COURSES ON SPIRITUALITY
The Bhagavad-Gita is not just a 5,000-year-old timeless classic but a practical guide to living a life of genuine purpose and authentic connection (dharma). Spoken on a battlefield before the onset of a world war, the Gita sheds light on the complexity of the ego and the myriad ways it bars us from achieving our full potential. Within the succinct 700-verse dialogue, the speaker, Krsna, coaches the protagonist, Arjuna, through his insecurities and indecision toward personal transformation into a clear, compassionate, and highly effective general with extraordinary meaning to his life in the face of the war.
The Call to Awaken - A Journey into the Bhagavad-Gita (Introductory Course)
January - December 2023
We began Upbuild in 2008 exclusively teaching this course in our monastery. It is the foundation for all that we do to this day and it’s very close to our hearts. Tailored specially for those seeking answers to the deepest questions of life and wanting to be spiritual practitioners in our modern society, The Call to Awaken brings home the universal nature of the Bhagavad-Gita’s timeless concepts. Clips from cinema, television, and recording artists, as well as quotations from contemporary scientists and ancient philosophers, in addition to personal anecdotes and metaphors, all weave together into the layered fabric of every presentation.
Remembering Who We Are
Every Wednesday, 12-12:45pm ET
Our sincere desire at Upbuild is to offer a space for us to be able to come together in community and draw upon a deeper spiritual perspective. We will begin each session with a short reading (an excerpt from a book, a poem, a verse from a spiritual text, etc), and we will use the rest of the time to discuss the meaning of the reading and how we might apply it to our lives. The sessions are meant to give us a forum to (virtually) love and support one another, and fill ourselves with spiritual sanga (association).
Gita Sanga
Dates TBA
Sanga in Sanskrit means to come together for spiritual association and discussion to broaden our perspectives and to uplift our consciousness. The main objective of Gita Sanga is to create a weekly sacred space for strong spirit of ongoing community, where we journey together towards self-discovery using the universal wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita as our guide. We will take the basic concepts of the Gita that we have learned thus far, and begin to further unpack the underlying details and applications by direct engagement with the text.
Prerequisite: The Call to Awaken or Gita Sutras
The Call to Awaken - Small Groups
March - May 2024
In The Call to Awaken, we explored, in brief, the core themes of The Bhagavad-Gita and tried on bite-size applications of these. It was a lot of ground to cover with so many new ideas and paradigms that clash with our existing world-view, and raise many, many questions. Looking forward, we want to create the space for greater understanding and assimilation of these concepts into our daily life – a space where these theoretical constructs become deep frameworks that help navigate the complex interaction of matter and spirit with clarity, determination and faith.
Remembering Who We Are
Krsnanandini Devi, a dear spiritual mentor to Hari Prasada, shares her realizations on living as the soul and not the body, at a critical time in her life battling severe illness.