Welcome to the Advaita Vedanta Center of Las Vegas!

The Advaita Vedanta Center of Las Vegas began when its founder Nikhil Anthony saw an unfulfilled need in Las Vegas: Nowhere in the Valley—or even in Nevada—was there a group dedicated to Advaita Vedanta that wasn’t also invested in the culture of India and in the rituals that developed from that culture. He felt that, like him, there must be aspirants who want to study and practice Advaita Vedanta without also having to take on the apparatus of Indian culture (though a rich and lovely culture it is). The Center was thus begun as a response to this need. As a consequence, we don’t observe such practices as puja, kirtan, prasad, etc. There is nothing wrong with such practices, but there are other organizations already fulfilling that need.

If you’ve spent any time researching groups in the Vedanta/Advaita Vedanta sphere, you’ve probably realized there aren’t many of them. This is largely due to the Christian hegemony of the United States as well as the limited demand for such groups. Thus, we are a small, intimate group of between 5 and 20 members at any one time.

Within the Advaita Vedanta space, of particular interest to us is self-enquiry, as proffered by Sri Ramana Maharshi, a clear articulation of which can be found in Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (edited by David Godman). Broadly speaking, self-enquiry is an activity whereby we turn from the object of our experience to the subject of that experience. Sri Ramana advises devotees to place their attention on the inner feeling of “I” and to hold fast to that feeling for as long as possible. If you become distracted, simply turn your attention back to the inner feeling of “I.” There are various crutches for doing this; for example, one might ask oneself “Who am I?” Alternatively, one might ask “Where does this ‘I’ come from?” As one’s practice deepens, eventually the feeling of individuality disappears—at least temporarily—and is replaced by the experience of pure being. The pure being that is experienced is often referred to in Advaita Vedanta as the Self, or the Absolute, or God.

Self-enquiry is not strictly a meditative practice done on a cushion at a certain hour of the day; rather, ideally, self-enquiry should be done full time, all throughout the day. That said, meditative exercises can certainly be a great prerequisite for self-enquiry—many practitioners find meditation helps settle the mind so as to pave the way for self-enquiry. By stilling the mind, one is less likely to be distracted during self-enquiry.

A fuller explanation of self-enquiry can be found on our blog.

At the Advaita Vedanta Center of Las Vegas we not only practice self-enquiry, we also study the traditional Hindu texts that provide the theological/philosophical framework for self-enquiry. Such texts (other than the aforementioned Be As You Are) include The Upanishads, The Bhagavad Gita, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Adi Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, as well as contemporary rehearsals such as works by Rupert Spira and others. We are not committed solely to one spiritual teacher; rather, we use whatever is helpful for our spiritual evolution. All faiths are welcome here.

We encourage you to visit the Activities page to view our events.

Arunachala