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

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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The invaluable nucleus for this work is Swami Yogeshananda’s Swami Vivekananda Quotes the Upanishads, an unpublished compilation made from the Complete Works in 1960, before much material now available appeared in the public domain.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.

 

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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.......