Vedanta Society

Main Website: http://vedanta.org/

Headquarters:
Vedanta Temple Hollywood
1946 Vedanta Place
Hollywood, CA 90068-3996
Tel: (323) 465-7114
Email: hollywood@vedanta.org

Local centers and ashrams: http://vedanta.org/the-ramakrishna-order/usa-centers/ 

The Vedanta Society of Southern California was founded in 1930 in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Society is under the spiritual leadership of the Ramakrishna Order of India.

The historical roots of the Vedanta Society of Southern California can be traced back to Swami Vivekananda’s visit to Los Angeles in the late 1890s when he stayed with the Mead sisters in their South Pasadena home. Thirty years later, one of the sisters, Mrs. Carrie Mead Wyckoff, became acquainted with Swami Prabhavananda, a young monk sent to America by the Ramakrishna Order of India. During that time, Mrs. Wyckoff had a house tucked away in the Hollywood hills which she offered to the swami as a gift.

Soon afterwards, in 1929, Swami Prabhavananda moved to Hollywood from Portland to establish the Vedanta Society of Southern California. In 1934, the Vedanta Society of Southern California was officially established as a non-profit organization “to promote harmony between Eastern and Western thought, and recognition of the truth in all the great religions of the world.”