Let’s create ISSUE 78!
Coming New Year 2027

Preview of Issue 78:
A History of American Vedantist
and its founder John Schlenck
by Bill Davis

A few years after John began attending the Vedanta Society of New York in about 1958   he was invited by Swami Pavitrananda (his guru) to move into the Society building.  John told me he wanted to live the life of a monk but wanted to remain independent.  Therefore, he didn’t want to join any monastic order.  He supported himself by playing at ballet classes, creating music on the spot.  Swami Pavitrananda said that people like John belonged to a “third order”:  Not monks, not householders, but single people living monastic ideals independently.  I began attending in 1972, and we became friends. 

John had exceptional musical talent and began composing English versions of the songs used in the worship. He has many musical compositions to his credit, including oratorios of the lives of both Sri Ramakrishna and Swamiji.  He wanted to make Vedanta more accessible to Westerners. He would say to me that Vedanta does not have to be connected to Hinduism.  There can be American Vedanta.  Vedanta doesn’t have to connect to the legends and practices of Hinduism.  This idea is what lies behind this magazine, American Vedantist, which took birth, in its original paper version, in the summer of 1995. 

Shortly before this, John’s sister gave John a large sum of money, and from then on he no longer had to work to support himself and had more time at his disposal.  He also had money with which he founded Vedanta West Communications.  The American Vedantist is an offshoot of it.  Most of its readers were Westerners, but I came to know that Swami Bhajanananda, residing at Belur Math and a trustee of The Ramakrishna Order, was a devoted reader.  He told me in 2001 that he hoped it would remain a print journal. 

To honor his former brother-in-law, the source of this money, John ran a contest for best spiritual short fiction with a $2000 prize – the Gumbiner Prize.  The late Bill Page won this with a piece called Incident at the Marhi Hotel.   After this, Bill joined the editorial staff. I was all along a frequent contributor to this journal.   

When American Vedantist started, it looked like an academic journal, with the table of contents on the cover.  This continued until Gary Kemper, also known as Shankara – a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda, took over as coordinating editor in 2009.  (A year later, Shankara became the head of the Vedanta Society in Atlanta).   From that point on, the journal would have a photo or illustration on the cover with the table of contents inside. John continued as one of the editors until he died in 2015.   In 2010, it became both print and online.  In 2012, it became an entirely online journal.  These online issues are still available online.   A few years before Shankara died in 2024, he became too weak to continue publishing it, and so the last issue before this upcoming one is Summer, 2020. 

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Your interest in American Vedantist is deeply appreciated.We hope that, in addition to enjoying our e-zine, you will consider contributing articles to it. Here is an email address to send your article. pdf files only, please: americanvedantistsubmissions@gmail.com 

Please submit an essay, article, review, Cartoon, Artwork, or poem about spiritual life, or about how you see Vedanta developing in and serving America. We also welcome reviews of books, publications, films, TV programs, and other media you find interesting or relevant to spiritual life and practice.

Please note: If quotations are part your submission, furnish your sources, either within the text or as footnotes.

Please avoid content that promotes partisan politics, theoretic medical advice, personal attacks, or is sexually explicit.

To send us a message or inquiry americanvedantistsubmissions@gmail.com.

While we can’t promise to post every submission, we very much look forward to your participation.

Thank you!
The Editors