Vedanta Societies refer to organizations, groups, or societies formed for the study, practice, and propagation of Vedanta, the culmination of Vedas. More specifically, they "comprise the American arm of the Indian Ramakrishna movement" [1] and refer to branches of the Ramakrishna Order located outside India. [2]
Carl Jackson in his book Vedanta for the West stated that "Vedanta came to America in the form of Vedanta societies", [1] starting with the appearance of Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and his founding of the New York Society in 1894. [3]
Branches of the Ramakrishna Order located outside India are under the spiritual guidance of the Ramakrishna Order. [4] [5] The work of the Vedanta Societies in the west has primarily been devoted to spiritual and pastoral activities, though many of them do some form of social service. Many of the Western Vedanta societies have resident monks, and several centers have resident nuns. [4] The first Vedanta Society outside India was founded by the Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda in New York in November 1894. [6] [7] In 1900, on Swami Vivekananda's second trip to the west, he established the San Francisco Center. [8] Other direct disciples of Ramakrishna who came with Vivekananda to America include Swamis Turiyananda, Saradananda, Trigunatitananda, and Abhedananda.
In the 1940s and 1950s, many of the leading intellectuals and authors were attracted to various Vedanta Societies in the US: Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard, and Christopher Isherwood were initiated by Swami Prabhavananda at the Vedanta Society of Southern California, [9] Huston Smith studied under Swami Satprakashananda at the Vedanta Society of St. Louis, [10] and J.D. Salinger and Joseph Campbell studied under Swami Nikhilananda at the Eastside New York Vedanta Society. [1]
Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Vedanta movement in the West, came to the United States to represent Hinduism at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he gave his celebrated greeting to the audience, "Sisters and Brothers of America!". [11] [12] Following his success at the Parliament, he spent two years lecturing in various parts of eastern and central United States, appearing chiefly in Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and New York. For two months, starting in June 1895, he conducted private lectures to a dozen of his disciples at Thousand Island Park. [13]
The first Vedanta Society, the Vedanta Society of New York, was founded by Swami Vivekananda in November 1894 on his first trip to the West. [5] [14] In 1897 Vivekananda sent Swami Abhedananda to lead the organization. [7] On Vivekananda's second trip to the west he founded the Vedanta Society of Northern California in San Francisco. [15] Vivekananda spent three months in the Bay Area teaching Vedanta and attracting serious students. Before returning to India he told his followers he was sending Swami Turiyananda, "I have lectured to you on Vedanta; in Turiyananda you will see Vedanta personified. He lives it every moment of his life. He is the ideal Hindu monk, and he will help you all to live pure and holy lives." [16]
After Swami Vivekananda's celebrated appearance at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, [12] [3] he went on a speaking tour of the mid-west and east coast of the United States. [17] While in New York, he founded the first Vedanta Society in 1894. [18] [6] The pattern set by the New York Society has been carried forward with later centers, with a spiritual head from the Ramakrishna Order, and board of directors or trustees for managing the business of the center, for the education and ministering of the lay devotees, often referred to as students of Vedanta. [19]
In 1895, Vivekananda broke off his speaking tour and held a 6-week retreat at Thousand Island Park, NY to train and initiate his first disciples, who would carry on the work after he returned to India. [19] In 1897, Swami Abhedananda came from India to take over the work in New York, and for the first two decades of the 20th Century was the "...best-known Asian religious teacher in the United States". [20] In 1921, the current location of the Society was able to be purchased through a gift by Miss Mary Morton, who was the daughter of the ex-Governor of New York, at 34 West Seventy First Street. [21] Notable swamis who were the head of the NY Center include, Swami Paramananda, Swami Bodhananda (1906–1950), Swami Pavitrananada (1951–1977), Swami Tathagatananda (1977–2016), and the current head of Center is Swami Sarvapriyananda.
