Your Relationship with Yourself

Your Relationship with Yourself

Date:       Sunday 11th September 

Time:       10:00 AM – 5:00 PM UK time

Location: Bhakti Lounge, Bhaktivedanta Manor, Dharam Marg, Hilfield Lane, Watford, WD25 8HE

Course Description

We talk about our relationship with Krishna, Prabhupada, our gurus, and other devotees, but we never really talk about our relationship with ourselves. Yet, indeed we do have a relationship with ourselves. And few of us deeply explore it.  
 
What kind of relationship do you have with yourself, and how does that affect all your other relationships?   
The fact is that how we treat ourselves is how we treat others. When we are self-accepting, self-forgiving, and self-compassionate, we are more accepting, forgiving, and compassionate with others. When we are honest with ourselves, we are more honest with others. When we are tolerant of ourselves, we are tolerant of others. And when we are kind to ourselves, we are more kind to others. 
 
Do you show up as the person you love to be or the person you hate to be?   
  

• Do you ever compromise your principles? When you do this, you erode your integrity. 
• Do you ever do things that are detrimental to your spiritual life? According to Srila Prabhupada, when you do this, you act out of envy for your own self. 
• Do you ever make promises to yourself and then break them? When you do this, you betray and disrespect yourself. 
• Do you ever ignore a problem, pretending it doesn’t exist? When you do this, you deceive yourself. 
• Do you ever berate yourself or feel like a spiritual or material failure? When you do this, you fail to accept yourself as you are. 

  
Over the course of this Day Retreat, you will be asked to look at yourself in ways you have never done before and examine aspects of yourself you didn’t even know existed. You will confront realities about yourself that need attention but that you have never brought to light before. You will come to know your motives, fears, and your own consciousness in ways you have never before considered. 
 
These are some of the questions we will explore in the sessions of this Day Retreat: 

• Why would we ever do anything that harms us? 
• Why would we neglect to do anything that’s good for us? 
• What are we resisting and why? 
• Why are we afraid to confront the pain of our own failures? 
• Why are we lying to ourselves? 
• And how can we be more self-accepting and compassionate despite these issues?   

 
The Day Retreat will offer an immersive environment for this exploration in the association of like-minded devotees. The sessions consist of a series of exercises in which you will contemplate and discuss the above questions with a partner. Then the entire group will participate in a guided discussion on the realizations and questions that arose in the partner sharing. These discussions will take you further in your understanding as you get to hear from others and as Mahatma Prabhu facilitates deeper exploration and answers your questions. 
 
Mahatma Prabhu has personally done this kind of work on himself and facilitated workshops of this nature for over twenty years. He says that this workshop is unique in that it enables and empowers you to face “your stuff” in a gentle and supportive way, and then make changes in yourself that you desire.

Teacher Profile

Mahatma Das is an inspirational speaker, author, spiritual mentor, and initiating guru in ISKCON, serving the mission of his teacher A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada for over fifty years by bringing the knowledge of the ancient bhakti teachings out of the books and demonstrating its effectiveness in the modern life. 

Mahatma Das has developed and facilitated ground-breaking courses on Japa meditation, forgiveness, vows, self-compassion, and relationships, as well as hundreds of hours of workshops on such issues as humility, self-esteem, and spiritual by-passing, cooperation, and spiritual self-development for both, corporations and spiritual communities around the globe. He practically shows the many ways that Krishna consciousness offers solutions to today’s challenges and teaches in a way that addresses the social and psychological needs of the day. 

An author of three books “Living the Wisdom of Bhakti: Life as a Spiritual Practice”, “Japa Affirmations” and "Uplift Yourself and Change the World", Mahatma Das is also well known for his music, most notably his recording of the beautiful timeless prayers, the Brahma Samhita.
Mahatama Das, born in 1950 in Los Angeles, received the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, at the age of 19 and this book changed his life. Later that year, he personally met A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, the founder of the Hare Krishna movement. In 1970 he became a monk at the temple in Berkeley, California, and shortly after received his first and second spiritual initiation. 

He went on to do a variety of services including book distribution, temple presidency, college programs, congregational development, and various educational projects. This has culminated in the work he does today, developing courses, workshops, and books for both long-term practitioners and the general public through his company Sattva, which showcases the work he does and guides people to mould their whole life so that it becomes one sacred act of spiritual integration.

You can find out more about the work of Mahatma das on his website: https://mahatmadas.com/