Here are two Sanskrit words: Pravṛtti, which means revolving towards, and the other is Nivṛtti, which means revolving away. The “revolving towards” is what we call the world, the “I and mine”; it includes all those things which are always enriching that “me” by wealth and money and power, and name and fame, and which are of a grasping nature, always tending to accumulate everything in one center, that center being “myself.” That is the Pravṛtti, the natural tendency of every human being; taking everything from everywhere and heaping it around one center, that center being our own sweet self. When this tendency begins to break, when it is Nivṛtti, or “going away from,” then begin morality and religion. … Nivṛtti is the fundamental basis of all morality and all religion, and the very perfection of it is entire self-abnegation, readiness to sacrifice mind and body and everything for another being. When we reach that state, we have attained to the perfection of Karma Yoga.—Swami Vivekananda
Arise, Awake!
Dedicated to “One’s own liberation and the welfare of the world,” the Vedanta Center of Greater Washington, DC is a branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India. Though founded in 1997, its roots draw from Swami Vivekananda’s visits to the USA in the 1890s, and from the immemorial wisdom of the Upanishadic sages. (more…)
Vedanta: A philosophy, a religion, a way of life. “I am the Self of the universe, I am eternally blessed, eternally free”—this is the message of Vedanta. (more…)
December 2020 Program
It looks like we are facing many more months of partial shutdown of our center. Individual devotees may come to the center for meditation, evening arati, etc., but we will not have any public lectures or classes. For the foreseeable future, we will continue with our Zoom classes, Live Streaming, and YouTube presentations.
We are especially sorry to inform you that our annual Christmas Eve program will be cancelled for the first time since the center was started in 1997. We are hoping to have a video presentation of Christmas Carols and Readings performed by our Summer Camp Kids and shown via YouTune on the night of December 14th. We will also try to make our New Year’s Eve program available via Live Streaming from 11pm to midnight on December 31. Our Kalpataru Puja on the first of January will also be shown via Live Streaming from 11 am to 1 pm. All other classes and lectures will be the same as before. You can find the links on the Homepage of our Website. On the 27th, Dr. Jeffery Long will be our guest speaker. We will show his talk via Zoom (see link below) so that we can have an opportunity for questions and answers at the conclusion of his talk.
A. Sunday 11 am lecture topics are:
6 Swami Atmajnanananda: Maya, The Great Enchantress
13 Swami Chidbrahmananda: The Ocean’s Edge
20 Swami Brahmarupananda: The King and the Cartman
27 Dr. Jeffrey Long*: Jesus as a Teacher of Vedanta (Zoom sessions followed by questions and answers)
* Professor of Religion and Asian Studies
Elizabethtown College
Elizabethtown, PA
The link for Jeffrey Long’s talk on December 27th is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86373720413
Weekly Lecture with Sw. A, B, or C: (Youtube)
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/72627818376
Vedanta Medical Clinic
Vedanta Medical Clinic is now open and providing free medical service. See the clinic flier.
Contact us or get directions.
Food Drive: We are accepting donations of non-perishable food items, in conjunction with Manna Food Center, for an unexpectedly large increase in need. (more…)
Donation
You can donate securely to the Vedanta Center via PayPal:
