Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works - Hardcover

Vivekananda, Swami; Nikhilananda, Swami

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0911206043 ISBN 13: 9780911206043

Publisher: Ramakrishna Vivekanada Center, 1953

Synopsis

Vivekananda: The Yogas and Other Works reveals the many facets of a spiritual giant of our times. It will serve as a guide for all spiritual seekers in their search for the Highest Good. This handsome edition includes the unabridged texts of Swami Vivekananda's' Jnana-Yoga, Raja-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, and Inspired Talks, together with additional lectures, poems, and letters. A biography of Vivekananda (179 pages) written by Swami Nikhilananda forms the introductory chapter. A glossary and an index are included along with 43 photographs.

About this title

About the Author

Swami Vivekananda's inspiring personality was well known both in India and in America during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The unknown monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, colourful personality, and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many types of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or heard Vivekananda even once still cherish his memory after a lapse of more than half a century.

In America Vivekananda's mission was the interpretation of India's spiritual culture, especially in its Vedantic setting. He also tried to enrich the religious consciousness of the Americans through the rational and humanistic teachings of the Vedanta philosophy. In America he became India's spiritual ambassador and pleaded eloquently for better understanding between India and the New World in order to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of religion and science.

In his own motherland Vivekananda is regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer of her dormant national consciousness, To the Hindus he preached the ideal of a strength-giving and man-making religion. Service to man as the visible manifestation of the Godhead was the special form of worship he advocated for the Indians, devoted as they were to the rituals and myths of their ancient faith. Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their indebtedness to Swami Vivekananda.

The Swami's mission was both national and international. A lover of mankind, be strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of existence. A mystic of the highest order, Vivekananda had a direct and intuitive experience of Reality. He derived his ideas from that unfailing source of wisdom and often presented them in the soulstirring language of poetry.

The natural tendency of Vivekananda's mind, like that of his Master, Ramakrishna, was to soar above the world and forget itself in contemplation of the Absolute. But another part of his personality bled at the sight of human suffering in East and West alike. It might appear that his mind seldom found a point of rest in its oscillation between contemplation of God and service to man. Be that as it may, he chose, in obedience to a higher call, service to man as his mission on earth; and this choice has endeared him to people in the West, Americans in particular.

In the course of a short life of thirty-nine years (1863-1902), of which only ten were devoted to public activities-and those, too, in the midst of acute physical suffering-he left for posterity his four classics: Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, and Raja-Yoga, all of which are outstanding treatises on Hindu philosophy. In addition, he delivered innumerable lectures, wrote inspired letters in his own hand to his many friends and disciples, composed numerous poems, and acted as spiritual guide to the many seekers, who came to him for instruction. He also organized the Ramakrishna Order of monks, which is the most outstanding religious organization of modern India. It is devoted to the propagation of the Hindu spiritual culture not only in the Swami's native land, but also in America and in other parts of the world.

Swami Vivekananda once spoke of himself as a "condensed India." His life and teachings are of inestimable value to the West for an understanding of the mind of Asia. William James, the Harvard philosopher, called the Swami the "paragon of Vedantists." Max Muller and Paul Deussen, the famous Orientalists of the nineteenth century, held him in genuine respect and affection. "His words," writes Romain Rolland, "are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!'' - From the preface of Vivekananda: A Biography written by Swami Nikhilananda.

From the Inside Flap

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (1863 - 1902), through his masterly exposition of the Hindu religion and philosophy at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, and his subsequent lectures and writings, made an unforgettable impression upon religious minds in America.

As the builder of the spiritual bridge joining East and West, he has been hailed as India's first cultural ambassador to the New World. For the past century Americans have been reading his Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, Raja-Yoga, and other works to learn the techniques of the spiritual life, to gain an insight into the nature of spiritual experiences, and also to obtain an understanding of the Hindu religion and philosophy in general.

The materials contained in the present volume have been carefully selected from the eight volumes of Vivekananda's Complete Works published in India, and have been thoroughly revised and edited. They include, besides the unabridged texts of the Yogas, many of the Swami's other lectures, as well as poems and letters, and reveal Vivekananda as a philosopher, man of action, devotee of God, mystic, and poet.

The introductory section contains a detailed biography of Vivekananda by Swami Nikhilananda. Technical and unfamiliar words have been explained in an exhaustive glossary. The reader of this volume will find in Vivekananda not only an uncommon religious teacher, but also a warm-blooded, sensitive, passionate, and breathing human being. His words have power to stir up weary and depressed souls, strengthen men's faith in themselves and in God, and open new horizons before all seekers of truth.

Westerners will find here a key to understanding of the spiritual culture of the Orient and of India in particular. Through these teachings, which embody a synthesis of science and religion, reason and faith, modern minds will be enabled to deepen their religious consciousness and thus eventually realize the dream of One World.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ADDRESS AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS - RESPONSE TO WELCOME (Chicago, September 11, 1893)

Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ramakrishna Vivekanada Center
• Publication date: 1953
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0911206043
• ISBN 13: 9780911206043
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 974