On Swami Vivekananda's second trip to the United States, in 1900, he founded the Vedanta Society of San Francisco [8] and called for a fellow direct disciple of Ramakrishna, Swami Trigunatitananda, to take charge of the center. It was under Trigunatitananda that was advertised as, "the first Hindu Temple in the Whole Western World". [22] The unique architecture of the Hindu temple served an active role in the cultural contact. [23]
The temple survived the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, [22] [24] but in 1914, a "demented follower had exploded a homemade bomb in the Hindu temple, fatally injuring Trigunatita". [25] There was a series of swamis in charge until Swami Ashokananda took over in 1932 and continued until his death in 1969. [26] During Ashokananda's time he greatly expanded the Northern California center to include a huge retreat in Olema, Marin Country, CA, a temple in Berkeley, CA, a temple in Sacramento, a convent in San Francisco, and another convent in San Rafael, CA. In 1959 he dedicated a greatly expanded "New Temple" at Fillmore and Vallejo. [27]
The Vedanta Society of Southern California was founded by Swami Prabhavananda in 1930, [28] originally located in the home of a disciple, [29] that became the future Hollywood Vedanta Temple. [30] The society struggled in the early years, but by the late 1930s, the Swami started to attract notable authors and intellectuals, [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] who were curious about the ancient Vedanta philosophy, and wanted to hear more from an adept. [31] In 1938 a formal temple was built on the former rose garden of the home. By the early 1950s Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, and Gerald Heard had joined the editorial board of the Society's journal, Vedanta In the West. [36] The Swami established Vedanta Press, [37] which oversaw the publication of books that would become standard textbooks for college-level courses, including The Spiritual Heritage of India and the Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God, translated by the Swami and Christopher Isherwood, with an introduction by Aldous Huxley. The translation was hailed as a literary translation, rather than literal. Time Magazine reported the book is a "distinguished literary work... simpler and freer than other English Translations". [38]
In the early 1940s, Gerald Heard decided to establish his own monastery in Trabuco Canyon, [31] [39] in Orange County, Southern California, to practice intense spiritual exercises with a strict and physically demanding schedule, feeling that Prabhavananda was too lax. Aldous Huxley spent six weeks there working on his Perennial Philosophy . However, there were not enough followers to support the effort, so in 1949 he donated the entire property, buildings and furnishing to the Vedanta Society of Southern California, [40] which became the Ramakrishna Monastery.
Prabhavananda was head of the center until his death on July 4, 1976. Swami Swahananda, who had been the head of the Berkeley Society took over [32] and was head of the center until his death in 2010. Swami Sarvadevananda continues as the spiritual leader to the present. [41]
Ramakrishna Monastery, Trabuco Canyon
Vedanta Temple and Sarada Convent in Santa Barbara
Vedanta Center of Greater Washington DC, Maryland
The Center was established in April 1997 as an extension of the Vedanta Society of Southern California under the leadership of Swami Swahananda and spiritual guidance of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, with headquarters at Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal, India. [42]
The head of the center, is Swami Sarvadevananda, minister of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Swami Swahananda was the founding minister of the center, and was its head from 1997 to 2012. Three monks of the order: Swamis Atmajnanananda, Brahmarupananda, Chidbrahmananda and Brahmacharya Kumar are in residence.
Swami Atmajnanananda, currently the resident minister at the Vedanta Center of Greater Washington, DC, in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. [43] He is a scholar in Indian philosophy and traveled extensively throughout India and Bangladesh; contributed various articles and translations to some of the books and magazines of the Ramkrishna order. One of his articles was published in Living Wisdom: Vedanta in the West. He also authored Jiva Gosvamin's Tattvasandarbha: A Study on the Philosophical and Sectarian Development of the Gaudiya Vaisnava Movement, published by Motilal Banarsidass in 1986 under his pre-monastic name. [44]
Swami Atmajnanananda was a significant critic of Jeffrey Kripal's book Kali's Child.
The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center located on the upper East Side of Manhattan Island was founded in 1933 by Swami Nikhilananda, when he and a group of followers broke off from the Vedanta Society of New York, while still maintaining its affiliation with the Ramakrishna Order in India.
