Traditional Teachers - Others

Aja - Aja Thomas, aka Aja Acharya, founded the Atma Institute in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches traditional Advaita along with Sanskrit, one of the very few western teachers to offer this. He is also the author of the book: 'In This Moment! - Teachings on the Nature of Consciousness'. The site offers some of his writings, along with details of schedules and special weekend courses.
" The Bhagavad Gita tells us that, "There is a banyan tree with its roots up and branches down. The real form of this tree cannot be perceived in this world." In other words, this is the world of misperception, and as long as we exist within this world we are bound to persist, as a habit of mind, in the realm of misperceptions and concepts. "

Swami Dayananda and teachers who have been taught by him are represented by the following sites:

Arsha Vidya Gurukulam is an institute for the traditional study of Vedanta and Sanskrit, located in the Pocono Mountains, at Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania. It offers studies in the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma-sutras, and other classical Vedic texts. It was established in 1986 by Swami Dayananda Saraswati. There is also a home study course for Bhagavad Gita ($210 in US) and for Sanskrit ($55 in US) and an excellent bookstore.

There is now a branch of Arsha Vidya in the UK. The teacher is Swamini Atmaprakashananda, a direct disciple of Swami Dayananda. Classes, on such topics as Tattva Bodha and Mundaka Upanishad, take place on most evenings in and around London and are free. Gita Home Study Centres are also scattered about the country.

Swami Dayananda Ashram is the website of the Arsha Vidya Pitham at Rishikesh. There are details of the ashram facilities and the temple, teachers both within and outside India, together with contact emails or websites. There are classes at the ashram in Vedanta, yoga and sanskrit and there is an on-line bookstore. The following links are provided to other related facilities (in addition to the others listed on this page):

. Coimbatore-anaikatti ashram
. Swi. Brahmaprakasananda - Nagpur
. Sw. Viditatmananda - Ahmedabad
. Sw. Tadatmananda in New Jersey
. Vijay Kapoor – San Francisco bay area
. Gloria Arieira – Brazil

There are also other teachers in the USA and Canada, who do not have websites, listed at the AVG website.

Arsha Vidya Satsangs has details of satsangs held by Arsha Vidya Gurukulam at various locations in the US as well as Australia and Canada. Also, there are many pdf file and mp3 audio files of satsang excerpts from Swamis Dayananda, Viditatmananda, Tattvavidananda and Pratyagbodhananda. These can all be downloaded and contain a wealth of material on assorted topics.

The shAstraprakAshikA Trust in Chennai, India sells audio cassettes of recordings of lecture and discourses by Swami Dayananada, Swami Paramarthananda, Swami Omkarananda and Swami Guruparananda. You may also pay on line and download mp3 files.

Note that Swami Paramarthananda's complete talks on the Gita are available on-line or for downloading.

Vedantavidyarthisangha.org is dedicated to hosting selected classes of Swami Paramarthananda (a direct disciple of Swami Dayananda), including some of the ongoing classes in Chennai. Talks either require a 'Flash Player', which may be downloaded from the site, or are in real-audio format.

Yoga Malika is an institution in Chennai, India, guided by Swami Dayananda Saraswati and Swami Paramarthananda Saraswati. It provides classes in Vedanta, trains teachers, maintains a library of books and cassettes etc. Some talks by Swami Dayananda and Paramarthananda may be downloaded , including an excellent one on japa. A few are also available in Real Audio format. There is a year-long 'self-help' program that can be studied at the site for ten-minutes per day with a different practice each month.

Arsha Vidya Kendra Trust, Bangalore is another center founded by Swami Dayananda. The resident AchArya is Swami Sadatmananda Saraswati and regular classes are held (in 2008 onwards, these are covering the Mandukya Upanishad) and PDF transcripts of some of the talks are available.

Vedanta: The Yoga of Objectivity - Neema Majmudar and Surya Tahora, disciples of Swami Dayananda, are the authors of this website. This site gives a detailed presentation of Vedanta and its teaching methodology, with pop-up quotes from relevant scriptures together with articles (in PDF format for download) and dialogs on specific aspects. There is also a schedule of talks, seminars and retreats (held in India, Bangkok, etc).

Radha (Carol Whitfield Ph.D.) studied Advaita Vedanta and Sanskrit with Swami Dayananda Saraswati in India during the 1970’s. Since returning from India, she has taught Vedanta extensively on both coasts. She is a university professor and a Jungian-oriented clinical psychologist. She now teaches Vedanta in Berkeley California. Website for online classes www.arshakulam.org.

Sri Vasudevacharya (Michael Comans) is a direct disciple of Swami Dayananda. He teaches, principally in Melbourne and Sydney, and has provided courses on the Bhagavad Gita, the principal Upanishads and Sanskrit. The site contains several articles, details of classes and related links. He is the author of the excellent book: "The Method of Early Advaita Vedanta", which discusses the teaching of Gaudapada, Shankara, Sureshvara and Padmapada. See my review of this book.

Narayana Guru

Nataraja Guru

Narayana Guru and Dr. Nataraja Guru - The most important works of Narayana Guru and the disciple who brought his teaching to the west, Dr. Nataraja Guru, are available on-line, including the former's 'Darsana Mala' and the latter's commentary on this, 'The Integrated Science of the Absolute'. There is also a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and on Shankara's 'Saundarya Lahari' and numerous other essays and articles. There is also a discussion forum.

The Narayana Gurukula was established in Kerala State, SW India by the successor of Narayana Guru but there are now branches in the US, Australia, Fiji, France, Singapore and England. It is devoted to studies of Advaita and other teachings of wisdom, reflected by its use of the term East-West University, and in particular offers instruction in the Gayatri Meditation. There are details of its publications here and brief biographies of the gurus in the lineage.

See also Sree Narayana Guru for a detailed biography, photos, articles etc. There are also a number of hymns and songs available as mp3 files.

Shree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam also has biographical essays and a chronological list of Narayana Guru's writings, some of which are also held on-line.

Sri Ranjit Maharaj (died Nov. 2000) - disciple of Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, along with the better known Nisargadatta Maharaj. Enlightened at a very early age, he lived very simply in Bombay after Siddharameshwar Maharaj died, never married, had a simple job, and, for most of his life, very few disciples. There are excerpts from talks, including two in MP3 format and a program of events.
"As long as there is a body, there is fear. If you want to be fearless, be what is fearless, because that which IS has no end. The final reality has no end and no beginning; it is limitless."

The 'Way of the bird' is another site dedicated by his disciple Andrew Vernon. It contains quotations and commentaries organised as 1 per day for each month of the year. The complete book is also downloadable as a pdf file (1.5Mb). Highly recommended - and thanks to Jorge Angelino for recommending this site.

A description of a meeting with Ranjit Maharaj also describes aspects of his teaching, covering reality, knowledge and ignorance, master and death.

Timothy Conway is looking for help on one of the chapters of his new book from anyone who personally knew Ranjit Maharaj, to share impressions or teachings. Please contact him directly.

Sri Ranjit Maharaj


See also the Organisations in India page, since all of these will usually teach essentiall traditonal advaita.

Page last updated: 15 November, 2009