Hundreds of Melbourne residents attended weekend Vedanta Shravana sessions on 9 and 10 May, led by visiting Indian scholars Vidwan Arjun Bharadwaj and Vidwan Dr M.V. Vishwanath from the Aham Brahmasmi Foundation. The day-long sessions were held at Sai Samstan in Camberwell on Friday and Alamanda Community Hall in Point Cook on Saturday, drawing attendees from across Melbourne’s south-east and western suburbs.
The Aham Brahmasmi Foundation is a charitable trust focused on Vedanta teachings and spiritual education. The organisation operates with the blessings of the pontiffs of Sri Sarada Peetam in Sringeri, Karnataka, one of the four monasteries established by the 8th-century philosopher Adi Shankaracharya to promote Advaita Vedanta, the doctrine of non-dualism.
The sessions focused on Vedanta Vichara, described as an enquiry into the nature of the self, ultimate reality and liberation. Organisers said the teachings explored the traditional Advaita Vedanta process of Sravana (listening), Manana (reflection) and Nidhidhyasana (deep contemplation), with discussion centred on the question “Who am I?”, a form of self-enquiry associated with Sri Ramana Maharshi.
The scholars drew extensively from two classical texts attributed to Adi Shankaracharya: Vivekachudamani and Sadhana Panchakam. Vivekachudamani, a 581-verse philosophical dialogue between a guru and disciple, examines discrimination between the eternal and temporary, while Sadhana Panchakam outlines a structured spiritual path through study, discipline, reflection and meditation.
According to organisers, the sessions were open to people of all backgrounds regardless of age, gender, caste or religion, reflecting the foundation’s stated aim of making Vedantic teachings accessible to sincere seekers worldwide.
Attendees heard discussions on concepts including Maya, liberation, detachment, self-realisation and the Advaita view that the individual self and ultimate reality are fundamentally one.
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