Online Pentecost Retreat - May 2024
Information & Registration
Spiritual Awakening and Non-duality
with Swami Atmananda Udasin
17 – 20 May 2024
Live Online Broadcast
from L’Arche de Saint-Antoine (France)
Dates
Introduction on Friday 17 May at 8:30 p.m. (CET – Paris, Madrid, Rome)
Check the time of the event in your time zone here.
Retreat from Saturday 18 May at 7:30 a.m. to Monday 20 May at 12:30 p.m. (CET – Paris, Madrid, Rome)
Check the time of the event in your time zone here.
In-presence and online event (on Zoom), given in :
French
With simultaneous translation into :
English
Presentation
Our Pentecost Retreat at l’Arche de Saint-Antoine (France) will be held simultaneously in-presence and online. It is organized and coordinated by the association Les Amis d’Ajatananda Ashram. About 100 participants are expected on site and, as last year, many participants will join virtually.
Swami Atmananda proposes to deepen some of the major themes of the Advaita Vedanta tradition from the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and to approach the nature of Spiritual Awakening.
This Retreat, held during the Pentecost weekend, offers a powerful moment of integration between teachings and practice. During this privileged time, we are invited to cultivate silence and contemplation.
During the Satsangs, Swamiji will comment on Sri Laxmana Sharma’s masterpiece, The Supreme Science as Taught by Sri Ramana Maharshi, one of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s closest disciples. The commentary will be followed by question-and-answer sessions. Priority will be given to questions from participants on site. However, one out of four questions will be taken from the online participants. For that, you will be able to write it in the Zoom chat box. If selected, you will be able to ask your question orally directly to Swamiji.
The Retreat will also include each day two 30-min meditations introduced by Swami Atmananda, as well as a mindful walk (not broadcast on Zoom) and a mindfulness yoga session (optional). See programme details below.
Swami Atmananda invites you to experience this online retreat fully, as if you were there with the participants. It is therefore essential that you put yourself in the right conditions for a time of retreat, by arranging the necessary time and space in your home to encourage recollection and the observation of Noble Silence, which is an essential dimension of it.
It is important that you are determined to follow this retreat in its entirety as if you were there, in order to benefit from the Energy and Grace that naturally emanate from such a gathering.
Swami Atmananda Udasin is the Spiritual Head of the Ajatananda Ashram, an interreligious ashram located on the banks of the Ganges in the foothills of the Himalayas in Rishikesh, North India. After studying comparative religions and a long spiritual search, he met his master Sri Chandra Swami Udasin in India in 1990. He was then called to a hermit’s life for about 10 years. Since 1997, he has lived in India where he has been teaching since 2012, the Direct Path of Non-Duality in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta and offers satsangs and retreats in India and abroad.
Practical Information and Online Etiquette
The day before the Retreat, you will receive an email with additional information, including a link to join the online sessions (Zoom platform) and the text which will be commented on during the Satsangs with Swami Atmananda. We suggest that you consult it on another device (smartphone, tablet, etc.) during the sessions.
PLEASE NOTE: We remind you of the online etiquette guidelines recommended by Swamiji. These are an essential condition for taking part in the online Retreat in order to avoid anonymity: please keep your camera activated and display your first and last name as a username during each meeting, as a sign of full participation. Indeed, a visible and personal participation in a spiritual retreat contributes to create an atmosphere of fraternal communion, favourable to feel the link that inhabits and connects us all.
In order to be in the line of the authentic Indian tradition of Satsang and to be in the synergy of the Retreat, it is therefore important to really engage in transparent participation, whether physical or virtual, unlike other more impersonal types of online meetings such as technical training seminars, etc.
People who prefer not to display their name or keep their webcam off will therefore not be allowed to take part in this retreat. From a technical point of view, please ensure that your webcam is working properly before registering for the online programme. Thank you for your kind understanding.
Detailed Programme
(NB: Activities broadcast online are indicated by the word Zoom)
Friday 17 May
| 8:30 p.m. | Introductory Talk Zoom |
Please connect at 8:10 p.m. Special announcements will be given before the room announcements.
Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 May
| 6:15 a.m. | Conscious walk (45 min., in silence) |
| 7:30 a.m. | Meditation (30 min.) Zoom |
| 8:15 a.m. | Breakfast (in silence) |
| 9:30 a.m. | Kirtan Zoom |
| 10:00 a.m. | Talk – Questions & Answers Zoom |
| 12:25 p.m. | Lunch (in silence) |
| 3:00 p.m. | Mindfulness Yoga (optional) Zoom |
| 3:45 p.m. | Kirtan Zoom |
| 4:15 p.m. | Talk – Questions & Answers Zoom |
| 5:45 p.m. | Silent Break (teas, drinks) |
| 6:00 p.m. | Meditation (30 min.) Zoom |
| 7:00 p.m. | Evening meal (in silence) |
Monday 20 May
| 6:15 a.m. | Mindfulness walk (45 min., in silence) |
| 7:30 a.m. | Meditation (30 min.) Zoom |
| 8:15 a.m. | Breakfast (in silence) |
| 9:30 a.m. | Kirtan Zoom |
| 10:00 a.m. | Talk – Questions & Answers Zoom |
| 12:25 a.m. | Lunch (in silence) |
| 2:30 p.m. | End of the Retreat |
Participation Fees
To help us meet the running costs and expenses related to this organization, an administrative fee (€25) will be requested to each participant. However, we do not want anyone to feel excluded for financial reasons: please do not hesitate to contact us by email in this regard.
Teaching
The teachings are offered on a conscious donation basis.
As a non-profit organisation, the Ajatananda Ashram depends solely on donations to cover all its expenses (daily living, maintenance of the Ashram, travel, accommodation, etc.).
If you feel inspired to help the Ashram promote its activities in the field of non-dual teaching and interreligious dialogue, you can do so by making an online donation to ‘Les Amis d’Ajatananda Ashram’, the France-based non-profit association which supports the Ashram in Europe (for more information about the association, please click here; page in French). All contributions are greatly appreciated and received with deep gratitude.
Details of how to send your donation will be emailed to you after the Retreat. Alternatively, you can also choose to donate at the time of your registration.