yoga v0.24: Ramakrishna Societies, RSS and Chinmaya Mission

While I love Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda’s teachings, the Vedanta Societies of the West seem to be tailored to whites and Bengalis. While I have no problem with these institutions being devoted to developing Vedanta for those who are not from Indian backgrounds this poses a limitation for myself who is from an Indian background.

The Vedanta Societies seem to have taken on a very church like demeanor which is not something that I grew up with going to Hindu Temples. While I will continue with reading and thinking about Ramakrishna and Vivekananda I think in terms of a sangh I will focus on the Chinmaya Mission. Vivekananda is modern India’s spiritual father and if I were in India I would follow the tracks of the Ramakrishna Mission. However, the Ramakrishna in the West seems to be about promoting Vedanta among non-Indians. It sets aside the Puranic literature.

While I do believe in the universality of Vedanta to all religious systems, I am Indian. The Puranic literature with the plethora of devas and asuras plays an important part in the Vedanta teaching. The Puranic texts form a moral compass from which we can then move to the more metaphysical aspects of Jnana Yoga. Unfortunately, it seems the Hindu smriti texts are not a core teaching of the Ramakrishna tradition. In this regard the Ramakrishna tradition seems to be lacking. By trying to be universalistic in its teaching of Vedanta, it limits the focus on any specific Bhakti outside of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sarada Devi’s teachings. While the teachings of Ramakrishna are quite illuminating I do want to study more of the smriti’s which don’t seem to have a strong focus.

So I think the natural lineage of Vivekananda in modern Indian context is the Karma Yoga ideal built into the RSS. While I will continue on reading the texts of the Ramakrishna Mission as they are quite good in terms of practice I will center on the RSS as the Vivekananda lineage.

While Chinmaya is a primarily Jnana Yoga path, the beginning of Jnana Yoga is Bhakti and Chinamayanada does seem to cover a lot of the early teachings of Adi Shankaracharya. Further, while Vivekananda built the Ramakrishna Societies in the West when there were not many if any Indians, Chinamayananda started in the 70s when more Indians were in place. So lots of the traditions that I grew up with are in place.

Anyways, from a sangh and a family standpoint the Chinmaya Mission seems to be closer to what I want to be a part of in terms of community.