Vedanta Center of Greater Washington Dc

Arise, Awake! Ded­i­cated to “One’s own lib­er­a­tion and the wel­fare of the world,” the Vedanta Cen­ter of Greater Wash­ing­ton, DC is a branch of the Rama­kri­shna Order of India. Though founded in 1997, its roots draw from Swami Vivekananda’s vis­its to the USA in the 1890s, and from the immemo­r­ial wis­dom of the Upan­ishadic sages.

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. The cen­ter is located on a beau­ti­ful five-acre par­cel sur­rounded by woods. A mod­est brick house which came with the prop­erty served as the main cen­ter up until June of 2000, when the present build­ing, con­sist­ing of a wor­ship hall and res­i­den­tial sec­tion, was inau­gu­rated. The brick house has been expanded, and now is a guest house for the cen­ter, with nine beds. A large tem­ple with a base­ment and kitchen facil­i­ties, is under construction and should be completed by January 2012.

The Cen­ter wel­comes all sin­cere seek­ers of truth who want to deepen their spir­i­tual lives through the study of Vedanta and the teach­ings of Sri Rama­kri­shna, Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivek­a­nanda. It is our hope that many friends and devo­tees will ben­e­fit from the holy atmos­phere of the Cen­ter through par­tic­i­pat­ing in our var­i­ous pro­grams: Sun­day lec­tures, week­night classes, wor­ship and med­i­ta­tion, karma yoga, and social ser­vice programs.

Our min­is­ter, the head of the Cen­ter, is Swami Sarvadevananda. Three monks are also in res­i­dence: Swamis Atma­jna­na­nanda, Brahma­rupa­nanda, and Mahayogananda.