(This book is about the practice of Raja Yoga. The method ...)
This book is about the practice of Raja Yoga. The method has been called the soul of all the yogas. The emphsis here in on the control of the mind through concentration and meditation. Raja yoga is also called the yoga of meditation. It is regarded as the psychological way to union with God. Rousing the Kundalini is the one and only way to attain Divine Wisdom. The rousing may come in various ways: through love for God, through the mercy of perfected sages, or through the power of the analytic will of the philosopher.
(Bhakti Yoga is a real genuine search after the Lord, a se...)
Bhakti Yoga is a real genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning, continuing, and ending in Love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love to God brings us eternal freedom. When a man gets it, he loves all, hates none; he becomes satisfied forever.
(This book is a collection of Swami Vivekananda's writings...)
This book is a collection of Swami Vivekananda's writings and lectures on meditation. It is more of an introductory book with plenty of inspirational passages to motivate a reader to adopt meditation for a better and peaceful life.
(This ebook contains all the books, lectures, discussions,...)
This ebook contains all the books, lectures, discussions, prose, poetry, and letters written by Swami Vivekananda, a spiritual teacher from India at the end of the 19th century who brought Vedanta to the United States and Europe.
The Four Paths of Self-Realization: the path of knowledge, the path of inner-transformation, the path of selfless action, the path of devotion
(From ancient times, people of India have practiced spirit...)
From ancient times, people of India have practiced spiritual disciplines designed to clear the mind and support a state of serene, detached awareness. The practices for developing this desired state of balance, purity, wisdom, and peacefulness of mind are known collectively as "yoga." "Yoga" means "yoke" or "union" - referring to union with the true Self, the goal described in the Upanishads. The sages distinguished four basic types of people and developed practices that are particularly suitable for each type, in order that each man can attain the desired union with the Self.
Pathways to Joy: The Master Vivekananda on the Four Yoga Paths to God
(At the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Viv...)
At the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda transformed Western thinking. He showed that, far from being an exotic novelty, Hinduism was an important, legitimate spiritual tradition with valuable lessons for the West. Pathways to Joy is a selection of 108 of his sacred teachings on Vedanta philosophy. In accessible and powerful prose, Vivekananda illuminates the four classical yoga paths - karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana - for the different natures of humankind.
(Jnana yoga is called the path of knowledge, or the path o...)
Jnana yoga is called the path of knowledge, or the path of non-dualism. This yoga has become popular in the west, especially for people who wish to bypass the concept of a personal God and the excesses of organized religion. Of special note are the series of lectures on "Practical Vedanta" found in the book. This is not a section on dry theory that does not relate to the world, but an active guide to integrating Vedanta into our daily lives. Swami Vivekananda's most important teachings on Jnana Yoga were given in the West.
Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India and contributed to the notion of nationalism in colonial India. He was the chief disciple of the 19th-century saint Ramakrishna and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.
Background
Swami Vivekananda's real name was Narendranath Dutta and his parents called him "Bile." He was born in Calcutta's Shimla Palli, on January 12, 1863. His father Viswanath Dutta was a successful attorney with interests in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneshwari Devi, was endowed with deep devotion, strong character, and other qualities.
Education
As a young boy, Narendranath displayed sharp intellect. His mischievous nature belied his interest in music, both instrumental as well as vocal. He excelled in his studies as well, first at the Metropolitan Institution (1871-1877), and later at the Presidency College in Calcutta (now Presidency University at Kolkata, India). By the time he graduated from college in 1884 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, he had acquired a vast knowledge of different subjects. He was active in sports, gymnastics, wrestling, and bodybuilding. He was an avid reader and read up on almost everything under the sun. He perused the Hindu scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads on one hand, while on the other hand, he studied western philosophy, history, and spirituality by David Hume, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Herbert Spencer.
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 a 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.
