Spiritual Ideals
Vedanta and Its Universal Message

The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York is an accredited branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India. 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 (1836-1886), his wife and spiritual companion Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi (1853-1920) and his disciple Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) 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.

Contact Information

You can learn more about the activities of the Center by clicking here. Further inquiries regarding the Center can be made by telephone between 10:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. EST Monday through Saturday.

Telephone: (212) 534-9445
Fax: (212) 828-1618

Email: rvcnewyork@worldnet.att.net
Postal Address: 17 East 94th Street, New York, NY 10128.

Copyright© 1996, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York.