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Vedanta's jubilee celebration to begin from June 24
Several spiritual leaders of US Ramakrishna Missions will address the believers in Chicago, reports Lalit K Jha.
For the first time in several years, all the 13 swamis of the Ramakrishna Mission - chiefs of all its centres in the United States - would be addressing the followers and believers of the Swami Vivekananda and the Mission at Chicago. It is being expected that the Platinum jubilee celebration of the Vedanta Society at Chicago could be a grand spiritual affair.
The Ramakrishna Order has 13 centers in North America, besides other satellite monasteries and retreats.
"It would be one of the largest gatherings of Swamis in the United States," Swami Varadananda, head of the Chicago centre, told Hindustantimes.com.
Originally known as Charles Streeter, an American citizen, who began practicing Hindu in 1973, Swami Varadananda said, the three day conference - to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee - would be held at the Vivekananda Monastery and Retreat in Ganges, Michigan from June 24.
"Vedanta For the Global Village" would be the theme of the conference and would be attended by more than 500 people, Varadananda said. Swami Prameyananda from Bellur Math in Kolkatta, the headquarters of the Mission, is also expected to participate in the celebrations.
In charge of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, Varadananda said, though Swami Vivekananda addressed the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893, the Vivekananda Vedanta Society in this historic city could be founded only in 1930 by Swami Gnaneswarananda.
"It has been a long journey for the Vivekananda Society. For many years, it was the only Hindu group in Chicago to carry forward the work which was started by Swami Vivekananda in 1893," he said.
Varadananda said, an event of similar scale was held in 2001, when the Society organized the "Millennium Conference". Before that a big "Vedanta Convention" was held in 1987, he said.
Besides carrying forward the work started by Vivekananda, among other important works of the Vedanta Society at Chicago is to hold classes on Vedanta and Hinduism interact with the college and school students, besides organizing inter-faith meeting.
The greatest activity of the Vedanta Society is to disseminate spiritual education, which leads to spiritual illumination. "Our purpose is to disseminate spiritual knowledge," he said
"We are also in the process of construction of the first Sri Ramakrishna Universal temple in North America," Varadananda said.
The Society has already purchased 15 acres of land in Homer Glen, Illinois, for the $6.5 million (about Rs. 28 crores) temple project.
"We have almost completed the schematic drawings. We plan to start development and pour the foundations for the new temple this year. In 2006, we would build the temple and plan to move from the present location by early 2007," he said.
Varadananda said it has been a long, but historic journey for the Society during these 75 years. "Under successive capable swamis, the Society continued its work of spreading the ancient spiritual teachings of Hinduism," he said.
The founder, Swami Gnaneswarananda passed away in 1937.
Under his successor, Swami Vishwananda, the work of the society gradually grew. It is during his period that the Society was able to purchase a place of its own at 44 East Elm Street in 1955.
When Swami Bhashyananda took charge in 1965, the Society quickly outgrew its home at Elm Street and relocated to its present location at 5423 S. Hyde Park Blvd.
It is during his tenure that the Society purchased and developed Vivekananda Monastery & Retreat in Ganges, Michigan, where the Platinum Jubilee is being celebrated, he said.
