Advaita Vedanta, the timeless wisdom of this crown jewel of philosophy, comes to us today like roaring thunder, hailing from the great ancient plains of the Ganges. Its sublime insights on the ultimate nature of reality, mind and consciousness have been meticulously worked out over many millenia of the most elegant discussion and debate. The message is clear: all that you see before you, the great oceans, towering mountains, the vast heavens with its endless stars and galaxies, the bustling crowds of the grand cities, the most intimate contents of your mind and senses – That Thou Art! You are not separate from anything or anyone. All is One, and your essential nature is this Onenness. From the lowest particle to the vast reaches of the cosmos, you are all of it. Far beyond the troubles of life, you stand mighty, majestic, with infinite strength, you are the very heart of this Universe, in you it rises and falls away like a dream.
It is our mission to openly disseminate this eternal wisdom to one and all, to show how from this very ordinary life we live, we can come to discover through rigorous reasoning the insights that the reality we inhabit is far more glorious than imagined. Our approach is primarily the way of Knowledge, Jnana Yoga, and we wish to bring light to the most exquisite and profound philosophical arguments that have been made to discover our fundamental nature. This knowledge not only transforms our daily lives but also has profound implications for all of our grandest activities of art, philosophy, religion and science. It lays down an ethical and existential foundation, from which all of our activities in life can blossom. Chiefly, through the lens of Advaita, we can come not merely to the harmony of religions, but harmony of all of our activities. Our aim is to provide the platform, on which art, science, religion and philosophy can all work together, to enrich each other, and to penetrate in to ever more profound reaches. More than ever today such deep foundations are needed, lest we fall in to the abyss of nihilism and disintegration.
In practice we aim to provide:
1. Open and welcoming lectures and discussions on core Advaitic texts and how their transformative knowledge can inform our lives and practices
2. We will provide an open library space where people can come study and learn Vedantic texts.
3. Importantly, we will host seminars, events and retreats with world-renowned speakers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, in the spirit of bringing all disciplines together into truly interdisciplinary collaboration.
