Ramakrishna Monastery | |
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Religion | |
Affiliation | Ramakrishna Order |
Region | Orange County |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Active |
Year consecrated | 1949 |
Location | |
Location | 19961 Live Oak Canyon Road, Trabuco Canyon, California |
State | California |
Geographic coordinates | 33°40′24″N 117°36′36″W / 33.6734°N 117.6101°W |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Felix Greene |
Style | 18th Century Mediterranean Monastery |
Website | |
vedanta |
The monastery was originally developed in 1942 during WWII by Gerald Heard, [1] [2] [3] [4] a disciple of Swami Prabhavananda of the Vedanta Society of Southern California an American branch of the Ramakrishna Order of India. [5] Established as Trabuco College, it was originally meant to be a religious, non-sectarian, co-ed monastery, unaffiliated with any particular religious organization. [6] Aldous Huxley, a close friend of Heard, spent 6 weeks there working on his book The Perennial Philosophy. [7]
However, the experiment failed and Heard donated the land and buildings to the Vedanta Society of Southern California as a male-only monastery. [8] It was consecrated on September 7, 1949, by Swami Prabhavananda, as the Ramakrishna Monastery. It is located on a 40-acre property in the rolling hills of Trabuco Canyon, California. It bears the name of the great Indian mystic, Sri Ramakrishna, founder of the Ramakrishna Order of India. [9] [10]