Thursday Satsang – July 24, 2025
The speaker will join us in person at TMC
The talk will also be live-streamed via Zoom
“Thursday, July 24: “Meditations from the Upanishads” with Gary Gran, CYT, DAy.
Everyone is Welcome!
7:00-8:30 p.m. CT
5:30-6:45 p.m.: In-Person Gentle Yoga with Michael Snodgrass
7:00-7:30 p.m.: Guided Meditation with Gary Gran, CYT, DAy.
7:30-8:30 p.m.: “Meditations from the Upanishads” with Gary Gran, CYT, DAy.
8:30 p.m.: Evening Prayers
Gary Gran will talk about a seminar on the Upanishads that Swami Veda gave at the Glenview Center years ago.
On June 10, 1984, Swami Veda, then known as Dr. Usharbudh Arya, presented a workshop called “Meditations from the Upanishads” at the Himalayan Institute of Glenview in Glenview, Illinois. The room was packed.
Drawing primarily from the oldest Upanishads, the Brihadāranyaka and the Chāndogya, which date from at least the 15th century BC, Swami Veda explained that there are 33 major vidyas (sciences or meditations) contained in the Upanishads. The Upanishads, as part of the ancient Vedic tradition, are well known as philosophical texts. However, the meditative aspect of the tradition is lesser known, and the meditations themselves are only passed down from teacher to student. As Swami Veda explained: “there is a whole different tradition that is the initiatory tradition in which the internal meaning is experiential…the experience of internal presence. This experience of internal presence is called the path of Upasana, practicing the presence of God.”
Swami Veda then detailed and led the participants through several of the meditations, and taught us how to improve our daily meditation practice. He even provided a shortcut!
“The idea and the hope is that it will open a new way of looking at the world, a different perspective about the world in which you live, so that your life, your appreciation of the unitary aspects of this natural world, with the unity of the spirit within you, that becomes clearer; in one way or another, a little.” – Swami Veda~
During tonight’s satsang, we will share these universal teachings from personal notes taken during the workshop, along with some short readings from the Upanishads. Please join us as we ponder the unitary message of the Upanishadic tradition as presented by Swami Veda. All are welcome.
Gary Gran, CYT, DAy. was in attendance at the 1985 workshop and will be sharing theteachings from his personal notes. He and his wife Cynthia have been treading the Himalayan path since the late 1970s. They met at the old Glenview Center in Illinois and have served the tradition in various capacities over the years. They are both certified yoga teachers and Ayurvedic educators. They have published more than eighty articles on yoga, meditation and Ayurveda. They are currently wintering in Tucson, Arizona where they enjoy desert gardening, cooking and hiking.
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There is parking available for TMC visitors in the St. Boniface lot across the street from the Center.
