Vivekananda on the Vedas ...parts 1 and 2.

[Guest guest]

We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana of the San

Francisco Vedanta Society.

Your comments are welcome. Part 1 has been repeated Part 2 included.. jay

..Vivekananda Centre London

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

 

PREFACE

 

After fourteen years of continuous work, the compilation, Swami Vivekananda on

the Vedas and Upanisads, is now ready to come to the light of day. It began,

partially as a response to the current confusion over the coherency of Swami

Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta and partially as a search for the essence of his

message to contemporary humanity. As time went by, the volume of the work and a

certain compelling pattern of inner organization built up a critical mass and

momentum which swept the project forward to its present state of completion. A

number of loose ends remain untied, however. Perhaps that is a good thing, for

it provides opportunities for readers to make contributions and additions to the

overall body of the work.

 

The invaluable nucleus for this work is Swami Yogeshananda’s Swami Vivekananda

Quotes the Upanishads, an unpublished compilation made from the Complete Works

in 1960, before much material now available appeared in the public domain. The

swami’s work did not include the classical four mahavakyas, which have been

researched and included in this compilation along with some other major mantras

such as Saccidananda. I am very much indebted to Swami Yogeshananda’s

pioneering work.

 

I sincerely hope that, by bringing this material to light on the Internet we

shall, on the one hand, receive feedback from readers everywhere, improving and

strengthening the work; and, on the other, will take a step towards establishing

the Himalayan majesty of the Vedanta, particularly in its modern incarnation of

the Neo-Vedanta of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.

 

_______________

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISADS

 

COMPILER’S INTRODUCTION

 

Re-visioning the Message of Swami Vivekananda

 

a) The Need for a Reassessment of Swami Vivekananda and His Neo-Vedanta

When we read about Swami Vivekananda, in most instances we hear of his

charisma, his striking appearance, or his “cyclonic”, impetuous movement to

effect change in both East and West. And, as often as not, it is conceded that

he met with conspicuous success in his undertakings (though Western

intellectuals, not keen to be beholden to the Orient, are less enthusiastic on

this score than are the Indians) This much is in the common domain.

 

 

As the dust settles on the past hundred years, however, we are hearing more

and more, even from the precincts of the Ramakrishna Order itself, that Swami

Vivekananda was “not a systematic thinker” or, less generously, that he was

“inconsistent”, “confusing”, and even “incoherent”. A rather strange string of

epithets for a man who is, at the same time, touted as the eternal companion of

the avatar Ramakrishna! Can we ascribe such exalted status to one whose

thinking processes were, in the common estimation, inferior even to a merely

normal, educated person?

 

 

More insidiously, there is also a movement afoot among orthodox, scholarly

Hindus and traditionalists of other faiths which asserts that Sri Ramakrishna,

as also Swami Vivekananda and the Order he founded are anti-intellectual and

ultimately responsible for the contemporary breakdown of the Hindu tradition.

Again, a rather odd evaluation of two personalities whose avowed mission in life

was the re-establishment of the Eternal Religion and the culture which emanates

from it!

 

 

To someone who has benefited immensely from the so-called new (Neo-) Vedanta

of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, such assertions come as a surprise and, at the same

time, a challenge. Why are such wild statements being made, even by swamis of

the Ramakrishna Order? Are Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda merely “paper

tigers” with no enduring substance to them? The testimony of one’s own life

immediately cries, “No!” and a deep conviction arises that, no matter what

contradictions and inconsistencies may appear on the surface of Neo-Vedanta,

there must be a coherency, meaning and a profoundly supportive and nurturing

structure to Neo-Vedanta that, as yet, is not fully apparent.

 

 

to be continued.......