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Quietly, messages of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are offered across the US

K A Bhatt

While many new temples and religious societies get plenty of media attention, two of the oldest eastern religious societies in America, continue to work quietly, spreading the vision of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda. Through the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda centers in more than a dozen American states, these organizations offer meditation courses, vedantic discourses, books on the philosophy of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, and a slew of other activities.

The Vivekananda Foundation is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1985 in the state of California. The Foundation initiates and sponsors projects to make the teachings of Vivekananda accessible to the reading and listening public.

During the last 11 years, the foundation has supported the Prison Library Project with an annual gift of books, produced audio cassettes of readings from Vivekananda's lectures and his translation of the Raja Yoga, made audio cassettes available to the blind, compiled a book of selections from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda entitled Living at the Source, donated copies of the six-volume set, Swami Vivekananda in the West, by Marie Louise Burke, and provided copies of Living at the Source to public, college, and university libraries.

A free copy of Living at the Source may be requested by public, college, university, and seminary libraries, retreat centers, churches, and temples. Make your request in writing on the letterhead stationery of your institution and send it to the Vivekananda Foundation, PO Box 1351, Alameda, CA 94501, USA.

Though it came into existence many decades after Swami Vivekananda's visit to Chicago, the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York attracts hundreds of men and women each year who are seeking more knowledge about the Vedanta.

It was incorporated in 1933 as a non-profit religious organization under the laws of New York state. It maintains a temple in New York city and the summer cottage at Thousand Island Park, New York, in which Swami Vivekananda lived and taught in the summer of 1895.

Like the other branches in the United States, South America and Europe, the Center is a self-sustaining unit that looks to the Ramakrishna Order for spiritual guidance. Its minister, or Swami, is a monk of the order.

The Center bases its teachings on the System of Vedanta, which combines both the religion and philosophy of the Hindus, especially as explained by Sri Ramakrishna), his wife and spiritual companion Mother Sri Sarada Devi and his disciple Swami Vivekananda and demonstrated in their lives.

Vedanta teaches that every soul is potentially divine, and that its divinity may be manifested through worship, contemplation, unselfish work, and philosophical discrimination. According to Vedanta, Truth is universal and all humankind and all existence are one. It preaches the unity of the Godhead, or ultimate Reality, and accepts every faith as a valid means for its own followers to realize the Truth.

The Center seeks to stimulate the growth of the individual's innate spirituality through lectures, discourses, publications, and individual guidance. The disciplines the Center provides are suited to individual needs and temperaments. It does not deal with the occult or the sensational and offers no easy shortcuts.

Centers in the United States:

CALIFORNIA

Vedanta Society of Berkeley
2455 Bowditch St
Berkeley, CA 94704
510 / 848-8862

Vedanta Society of No California
2323 Vallejo St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
415 / 922-2323

Vedanta Retreat
PO Box 215
Olema, CA 94950
415 / 663-1258

Vedanta Society of Sacramento
1337 Mission Ave
Carmichael, CA 95608
916 / 489-5137

Vedanta Society of So. California
1946 Vedanta Place
Hollywood, CA 90068
213 / 465-7114

Santa Barbara Temple
927 Ladera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93108
805 / 969-2903

Ramakrishna Monastery
PO Box 408
Trabuco Canyon, CA 92678
714 / 858-0342

Ramakrishna Monastery
1440 Upas St
San Diego, CA 92103
619 / 291-9377

GEORGIA

Eternal Truth
302 Sycomore Drive
Decator, GA 30020

ILLINOIS

Vivekananda Vedanta Society
5423 South Hyde Park Blvd
Chicago, IL 60615
773 / 363-0027

MASSACHUSETTS

The Ramakrishna-Vedanta Society of Massachusetts
58 Deerfield St
Boston, MA 02215
617 / 536-5320

NEW YORK

Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center
17 East 94th St
New York, NY 10028
212 / 534-9445
Fax 212-828-1618

Vedanta Society
17 East 94th St
New York, NY 10028
212 / 877-9197

Vivekananda Retreat, Ridgely
PO Box 321
Stone Ridge, NY
914 / 687-4574
info@ridgely.org

OREGON

Vedanta Society of Portland
1157 S.E. 55th Ave
Portland, OR 97215
503 / 235-3919

RHODE ISLAND

The Vedanta Society of Providence
224 Angell St
Providence, RI 02906
401 / 421-3960

WASHINGTON

Vedanta Society of Western Washington
2716 Broadway East
Seattle, WA 98102
206 / 323-1228

WASHINGTON, DC

Vedanta Society of Greater Washington
3001 Bel Pre Road
Silver Springs, MD 20906
301 / 603-1772

MICHIGAN

Vivekananda Monastery & Retreat
6723 122nd Ave
Ganges Township, MI 49408
616 / 543-4545

MISSOURI

Vedanta Society of St Louis
205 South Skinker Blvd.
St Louis, MO 63105
314 / 721-5118

If you would like to post any information about forthcoming events or community happenings, please email the details to bettypais@aol.com

Information and photographs can also be mailed to Betty Pais at 87-52 108th Street, 2nd Floor, Richmond Hill, NY 11418-2229, USA.

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