The center has a main temple and monastery in New York City and a retreat property at Thousand Island Park on the Hudson, where Swami Vivekananda stayed for 7 weeks in the summer of 1895. Swami Nikhilananda produced some of the most important English translations of Vedanta scripture and literature including, The Gospel of Ramakrishna. Notable students of the Swami include Joseph Campbell (who helped edit the Gospel) [45] and J.D. Salinger, [46] who began his association with the Swami shortly after returning from WWII.
After Nikhilananda's death in 1973, Swami Adiswarananda took over, until his death in 2007. Currently, Swami Yuktatmananda heads the center.
The St. Louis Vedanta Society was founded by Swami Satprakashananda (1888–1979) in 1938. [47] The Swami was a monk of the Ramakrishna Order and a disciple of Swami Brahmananda (considered to be the spiritual son of Ramakrishna) and first president of the Ramakrishna Order. [48] The swami was a sought-after scholar and wrote several books on Vedanta. He was recommended by Aldous Huxley to a young Huston Smith who was moving to St. Louis in 1947, as someone who could teach Vedanta Philosophy in depth. [10] [49] Huston Smith took weekly tutorial sessions with the Swami for a decade, which became the foundation of the course, the TV Series and Book, all titled, The Religions of Man. [50]
When the Society wanted to buy a building in a prominent and prestigious Church Row neighborhood in St. Louis, the swami was denied, as he had "brown skin", [51] so Huston Smith and his wife Kendra bought the property and then turned it over to the society.
Swami Chetanananda was the assistant minister under Swami Prabhavananda at the Vedanta Society of Southern California from 1971 to 1979. As Satprakashananda's health declined, Chetanananda was assigned to St. Louis as the assistant there. [51]
After Satprakashananda died, Swami Chetanananda became the head of the center, and continues in that role to today. Chetanananda continued the St. Louis Center's tradition of writing and translating important books on Vedanta and the early founders of the Ramakrishna Order. Chetanananda is, "One of the movement's most scholarly swamis". [52]
Chetanananda's books include the teachings of the Ramakrishna Order's most important leaders, as well as biographies of many of the Direct Disciples of Ramakrishna:
The Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston was founded in 1909, and is one of the oldest Vedanta Society in North America. It is a branch of Ramakrishna Order founded by Swami Vivekananda. [57]
Swami Paramananda founded the Vedanta center in Boston in 1909. In 1941 Swami Akhilananda moved it to its present location at 58 Deerfield Street, Boston, MA. After Akhilananda died in 1962, Swami Sarvagatananda led the Vedanta Society for forty years until his formal retirement in 2002. [58]
Swami Tyagananda became the head of the Society in 2002, after the retirement of Swami Sarvagatananda. He also serves as the chaplain for MIT and Harvard University. [59] The Society provides spiritual seekers and students from local colleges and universities, participates in interfaith gatherings and promotes coexistence of the various religious traditions of the world. [60] [61]
An early attempt to start a Portland Vedanta study group in 1925 was initiated by Swami Prabhavananda, who had been the assistant in the San Francisco Center, but the group disbanded when Prabhavananda went on to establish the Vedanta Society of Southern California in 1930. [32] Swami Devatmananda established a permanent Center in 1932 and acquired the large retreat property 20 miles outside of Portland. Swami Aseshananda, who had been the assistant minister under Swami Prabhavananda in Hollywood, took over in 1955 and remained in charge until his death in 1996. In Aseshananda's later years, in his 90s, he was the most senior monk in the Ramakrishna Order and the last living monastic disciple of Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna. [62]
The term "Vedanta Society" generally refers to branches of the Ramakrishna Order. Other societies, groups, organizations, and institutes which are aligned with this mission and goal of teaching Vedanta include the following, but are not limited to:
Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include Goodbye to Berlin (1939), a semi-autobiographical novel which inspired the musical Cabaret (1966); A Single Man (1964), adapted into a film directed by Tom Ford in 2009; and Christopher and His Kind (1976), a memoir which "carried him into the heart of the Gay Liberation movement".
