Saraswati Suktam

Course FAQ

  • Thursdays 6:30-7:30 am CST beginning September 18. Recordings only available during the course. Live attendance is strongly encouraged. No class on holidays.

  • Anyone who understands and is committed to personal practice, working with the group, and is okay being a student.

    A basic understanding of the rules of Veda is expected.

  • $360 one time fee (based on $25 per class rate).

What you’ll learn

  • Learning and receiving are part of one harmonious whole in this tradition. We’re learning more than ‘content’ when we study the Veda. We’re learning to listen to spiritual teachings. We’re ultimately learning to listen to our own soul.

    We maintain an exquisite balance between formality and sincerity as we go along, growing not just our skillset and expertise but our personal lives.

  • We learn to work with the six basic rules of Veda mantra, which provides a framework for learning the teachings within and behind the rules.

    This material is not available in any book. It does not exist as a university course or professional certification program. It lives between students and dedicated teachers.

  • While Veda recitation challenges us with precision, respecting how it is done, perfection of form, it’s soul transcends the form.

    The eternal and universal truth of a human soul overcoming all conceivable odds pours forth in a thousand rays of allegory and a single fire of personal transformation.

  • Respecting and supporting the individual as a whole person is intrinsic - and non-negotiable - part of this process. A teacher is skilled not merely in her own achievements or relationship to the authority of the texts, but her capacity to evoke the unique heart of the individual on her unique path toward spiritual fulfillment.

    I have never felt so seen and treasured as I have felt in working with skilled teachers - without that becoming unhealthy boundaries.

    Rather, teachers can see more in me than I believe myself capable of. They guide, correct, and have faith in me.

  • Saraswati governs intellect, cognition, learning processes, and the ability to grasp complex subjects.

    As we work with her, we are directly working with mind’s structure and mind’s function.

    Saraswati is traditionally revered as the patron of all craftspeople, mastery of fine arts, language and communication, and protector of education and students.

    She is the raw power of our human capacity to learn.

  • Re-iterating a Vedic theme that runs from the Veda to Vedanta and contemporary mindfulness, the power of Saraswati is not merely worldly understanding and fluency, but an illumination of the mind heart.

    It is this illumination that reveals the truth and counters dūkha.

  • Saraswati governs dhi (धी): intellect, understanding, or mind itself. The implication is of a depth knowing and verifiable understanding, all the functions of mind from perception through confusion to wisdom. Dhi can also mean imagination, mind, opinion, and the active processing of information by the intellect or articulating a truth in action, art, or language.

    This root is part of both the words ‘dhyana’ and ‘samadhi’, which are typically translated as ‘meditation’ and ‘enlightenment’. The first implies a going toward or redirecting from anything coarse, limited, vile or false toward that which is virtuous, healing, and true. The second is an acceptance of this truth to such a point that who we are is changed.

    Saraswati is what guides the mind heart. She beckons through curiosity, wonder, and even at times fear or sorrow. She provides the banks upon which the river of our life rolls. She provides inspiration, motivation, clarification, and at times humility.

    We’ll explore Saraswati’s power of guidance throughout the course and come to understand the power of ‘flow’.

  • Saraswati both purifies and is purity itself, as true things can make us more truthful.

    Purity is not a moral judgement, but process and a quality of potential, fulfillment, grace and completion.

  • Physical, social, and cognitive suffering can cloud or dull the capacities of mind, leading to brain fog, poor executive function, increases in pain and a tendency toward depressive or catastrophic thinking and feeling.

    Saraswati bathes and nourishes us.

  • From the very principle of ‘possibility’, through every stage of accomplishment and revision, to the absolute fulfillment of a human life, Saraswati is the force of art, taste, eloquence, beauty, and refinement. She is the heart of skill and the germ of potential.

Saraswati Suktam

An advanced study of the Veda perfect for those students who have come a long way and want to both commemorate the experience and preserve the integrity of their ongoing practice, the Saraswati Suktam is an elegant hymn for guidance, purification of our understanding, nourishing of the heart, and governence of memory, concentration, and learning processes. Beyond mere worldly understanding, this hymn acknowledges the potential for higher states of consciousness and the revelation of truth.

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Meet your instructor

✳

Meet your instructor ✳

KARIN

Karin has been authorized to transmit Veda recitation by her mentor, Shantala Sriramah. Working with Karin gives you the amazing opportunity to study within living lineage, according to tradition, without spiritual wishy-washy escapism or projection of harms. Real life is the ground for soul work: we can work with this beautiful and powerful tradition and meet ourselves where we are.