Founded in 1894 in New York, the Vedanta Society was the only Hindu organization to be established in the West before the twentieth century. Its principles are based primarily on the teachings of Ramakrishna (1836-86) (see Ramakrishna, Sri) and Vivekananda (1862-1902) (see Vivekananda, Swami).
Ramakrishna was born in a Bengali village, and became a Kali priest in the Calcutta area; he is reckoned to have attained samadhi (enlightenment), and continued to quest, using a number of sadhanas—spiritual paths to gain a permanently enlightened state. Ramakrishna believed that Kali wanted him to remain on the threshold between the Absolute and the relative (the physical world in which humanity resides) in order to act as a vehicle to draw the human to the divine. He also taught that all spiritual paths, including Hinduism, lead to the same goal, and that all forms of the divine are one and the same. In addition to seeking spiritual enlightenment, Ramakrishna and his followers emphasized the importance of social service.
Vivekananda was a disciple of Ramakrishna, and one of the first Hindu gurus to come to the West. He arrived in 1893, with the aim of spreading Ramakrishna's teachings, and he addressed the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, where he attracted considerable interest. In 1894 Vivekananda founded the Vedanta Society in New York, and within two years two further branches were established in San Francisco and Boston.
Vedanta is one of the six major schools (astikas) of Hindu philosophy. The word literally means the 'end of the Vedas', referring to the classical Hindu writings that came after the four ancient Vedic texts (the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Artharva Veda and the Yajur Veda). Vedanta draws primarily on the Upanishads, which the Vedanta Society emphasizes, together with the Bhagavad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The principal teachings of the Vedanta Society include the classical Hindu teaching that brahman (the divine substance that underlies and sustains the universe) is identical with the atman (human soul). God is 'being, consciousness and bliss', and, although ultimately impersonal, is capable of taking on personal forms, as is taught by the Hindu bhakti tradition. All the different forms of God are ultimately forms of the same divine substance, and hence are all one.
The recognition of the unity between the self and the divine leads to the manifestation of love. Ethically, the notion of oneness provides the key to living: one's actions must be done, mindful of one's oneness with the divine, and also with all living beings, since each is the eternal. As the Isa Upanishad teaches, The Self is everywhere'. The failure of humans to recognize this oneness is due to maya (illusion), but the mind can be trained to know the absolute reality and to remove the perceived separateness between the divine and human. This is achieved by the purification of mind, principally through four yogas (spiritual paths): bhakti (devotion), jnana (intellectual discrimination), karma (unselfish work) and prana (psychic control).
The Society does not demand conversion from any other religion or school of Hinduism, teaching, as it does, that all religions are ultimately one. All religions, if understood aright, teach the truth: while it is acknowledged that there are doctrinal differences among religions, truth is filtered through the human mind, and perceived differences are due to maya: ultimately, each religion points to the same shared spiritual experience. (However, the Vedanta Society teaches the doctrine of karma and reincarnation.) Each religion has its own distinctive contribution to make: Christianity emphasizes sacrifice, Judaism tradition and wisdom, Islam fraternity and equality, Buddhism mindfulness and compassion, Native American religion respect for the earth, and Vedanta the oneness of all things.
The Society's principles are regarded as more important than a parampara, or lineage of gurus, although it permits instruction from accredited teachers, and even the veneration of Ramakrishna as an avatar ('descent' or incarnation of the divine), if followers consider it appropriate.
A number of prominent western followers helped to spread the ideas of Vedanta. These include Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), whose edited collection The Perennial Philosophy (1955) is regarded as a spiritual classic, Gerald Heard (1889-1971), whose many writings include The Ascent of Humanity (1929) and The Eternal Gospel (1948), and Christopher Isherwood (1904-86), who wrote Vedanta for the Western World in 1945. The Vedanta Society attracts its following principally in the United States and in India: by the end of the twentieth century some 3,000 members were estimated in the USA. The Society also has branches in the Argentine, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.