Ramakrishna, also called Ramakrishna Paramahansa, born RamakrishnaChattopadhay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. He was a devotee of the goddess Kali, but adhered to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as Christianity and Islam. He advocated the essential unity of religions and proclaimed that world religions are "so many paths to reach one and the same goal". His parable-based teachings espoused the ultimate unity of diverse religions as being means to enable the realization of the same God. He is regarded by his followers as an avatar.
Swami Prabhavananda was an Indian philosopher, monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and religious teacher. He moved to America in 1923 to take up the role of assistant minister in the San Francisco Vedanta Society. In 1928 he was the minister of a small group in Portland, OR, but in 1930 he founded the Vedanta Society of Southern California. The Swami spent the rest of his life there, writing and collaborating with some of the most distinguished authors and intellectuals of the time, including Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, and Gerald Heard.
Sri Sarada Devi, born Kshemankari / Thakurmani / Saradamani Mukhopadhyay, was the wife and spiritual consort of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a nineteenth-century Hindu mystic. Sarada Devi is also reverentially addressed as the Holy Mother by the followers of the Sri Ramakrishna monastic order. The Sri Sarada Math and Ramakrishna Sarada Mission situated at Dakshineshwar is based on the ideals and life of Sarada Devi. She played an important role in the growth of the Ramakrishna Movement.
Swami Nikhilananda (1895–1973), born Dinesh Chandra Das Gupta was a direct disciple of Sri Sarada Devi. In 1933, he founded the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York, a branch of Ramakrishna Mission, and remained its head until his death in 1973. An accomplished writer and thinker, Nikhilananda's greatest contribution was the translation of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita from Bengali into English, published under the title The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942).
Mahendranath Gupta, , was a disciple of Ramakrishna and a mystic himself. He was the author of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, a Bengali classic; in English, it is known as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He was also an early teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda, a famous 20th-century yogi, guru and philosopher. In his autobiography, Yogananda noted that Gupta ran a small boys' high school in Kolkata, and he recounted their visits, as they often traveled to the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple together. Having a devotional nature, Gupta worshipped the Divine Mother in the form of Kali, and often reflected the wisdom of his guru Ramakrishna in his daily life and mannerisms. Yogananda reverentially regarded Gupta's spirituality, calling him an "Incarnation of purity" and "the greatest man of humility I ever knew."
Girish Chandra Ghosh was a Bengali actor, director, and writer. He was largely responsible for the golden age of Bengali theatre. He cofounded the Great National Theatre, the first Bengali professional theatre company in 1872, wrote nearly 40 plays and acted and directed many more, and later in life became a noted householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is an English translation of the Bengali religious text Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita by Swami Nikhilananda. The text records conversations of Ramakrishna with his disciples, devotees and visitors, recorded by Mahendranath Gupta, who wrote the book under the pseudonym of "M." The first edition was published in 1942.
Vedanta Press is the publishing wing of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded in 1930 by Swami Prabhavananda. It publishes a number of important books in Indian philosophy and the Vedanta tradition, both original works and translations of Sanskrit scriptures. Vedanta Press published collaborations, original articles, and books by leading intellectuals of the 1940s to the present, including Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Fredrick Manchester, among others.
Pavhari Baba (1798–1898) was a Hindu ascetic and saint. He was born in Premapur, Jaunpur in a Brahmin family. In his childhood he went to Ghazipur to study under the tutelage of his uncle who was a follower of Ramanuja or Shri sect. After finishing his studies he travelled to many places. At Girnar in Kathiawar he was initiated into Yoga.
Swami Abhedananda, born Kaliprasad Chandra, was a direct disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of Ramakrishna Vedanta Math. Swami Vivekananda sent him to the West to head the Vedanta Society of New York in 1897, and spread the message of Vedanta, a theme on which he authored several books through his life, and subsequently founded the Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, in Calcutta and Darjeeling.
