Mission

Mission

Vedanta Society of Edmonton is a non-denominational philosophy based organization that aims to help its members attain absolute realization through an inward process of self-inquiry and an outward action in service. The Eastern philosophy stems from a canon of texts known as the Vedas, the source of the Hindu religion. The universal nature of the text makes it possible to relate it to any other religion in principle. The Society models itself after the Ramakrishna Mission that Swami Vivekananda set up with similar branch centres around the world providing access to knowledgeable monks to help guide our members in this process.

Mandate

The Society is set up with the objective to help members learn about Vedanta philosophy, apply it in day to life, and undertake charitable work through its programs and activities that include international development and relief work, uplifting the status of the poorest of the poor and women, engaging the public locally and nationally, and carrying out the duties required to maintain the Society.

Board

Founders

History

Vedanta Society of Edmonton began in the 1970s as an offshoot of Hindu Society of Alberta. Immigrants, particularly in the area around the University of Alberta, gathered on Sunday afternoons to read from the Bhagavad Gita led by the late Dr. Ambika Sharma typically followed by potluck lunches prepared by members like Mrs. Maya Murdeshwar.

Swami Bhashyananda, who came as a visiting lecturer to the University of Alberta in 1965, sparked the vision to build a society and a temple for future generations. Into the 1980s, members continued to meet in private home study groups to read the Upanishad as the Hindu Society of Alberta got established as the Hindu Cultural Centre complex with more and more South Asian ethnocultural communities organizing into societies like The Society for the Friends of Nepal led by the late Dr. Garg. He started a campaign to create a long term project in Nepal to help the poorest of the poor for which they received support from Alberta’s Wildrose Foundation and the Canadian International Development Agency.

In 1985 Dr. Sujit K. Chakrabartty started fundraising for the Vedanta Society of Edmonton to do something in the poorest of the poor villages in West Bengal. Programming of the Vedanta Society split into two: local programs that would continue to host regular study meetups and retreats uninterupted since the 1970s plus international development.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna remains relevant and compelling for the Society because the mystic guru of Swami Vivekananda speaks to our modern times. With very simple illustrations, he revealed the divine wisdom of his God-realized soul. His advice remains practical for any kind of person, house-holder, engaged in a working life. He had the capacity to transmit spirituality to anyone and transformed them from their lower consciousness to their highest state of pure consciousness. Sri Ramakrishna exemplified in his life that all religions reach the same end. His experience of all religions led him to realize non-duality and inspired his principal disciple Swami Vivekananda to share it with the world.

Vedanta Society of Edmonton membership is open to age 18+ adults who agree to the Society’s mandate and objectives available for a nominal fee and ratified by the board. Coming together as members of Vedanta Society of Edmonton, we engage in self-inquiry, spiritually uplifting activities, and acts of service. It is our privilege to keep good company in our collective spiritual journeys.

Our immediate solution is to seek to reduce our day to-to-day stresses and suffering by undoing the mental traps of our own making, that stem from not knowing any better to gradually replacing all doubts with intense and sincere seeking of irrefutable Truth for which there is no other.

Funders