Universal Quest plans new film “Vivekananda: America’s First Guru” on how Yoga and Vedanta first came to America

If you ever wondered how Yoga, words like Namaste, Karma, Dharma and ideas like the universal mind, the divinity within and that all religions are true, first entered the American conversation and became a part of common parlance, then prepare to be enlightened. A new film from Universal Quest entitled “Vivekananda, America’s First Guru” will shed […]

If you ever wondered how Yoga, words like Namaste, Karma, Dharma and ideas like the universal mind, the divinity within and that all religions are true, first entered the American conversation and became a part of common parlance, then prepare to be enlightened.

A new film from Universal Quest entitled “Vivekananda, America’s First Guru” will shed new light on how Eastern Wisdom entered the world of American ideas back in 1893 with the arrival of a young Indian monk Swami Vivekananda at the first Parliament of World’s Religions in Chicago. He emerged not only as the star of the Parliament but went on to become America’s first Guru.  This in-depth documentary by award winning filmmaker Raja Choudhury will explore how this was the tipping point for America’s love affair with Eastern Wisdom.

Raja and his team have started filming in the US and India at the key locations of the story and have lined up some extraordinary voices to speak about Vivekananda and his impact including Swami Chetanananda and Swami Yuktatmananda of the Vedanta Society of America as well as authors AL Bardach and Philip Goldberg and many others. The story will be told in Vivekananda’s own words with narration by a leading American voice and an original music score.


In order to raise additional funding, Universal Quest recently launched an Indiegogo Crowd Funding Campaign with lots of Perks and Benefits including books, DVD’s and unfettered access to the filmmakers for donors. The film also has a website at www.VivekanandaTheFilm.com and a very popular Facebook Page.

Filmmaker Raja Choudhury is a Webby and National Film Award (India) winning documentarian who lives between the US and India and the film’s executive producer is Mat Tombers of Intermat, formerly of Discovery Channel and Odyssey Networks. The film will initially be released in theatrical and public showings and then on PBS in the US and other networks worldwide. The film will also be available through VOD as well as a uniquely designed DVD/BluRay set. The project’s fiscal sponsor is The Hartley Film Foundation which offers a potentially tax-free method of contributing to the film at their Website.

Click on this link to watch the trailer.

For further information  on the production contact Raja Choudhury ([email protected]) and for distribution and pre-sales agreements contact Mat Tombers ([email protected]).

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