Guest guest Posted December 21, 2000 Report Share Posted December 21, 2000 Part 3 The versatile and young Narendra was well versed with both Indian and western philosophical thought, including the Vedanta of Upanishads and newer trends in the philosophy of Schopenhauer, Kant, and Hegel in European culture. He once said, " Kant's great achievement was the discovery that 'time, space, and causation are modes of thought,' but Vedanta taught this ages ago and called it 'Maya'. Schopenhauer stands on reason only and rationalizes the Vedas... Shankara maintained the orthodoxy of Vedas. " It was a rare combination of science and literature that flourished in the mind of this young man, hungry for knowledge in all the fields. He even went to Calcutta medical school to see for himself the arrangement of brain, spinal cord, and the nerves in the dead bodies in the anatomical museum. He wanted to understand the flow of current etc. in various Kundalini chakras. Equally adept he was in the art of music and singing. His voice was clear, pure, and full with emotion that was sure to bring tears to the eyes of the listeners. Even Sri Ramakrishna used to say, 'no one sings more touchingly than Naren'. He was expert in playing percussion instruments like tabla, mrudung, and especially pakhavaz. Thus equipped with the knowledge of English and Bengali (he also knew some Hindi), art and literature, music and singing (he also had comments about painting!), philosophy and science, Swami Vivekananda presented himself at the holy feet of Sri Ramakrishna in the year 1881, at the tender age of eighteen. Continued part 4... C S Shah -- ==================== For e-zine on Vedanta and Science, do Visit: http://www.neovedanta.org ========= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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