Vivekananda’s Impact on American Spirituality

Jackson noted that from the 1930s to the 1950s the typical Vedanta members were middle class and upper-middle class families—mostly adults with a disproportionate number of females in a ratio of two to one (97–8). The average spiritual seeker was from a Protestant background and some were connected with Theosophy, New Thought, Spiritualism, or Christian Science (98). Of the 1950s testimonials contained in What Vedanta Means to Me, Vedanta’s greatest appeal was its universality versus Western Christianity’s dogmatism, an appeal that remains popular today (100). Danielle Gaither, a college student at the University of North Texas in Denton, recently shared her attraction:

Another key to the Vedanta movement’s success is its practical, experiential methodology and direct mystical approach. Christopher Isherwood vouched: ‘Vedanta made me understand for the first time that a practical, working religion is experimental and empirical. You are always on your own, finding things out for yourself in your individual way.’13 For others, it is Vedanta’s psychological insight and positive understanding of human nature that provides a therapeutic perspective for spiritual growth. For still others, former Christians and Jews have found that through their contact with Vedanta, they then developed a renewed respect for fundamental teachings of Christianity and Judaism. Playwright John van Druten mentioned that after his introduction to Vedanta, he could ‘turn back’ to Christianity, discovering ‘much more’ than he had ‘ever suspected of existing’ (101).

Unlike many Indian immigrants in America, American-born Vedantists are more drawn to Vedanta’s interreligious and academic mission in the West. On the one hand, native-born Hindus have little interest in interreligious exchange with Christians or Muslims, who have too often historically scorned their religion and desecrated their temples. But on the other hand, Westerners embrace comparative religions and interfaith venues because this is often how they are introduced to Vedanta. Once they become committed Vedantists, Westerners feel that such academic and interfaith outreach connects their Vedanta tradition with American society in a broad and healthy way; in fact, it prevents Vedanta from becoming just another cosy, insulated Hindu cult with no recognized standing or voice in their own culture and society. Furthermore, most Westerners take pride in Vedanta’s seminal role in interreligious dialogue and sincerely seek to understand how their religion holds up against other religious traditions of the world. In the process they often find that a meaningful spiritual exchange of fundamental perspectives amongst religious traditions deepens and broadens their own Vedanta perspective. In order to explain Hinduism to other curious Americans, they, in turn, are forced to deepen their own understanding of Vedanta.14

Because of the American Vedanta Societies’ continued commitment to interreligious dialogue, Jewish and Christian spiritual leaders have also found their own rapport with Vivekananda’s life and teachings. Rabbi Henoch Dov Hoffman, psychiatrist and Hasidic Jewish representative of the renowned Snowmass Conference, who was invited to participate in a Vedanta Society retreat at Olema, in northern California, affirmed that he often quotes Vivekananda’s teachings to members of his own synagogue.15 Rabbi Rami Shapiro, renowned lecturer and author, also professes a deep connection with Vivekananda and Vedanta. ‘The realization and the expression of Brahman as Atman speak to me on so many levels,’ Shapiro explained, ‘but most of all it addresses the moral challenges of life. I come from a tradition of law and commandments, but this rests on the authority of God and revelation, neither of which speak to me. I do not believe in a god somewhere, but in the Divine Reality that is everywhere and everything.’