American Vedantist is a not-for-profit online journal dedicated to developing Vedanta in the West and to facilitating companionship among Vedantists.

As a Vedanta magazine, we are committed to:

  • Stimulating inner growth through shared devotion to the ideals and practice of Vedanta
  • Encouraging critical discussion among Vedantists about how inner and outer growth can be achieved
  • Exploring new ways in which Vedanta can be expressed in a Western cultural context
  • Networking through all available means of communication with Vedantists in the United States and other countries, and
  • Facilitating the establishment of grass roots Vedanta groups and social service projects.

Participate

We invite our readers to join with American Vedantist in these endeavors. Please send us articles, poems, songs, letters to the editor, ideas for action programs and other suggestions for achieving our goals. For more information see out Contact & Submissions page.

You may also participate by commenting on our articles or sharing your thoughts in our Reader’s Forum section. All comments are moderated.

Vedanta Magazine

American Vedantist is also published several times a year as a printed magazine. Please see the Subscribe page for more information.

Editorial Board

American Vedantist is staffed solely by volunteers. The following people serve on our Editorial Board:
William A. Conrad • William Davis • Sister Eleanor Francis • Sister Gayatriprana • Barbara Henry • Brother Shankara • Steven Walker • Coordinating Editor John Schlenck

Vedanta West Communications

American Vedantist is a project of Vedanta West Communications, which also produces Vedanta-themed music recordings and scores at Vedantic Arts Recordings and Vedantic Arts Scores. Vedanta West Communications Inc. is tax-exempt as a New York not-for-profit corporation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code.

What is Vedanta?

Vedanta, the religion and philosophy of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita in ancient India, teaches that the essence of each person is divine, and that the purpose of life is to unfold and realize this divinity, to make it manifest in every movement of life, as Swami Vivekananda said. All religions are accepted as paths to this realization.

Vivekananda came to America in 1893 to attend the first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He continued to work in the West for several years and founded the first Vedanta Societies in America. An important part of his life’s work was the formulation of Vedantic teachings in language that is not culture-specific.