Vedanta Society Of Southern California, Ramakrishna Monastery

Ramakrishna Monastery
Swami Vivekananda statue at the Ramakrishna Monastery, California
Religion
AffiliationRamakrishna Order
RegionOrange County
Ecclesiastical or organizational statusActive
Year consecrated1949
Location
Location19961 Live Oak Canyon Road, Trabuco Canyon, California
StateCalifornia
Geographic coordinates33°40′24″N 117°36′36″W / 33.6734°N 117.6101°W / 33.6734; -117.6101
Architecture
Architect(s)Felix Greene
Style18th Century Mediterranean Monastery
Website
vedanta.org/trabuco-canyon-monastery

The monastery was originally developed in 1942 during WWII by Gerald Heard,[1][2][3][4] a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda of the Vedanta Society of Southern California an American branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India.[5] Established as Trabuco College, it was originally meant to be a religious, non-sectarian, co-ed monastery, unaffiliated with any particular religious organization.[6] Aldous Huxley, a close friend of Heard, spent 6 weeks there working on his book The Perennial Philosophy.[7]

However, the experiment failed and Heard donated the land and buildings to the Vedanta Society of Southern California as a male-only monastery.[8] It was consecrated on September 7, 1949, by Swami Prabhavananda, as the Ramakrishna Monastery. It is located on a 40-acre property in the rolling hills of Trabuco Canyon, California. It bears the name of the great Indian mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, founder of the Ramakrishna Order of India.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ Jackson, Carl (1994). Vedanta for the West. Indiana University Press. p. 117. ISBN 0-253-33098-X.
  2. ^ Sawyer, Dana (2002). Aldous Huxley: A Biography. Crossroads Publishing Company. p. 116. ISBN 0-8245-1987-6.
  3. ^ Murray, Nicholas (2002). Aldous Huxley: A Biography. St. Martin' Press. p. 333. ISBN 0-312-30237-1.
  4. ^ Orange County Register January 28, 2015
  5. ^ Jackson, Carl (1994). Vedanta for the West. Indiana University Press. p. 117. ISBN 0-253-33098-X.
  6. ^ Sawyer, Dana (2002). Huston Smith: Wisdom Keeper. Fons Vital. p. 46. ISBN 978-1891785-290.
  7. ^ Western Admirers of Ramakrishna & His Disciples Book, Page 146
  8. ^ Isherwood, Christopher (1980). My Guru and His Disciple. Farrar Straus Giroux. p. 199. ISBN 978-0-374-21702-0.
  9. ^ Brazil, Ben (15 February 2018). "Daily Pilot News Daily Pilot The monastery amid O.C.'s mania". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  10. ^ Orange County Register January 28, 2015


Stub icon

This Hinduism-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.