College of Vedic Studies Leicester

"When we sing the Damodarastakam during the month of Kartika, we are praying to Lord Damodara, who was bound by the ropes of love from His mother, Yasoda. This lila illustrates how Krishna, the all-powerful Supreme Lord, is bound by pure love, which is devoid of any personal desire. It shows that Krishna, though controlling everything, willingly becomes controlled by His devotee's love.

Mother Yasoda's attempt to bind Krishna is an expression of vatsalya-rasa, the parental love that allows her to see Krishna as her own child. This lila teaches that if we want to attain Krishna, we must approach Him with a heart like that of the Vrajavasis, the residents of Vrindavan, whose only desire is Krishna's happiness.

The two fingers that make the rope always short represent the devotee's sincere effort and Krishna's causeless mercy. Without both, Krishna cannot be attained. Damodara-lila embodies the secret that Krishna only gives Himself to those who love Him without any expectation of reward."

Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Goswami Maharaj

Accordingly to the Vedic lunar calendar, we are currently in the month of Kartik, which is one of the most auspicious months according to this calender. It started on 17/10/2024 and will finish on 15/11/2024🌝

Lord Krishna says: "Of all plants, the sacred Tulasi is most dear to me, of all months, Kartik is most dear of all places of pilgrimage, My beloved Dvaraka is most dear, and of all days, Ekadashi is most dear." (Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda 112.3)

During this month Lord Damodara (baby Krishna), is worshipped and remembered along with his Mother; Yashoda. Mother Yashoda once tried to bind Damodara with ropes of love around his stomach as a punishment for his mischievous childhood pastimes. Of course, as the Supreme lord, Damodara allowed this to happen! In fact, the name Damodara translates to "He who was bound (dama) around the abdomen (udara)".🥰

It signifies the boundless love between God and his devotees!💖

Remembering Lord Damodara during Kartik allows us the opportunity to meditate on the loving and approachable nature of the Supreme personality of God, inviting more surrender and devotion to our practice and worship.✨️

It is a special time to reflect and deepen our connection to Lord Krishna because every act of devotional service, charity or austerity carried out to please the Lord, magnifies the benefit 1000 times more than it would during any other time!

During Kartik, people specifically endeavour to offer a ghee lamp or a candle to Mother Yashoda and Damodara whilst remembering this loving pastime and listening to and singing the "Damodarastakam".🕯🪔

Our timelines have two days for certain: the day we take our first breath and the day we take our last.

✨The average person will be fortunate to have many years between each of the two days.

✨The very fortunate person will know why they're here and will be able to expend their remaining days wisely, whilst making the most of time here, in this human form.

The way the western world is structured can force the introspective individual into an identity crisis!

"WHO ARE WE?"🤯we ask. We're forced in the system from a young age where we firstly meet the education system. Most of youth is spent studying for a good job so we can maintain family life and provide for our loved ones. We work in hope for stability and a comfortable lifestyle once we've saved enough of what the taxman hasn't taken. The savings can buy happiness down the line, so we think; but we're forever chasing because we never have enough.

For what? None of what we chase will ever last! It's temporary, but we allow ourselves to be defined by the that. Even we're temporary!

We're temporary, but our spirit souls are not! ✨

The soul is within every living entity and has not yet been defined by modern-day science. It's a concept that's very difficult to comprehend.

Since the soul is imperceptible by our gross senses, the authoritative Vedic wisdom is the only means for understanding it. The Bhagavad-gita specifically contains the essence of the Vedas.

"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."
- Bhagavad Gita 2.13🕉

So what next? 🧐
The very fortunate person will come to learn why they are here. You can be that person, by signing up to our 5 week Bhagavad Gita course where ancient philosophy is made accessible to help you change your life.🗝️

***Sign up now for DISCOVER, September 2024 admissions!***

www.covsleicester.co.uk/

***DISCOVER SEPTEMBER 2024***

"Discover", is our foundation course on the Bhagavad Gita. Whether you’re a seeker or have found your spiritual path, Discover will enlighten your worldview with a philosophical framework.

With its five-subject insight on Vedic Scriptures, the course will offer perspective and clarity for life; whatever your vocation, profession or ambition.

Life allows us to be intrigued by the big questions:
Who are we?👽
Why are we here?🤔
Why do bad things happen to good people?🤯
What happens after death?🥀

Our fast paced, monotonous materialistic life leaves little time to fathom our deeper thoughts, what to speak of seeking answers.

Discover invites you to invest in 5 sessions and take a glimpse into the conversation between Sri Krishna and His intimate and perplexed friend, Arjuna.

Sign up by visiting the link in our Bio! There are limited spaces and booking is now OPEN for September 2024 intake ✅👏🏻🎉 5 easy sessions and a life changing experience...

We look forward to you joining us!

https://www.covsleicester.co.uk

Overcome your negativity!
Our values are important because they help us to grow and develop. They help us to create the future we want to experience. Every individual and every organisation is involved in making hundreds of decisions every day.
The decisions we make are a reflection of our values and beliefs, and they are always directed towards a specific purpose. That purpose is the satisfaction of our individual or collective (organisational) needs.

Join our Spiritual Psychology course and learn the ancient ways of building values that will help you grow as an individual and in your professional life.

Course Details
Facilitator: Santonu
Date: 4 consecutive Sundays, 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd May
Time: 10am-1pm
Location: Avanti Fields School, Colin Grundy Drive, LE5 1BX
Course fee: £20

Click on the link below to sign to Spiritual Psychology:

https://www.covsleicester.co.uk/spiritual-psychology

Can temporary become eternal?
Join Santonu on Friday 27th May from 7pm live on Instagram and understand if this process is possible.

New Workshop Alert!
Ayurveda for women - from puberty to menopause.

Calling all women on a transformative path of self-discovery and empowerment! 🌟 We're thrilled to announce the launch of our exclusive course designed to guide you through every stage of your journey—from puberty to menopause and beyond.

Embrace Your Feminine Essence: Throughout this holistic workshop, you'll embark on a profound exploration of your body, mind, and spirit. Learn to honour and celebrate your femininity in all its forms, cultivating a deep sense of self-love and acceptance along the way.

🌟 Join Us on this Empowering Journey: Whether you're a young woman embarking on your maiden voyage or a seasoned traveler navigating the currents of menopause, our course is designed to meet you wherever you are on your journey. Together, let's embrace the full spectrum of womanhood and unleash the power within! 💫

❇️ Date: Sunday 19th May
❇️ Time: 10am-12.15pm
❇️ Price: £15
❇️ Location: Avanti Fields School

Visit our website to book your spot

https://www.covsleicester.co.uk/ayurvedaforwomen

*CVS Easter Bank Holiday Retreat*

Saturday 30th March - Monday 1st April

Our retreat this year will be in the exclusive Nanpantan hall in Loughborough, and we will have access to all 32 acres of this beautiful, secluded and dreamy place to immerse ourselves in the practices of Bhakti yoga. Disconnect from your busy lives to reconnect with Krishna and what matters most.

-Life changing seminars
-Blissful kirtans
-Thought provoking exercises
-Spiritual friendships
-Walks in nature
-Fun activities
-Delicious prasadam
-Sacred morning programs
-Reflect, learn and grow
And so much more! If you have been to one of our sold out retreats before, you know we don't mess about.

This Easter instead of taking a holiday to escape from reality, we recommend retreating with us *back to reality!*

Please contact us for further inquiries. 42 places only, £215 a place, only 8 places left now. Don't miss out.

To find out more send a message to Sanatan Gopal das on 07737542958

There's so many ways that one could meditate to still the mind and gain peace in this often busy and loud world! If you're new to spirituality and looking inwards you may very well have heard of meditation and the many varieties of the practice! 🤯

With so much out there, it's often very difficult to know where to start! But mantra meditation is something you wouldn't want to overlook if you're trying to evolve some sort of spiritual practice!🕉️

By chanting sacred mantras, not only are you are engaging different chakras in the body, but you're also involving yourself in what can be described as a very liberating experience, especially when you consider the contrast of the stresses modern day living can cause! This type of meditation is a great way to tolerate the conditioning that is imposed by society and is a great way to unplug, even if it's just for 10 minutes a day! 📿🧘‍♀️

This glorious book by Sacinananda Swami is a great place to learn about mantra meditation and the ancient Vedic philosophy behind why it's a wonderful practice! 😃🦉

Attainment of love of the supreme? Whilst this may sound cryptic and somewhat esoteric, you can have the opportunity to decode this and incorporate it in your daily life!

If you're stuck for new years resolutions, why not resolve to raise your own vibrations and become a torch, a ray of light to those around you and become an embodiment of love?! Love of the most supreme kind, that is!

Permanent solutions to temporary feelings will never fix anything. Lack of motivation hits most of us at the best of times, and we go about life aimlessly! But that doesn't mean that there's no point in carrying on with each day, seemingly without the insight of purpose! 💨🏃🐎

We all want to be better for our own progession which can directly impact our nearest and dearest and uplift them, but sometimes we don't know where to start in this endeavor!

Yoga is a great place to start to help us gain quick insights and realisations! Our most popular, 5 week 'Discover' course is a great place to start and learn about yoga of the mind! 🧘‍♂️🧠

Give yourself the gift of knowledge and 'discover' true happiness and purpose by signing up to our life-changing, 5 week Bhagavad Gita "Discover" course.🔍

You will be guided through ancient teachings by our phenomenal teachers and armed with knowledge from over 5000 years ago, applicable to all of the situations life might throw at you!

