Is the World Real? with Swami Medhananda

Swami Medhananda is a monk, philosopher, and Senior Research Fellow at the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He serves as Hindu Chaplain at both UCLA and USC and is Section Editor for the International Journal of Hindu Studies. From 2010 to 2021, he led the Philosophy program at the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute in India. He has authored four books, including Infinite Paths to Infinite Reality and Swami Vivekananda’s Vedāntic Cosmopolitanism, and has edited several academic volumes. Swami Medhananda earned his PhD from UC Berkeley and has been invited to lecture at institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford. His current projects include two forthcoming books with Oxford University Press.

Here Swami Medhananda shares his journey into Vedanta and reflects on the living relevance of Hinduism’s philosophical traditions. He explores the distinctions between Shankara’s Advaita and Ramakrishna’s Vijnana Vedanta, the dance between devotion and nonduality, and how the Gita and Upanishads offer practical guidance. With insight into suffering, identity, and spiritual integration, this conversation invites us to embody pure consciousness in everyday life.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:06:22 Understanding Vedanta: Definitions and key texts

00:09:32 Shankara’s Advaita Vedanta: Core concepts

00:15:38 Jnana Yoga: The path of knowledge

00:23:42 Is full liberation even possible while in the physical body?

00:25:25 Vijnana Vedanta: Embodied spirituality and liberation

00:33:57 Eat sugar or become sugar

00:35:53 Pure consciousness, suffering and the duality of names and forms

00:45:52 How does the ultimate reality relate to this world?

00:47:05 Practical applications of the teachings to navigate suffering

01:05:06 All of life is yoga

01:07:44 The secret of life

New Thinking Allowed Guest Host Leanne Whitney, PhD, is a depth psychologist and transformational coach based in Los Angeles, CA. She is the author of Consciousness in Jung and Patañjali and currently serves as Executive Director of Center for Transformation and Integration. Her website is https://leannewhitney.com/

To learn about Leanne Whitney’s Transformational Coaching Certification Course with an emphasis in Somatic Integration Therapy, please visit: https://transformationandintegration.com/courses

Producer: Elena McNally

Editor: John Hartmann

(Recorded on June 6, 2025)

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