”

3:30-4:30: Gospel class (“Is the world unreal?”)

         Friday April 26

         10:30-12:30 Session 2

10:30-11:30 am: Talk: “Service as Worship”

11:30-12:30 pm: Gospel class (The Problem of Evil and Suffering)

           1pm Lunch

As of March 11 all the overnight spaces have been filled. You can find accommodation at a local hotel and attend as a day visitor.

If you wish to attend as a day visitor, you also need to register.

Register by calling us (845)687-4574 or emailing gitaprana@ridgely.org

As Shuddhatmaprana, our usual cook for the retreats, will not be here during this time, we are looking for volunteers to bring lunch for 1 day. We expect about 25 people. Please contact Gitaprana if you would like to be of service in this way.

It appears to be Spring and that means Vivekananda Retreat will be open starting March 2. There may still be snow, but so far, we have had a basically snowless winter. If you wish to visit Ridgely for a day/tour, please call to make arrangements at least 2 days in advance. It is not possible to take your own tour. We live in the houses where you will be visiting and so it is necessary to you to be accompanied by one of us. The tours we give usually last about 2 hours. There is much to see and many stories connected with this place associated with Swami Vivekananda! You can also schedule an overnight stay. Call or email us to schedule overnight stays at least 5 days in advance. Please note: we do not allow children under the age of 17 to stay overnight at the retreat. Also, we are still requiring all overnight guests to take a home Covid test before arriving. This is to protect the resident staff and other guests.

Ridgely is meant to be a place of retreat and reflection. For that reason, we deliberately do not have many daily activities. Each guest is free to structure their retreat as they see fit. Meals are prepared by the guests in the communal kitchen of each retreat house. Caretakers are there to assist if they are free.

We have morning and evening group meditations from 6-7am and 6-7pm. The shrine room is open all day from 6am-7pm. Anyone may use the shrine to meditate during those hours. We have quite a few local people who drop in to meditate whenever they are free. 

Weekly events:

Ridgely sponsors 2 zoom classes each week

Wednesdays at 5:30pm.  Gitaprana’s Shakta Advaita class

Sundays at 5:30pm  Ask the Sisters sessions. The sisters from Calif. and Ridgely answer questions asked via email from the class attendees. The sisters do not know what the questions are in advance so these sessions are very spontaneous.

To receive the Zoom links for these classes please email Gitaprana.   gitaprana@ridgely.org

We also have a class here at the retreat on Sundays at 10:30am. Currently we are studying the Bhagavad Gita in depth.

From about April to November we try to schedule 1 organized weekend retreat featuring a guests speaker-usually one of the swamis or sisters from the Vedanta Societies around the US. We are currently working on that schedule.

Ridgely has 82 acres of forest and field. Anyone may walk on our property, along our shrine trail, during daylight hours. You don’t need to tell us that you are coming to walk. You do need to be aware that we live in an area where ticks causing Lyme Disease are present, so dress appropriately.

Volunteering at Ridgely

Spring means we are beginning our outside property maintenance. There is always much to be done. We have many long flower and shrub borders that require weeding. We have a big organic vegetable garden that needs to be maintained. This year we need to do some work on our shrine trail, fixing drainage and cutting back invasive vines.

We also have many small painting projects both inside and outside of all 3 houses.

We would love some help. If you would like to volunteer, please email or call us. Last year we designated Saturdays as work days, but it rained practically every Saturday. This year we may set 2 days per month beginning in April for group work days.

The retreat always closes during the winter when snow and ice make moving around on our property dangerous..  We will reopen when we know the weather conditions are going to be consistently good. That usually means March. Please check back at a later date.  A reminder:even when the retreat is open, you need to call or email us to schedule a visit. See you when we reopen!