Make the changes you need to by discovering the immense power you hold within and change the world for the better, by becoming a better version of yourself.🗝️

Perhaps this is the opportunity you've been looking for to attain the Ultimate goal of life: the attainment of love of the Supreme! ✨

Sign up for JANUARY 2024 using the link below:

https://www.covsleicester.co.uk/courses

You're worth it! 🌍🌎🌏

“This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it is joyfully performed.”
- Bhagavad Gita 9.2 🕉️

God Consciousness is a very universal and accessible term to individuals, especially in the western world. But when we really think about what God consciousness and who God is, the answers are often very vague and can encompass many different concepts.

Thus, we can then ask “Who is, and what does it mean to be the Supreme Personality of Godhead?”🤔

When seekers look for answers as per Sanatan Dharma (known as Hinduism in modern day), misconceptions are established, specifically that of polytheism!🤯

Polytheism is not the case as per Vedic tradition as there is only one Supreme Personality for God who can take many forms! ♾️

It’s very easy to be misguided when studying Vedic Scripture where individuals have been led to think that there are many God personalities, for example where: the demigods get mistaken for the God; the God is seen as indifferent to the demigods; or even normal individuals are being perceived as Gods themselves! There are distinct categories defining each personality which can’t be mixed!

So, who is God?

Things of this world are limited, but what is unlimited, is beyond this world. Our untrained perception and understanding of this world will only take us so far, so why not help yourself learn, grow and make a difference by signing up to our 5 week “Discover” course, where this question, along with other important questions will be answered.

We are taking on admissions for JANUARY 2024, when our next course will start, where you will be guided through the five topics of the Bhagavad Gita given by our exclusive teachers, helping you find the most confidential knowledge.

The themes include:

- SOUL (Jiva)
- LAWS OF ACTION (Karma)
- MATERIAL NATURE (Prakriti)
- TIME (Kala)
- GOD (Ishvara)

Sign up by visiting the link below!
🎉

https://www.covsleicester.co.uk/courses

"Time I am, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I have come here to destroy all people..."
- Bhagavad-Gita 11.32

If you're not so familiar with the Bhagavad-Gita, you may have still come across this line which Oppenheimer once famously quoted in 1945, on the detonation of the first atomic bomb. He knew that the world would never be the same again after that happened and remembered what Lord Krishna said to warrior Prince Arjuna, in that everything will one day be destroyed by time.

To give the verse the context as originally intended, Krishna was sharing philosophical wisdom to Arjuna when he was due to fight on the battlefield of Kuruksetra, over 5000 years ago! Arjuna was a warrior and it was his duty to fight to establish justice!

"Although Arjuna knew that Kṛṣṇa was his friend and the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he was puzzled by the various forms exhibited by Kṛṣṇa. Therefore he asked further about the actual mission of this devastating force. It is written in the Vedas that the Supreme Truth destroys everything...

This form of the Supreme Lord is the all-devouring giant, and here Kṛṣṇa presents Himself in that form of all-devouring time. Except for a few warriors, everyone who was present on that battlefield would be devoured by Him. Arjuna was not in favor of the fight, and he thought it was better not to fight; then there would be no frustration. In reply, the Lord is saying that even if he did not fight, every one of them would be destroyed, for that was His plan. If Arjuna stopped fighting, they would die in another way. Death could not be checked, even if he did not fight. In fact, they were already dead. Time is destruction, and all manifestations are to be vanquished by the desire of the Supreme Lord. That is the law of nature."

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/11/32/

Our time on this planet is very limited yet often, we find ourselves lost and looking for purpose. January marks the start of a new year which we often start enthusiastically by making meaningful resolutions but as the months pass, we ourselves get consumed by time!

To give your life the extra edge, start the new year with knowledge that will change the way you think!

Curious to see what the Bhagavad-Gita says on time, as well as other topics that tests us daily; and why so many people are connecting with the life changing philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita?

Become part of the crowd by signing up to our most popular 5 week 'Discover' course STARTING IN 8 DAYS and allow the ancient wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita to be made accessible to you in a practical and positively impactful way!

www.covsleicester.co.uk/courses

New year, new you? As well as being an exciting time for many, January can also be pretty daunting as it marks a new beginning and often forces the reflection and introspection of where we're at and what we want from life.

Here is a fantastic book that we are recommending as our book of the week, written by the wonderful !

Change is constant and we see it in the world everyday, but a good place to start is to see through the lens of spirituality! Here, there are many relatable examples of daily situations that have been expertly remedied with ancient and spiritual wisdom!🗺️🦉🧘‍♀️