Who Are We? is a 1955 recording of Aldous Huxley giving a lecture at the Vedanta Society of Southern California's Hollywood temple. The lecture was originally recorded on a wire recorder and digitally transferred to CD. Huxley was a student of Swami Prabhavananda, who founded the Society. Along with Christopher Isherwood and other notable disciples of the Swami, Huxley would occasionally give lectures at the society's temples in Hollywood and Santa Barbara.
Vedanta Society of New York (VSNY) was the first Vedanta Society founded by the Indian Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda in New York in November 1894. In 1897, Swami Abhedananda, another disciple of Ramakrishna, came to the United States and took charge of the society. He was the president of the society until 1921. The Vedanta Society is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Math religious monastic order and the Ramakrishna Mission.
The relationship between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda began in November 1881, when they met at the house of Surendra Nath Mitra. Ramakrishna asked Narendranath to sing. Impressed by his singing talent, he invited him to Dakshineswar. Narendra accepted the invitation, and the meeting proved to be a turning point in the life of Narendranath. Initially Narendra did not accept Ramakrishna as his master and found him to be a "mono maniac", but eventually he became one of the closest people in his life. Ramakrishna reportedly shaped the personality of Narendranath and prepared him to dedicate his life to serve humanity. After the death of Ramakrishna, Narendra and his other monastic disciples established their first monastery at Baranagar.
Golap Ma was a direct householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, the 19th-century mystic and saint, and a foremost companion of Sri Sarada Devi, his spiritual consort and the Holy Mother of Ramakrishna Order, along with her other companion, Yogin Ma. Her real name was Annapurna Devi, or Golap Sundari Devi. She was also referred to as a "grief-stricken Brahmani" in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. She played a very important role in the early development of the Sri Ramakrishna movement and stayed, until her death, in Udbodhan, the house where the Holy Mother stayed in Calcutta. She was popular as Golap Ma among the devotees of the Ramakrishna Order.
Swami Prakashananda (1874–1927) was a monastic disciple of Vivekananda and a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who played a major role in propagating and promoting the Vedanta philosophy and Vivekananda's message in India and America. He came to the US in 1906 to serve under Trigunatitananda, a direct disciple of Ramakrishna at the Vedanta Society of San Francisco, later renamed as Vedanta Society of Northern California, and later became its president.
Built and dedicated in 1956, the Santa Barbara Vedanta Temple is located on a 45-acre (18 ha) property situated between the foothills above the City of Santa Barbara and below the peaks of the Santa Ynez Mountains. The temple has a clear view overlooking the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands of California.
Swami Vidyatmananda was born John Yale. He studied under Swami Prabhavananda at the Vedanta Society of Southern California and was ordained as a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission in 1964. He traveled to India and recorded his impressions in the book, A Yankee and the Swamis: A Westerner's View of the Ramakrishna Order. He also edited the journal Vedanta and the West and compiled a selection of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda in What Religion Is: In the Words of Swami Vivekananda which contains an introduction by Christopher Isherwood. He was an assistant to Swami Ritajananda at the Centre védantique Ramakrishna in Gretz, France, where he served as the center's manager until his death on March 22, 2000, at the age of 86. He edited the magazine Vedanta and the West and corresponded with many Western intellectuals including Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Walter de la Mare, E. M. Forster, and Gerald Heard. His autobiography The Making of a Devotee reveals his spiritual evolution.
The monastery was originally developed in 1942 during WWII by Gerald Heard, a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda of the Vedanta Society of Southern California an American branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India. Established as Trabuco College, it was originally meant to be a religious, non-sectarian, co-ed monastery, unaffiliated with any particular religious organization. Aldous Huxley, a close friend of Heard, spent 6 weeks there working on his book The Perennial Philosophy.
Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God is the title of the Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood's translation of the Bhagavad Gītā, an important Hindu scripture. It was first published in 1944 with an Introduction by Aldous Huxley. This translation is unusual in that it is a collaboration between a world-renowned English language author and an adept in Vedanta Philosophy and Hindu scripture. With this translation, "...the very purpose of life in Hindu terms becomes luminously clear." The 2023 edition includes the standardized verse markings that were left out from the original, published in 1944.