Bhaktivedanta Center • Woods Mill, VA / Bhakti Center • Charlottesville, VA
When trained runners perceive the finish line in the distance, they don’t slow down or decide that now is the time for a much-needed water break. Instead, they run even faster than they were running for the entirety of the race, only slowing down when they are well past the finish line. Athletes who finish strong typically needed to:
Walk into the Bhakti Center just minutes from the University of Virginia grounds and you’ll find yourself in a cozy, welcoming place that a growing number of people identify as their home away from home, a spiritual oasis.
On Sunday evenings a mixture of mostly students, a few faculty, and some local community members from all backgrounds fill the Center for kirtan, a practical talk based on the Bhagavad-gita, a free vegetarian dinner, and conversations about living a conscious life. For the students who attend, it is at once a spiritual retreat, a warm family-like environment, and space to talk about how to live consciously and deliberately in a world that increasingly encourages the opposite. The Center includes a comfortable lounge where guests can relax to chat, watch a spiritual video, or peruse the library and read.
The Bhakti Center is home to the Bhakti Yoga Club, an official UVA CIO for over 20 years. Scores of students have benefitted from the introduction to Bhakti Yoga philosophy and the supportive family atmosphere the directors and members foster.
Rides are available from Grounds, and everything is always free of charge.
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With school starting, you are beginning a new chapter in your life. And here at the university Mr. Jefferson built, there are hundreds of courses and organizations to provide you with the information you’ll need to get a good job or start a career. But, incredibly, there are few courses, if any, which help you understand who/what you are. So one might ask, “Where’s the ‘higher’ in higher education?” Shouldn’t these years also be spent cultivating a deeper understanding of life and learning how to mold an existence of meaning and purpose—maximizing our full potential?
“The first sutra reads athato brahma jijnasa. Athata means ‘now’ jijnasa means to inquire. ‘Now we shall inquire into the Absolute Truth, Brahman.’ So what does now mean?
“Now that you have studied the Vedas; now that you have performed your duties as a brahmachari; now that you are serious in acquiring this knowledge; now that you have understood that impersonal and personal are in harmonious relationship; now that you have understood the eternal constitutional position of the spirit soul; now that you are fortunae to have a good birth after passing through unlimited lifetimes as human, as animal, as plant, as demigod; now that you have come to this human for of life; now that you have come into contact with a bona fide spiritual master; now that you are not hankering for material piety, wealth, sense gratification, or birth in the higher planets; now that you have set aside all other inquiries, you can inquire into Brahman.”
He paused to say, “Just see how one word—now—can have so much meaning.”
Quoted from Blazing Sadhus by Achutananda das
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Each year of life brings opportunities to start fresh and do things better. Here are 3 simple bhakti practices that are worth considering – EAT, PRAY, LOVE. They are so simple that we might miss them, yet so profound that we would be foolish to do so. . . .