During the middle of 1885, Ramakrishna, who had been suffering from throat cancer, fell seriously ill. In September 1885, Sri Ramakrishna was moved to Shyampukur in Culcutta, and a few months later Narendranath took a rented villa at Cossipore. Here, he formed a group of young people who were ardent followers of Sri Ramakrishna and together they nursed their Guru with devoted care. On 16 August 1886, Sri Ramakrishna gave up his mortal body.
After the demise of Sri Ramakrishna, around fifteen of his disciples including Narendranath began to live together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar in North Calcutta, which was named Ramakrishna Math, the monastic order of Ramakrishna. Here, in 1887, they formally renounced all ties to the world and took vows of monkhood. The brotherhood rechristened themselves and Narendranath emerged as Vivekananda meaning "the bliss of discerning wisdom."
The brotherhood lived off on alms donated voluntarily by patrons during holy begging or "madhukari," performed yoga and meditation. Vivekananda left the Math in 1886 and went on a tour of India on foot as a ‘Parivrajak’. He traveled the breadth of the country, absorbing much of the social, cultural, and religious aspects of the people he came in contact with. He witnessed the adversities of life that the common people faced, their ailments, and vowed to dedicate his life to bring relief to these suffering.
During the course of his wanderings, he came to know about the World Parliament of Religions being held in Chicago, America in 1893. He was keen to attend the meeting, to represent India, Hinduism, and his Guru Sri Ramakrishna’s philosophies. He found assertion of his wishes while he was meditating on the rocks of Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of India. Money was raised by his disciples in Madras (now Chennai) and Ajit Singh, Raja of Khetri, and Vivekananda left for Chicago on May 31, 1893, from Bombay.
He faced insurmountable hardships on his way to Chicago, but his spirits remained as indomitable as ever. On 11 September 1893, when the time came, he took the stage and stunned everyone with his opening line "My brothers and sisters of America." He received a standing ovation from the audience for the opening phrase. He went on to describe the principles of Vedanta and their spiritual significance, putting Hinduism on the map of World Religions.
He spent the next two and a half years in America and founded the Vedanta Society of New York in 1894. He also traveled to the United Kingdom to preach the tenets of the Vedanta and Hindu Spiritualism to the western world.
Vivekananda returned to India in 1897 amidst warm reception from the common and royal alike. He reached Calcutta after a series of lectures across the country and founded the Ramakrishna Mission on May 1, 1897, at Belur Math near Calcutta. The goals of the Ramakrishna Mission were based on the ideals of Karma Yoga and its primary objective was to serve the poor and distressed population of the country. The Ramakrishna Mission undertook various forms of social service like establishing and running schools, colleges, and hospitals, propagation of practical tenets of Vedanta through conferences, seminars, and workshops, initiating relief and rehabilitation work across the country.
Swami Vivekananda had predicted that he will not live till the age of forty. On July 4, 1902, he went about his days’ work at the Belur Math, teaching Sanskrit grammar to the pupils. He retired to his room in the evening and died during meditation at around 9. He is said to have attained ‘Mahasamadhi’ and the great saint has cremated on the Banks of river Ganga.
(This book is about the practice of Raja Yoga. The method ...)
1953
Religion
Although Narendranath’s mother was a devout woman and he had grown up in a religious atmosphere at home, he underwent a deep spiritual crisis at the start of his youth. His well-studied knowledge led him to question the existence of God and for some time he believed in Agnosticism. Yet he could not completely ignore the existence of a Supreme Being. He became associated with the Brahmo Movement led by Keshab Chandra Sen, for some time. The Brahmo Samaj recognized one God, unlike the idol-worshipping, superstition-ridden Hinduism. The host of philosophical questions regarding the existence of God roiling through his mind remained unanswered. During this spiritual crisis, Vivekananda first heard about Sri Ramakrishna from William Hastie, the Principal of the Scottish Church College.
Earlier, to satisfy his intellectual quest for God, Narendranath visited prominent spiritual leaders from all religions, asking them a single question, "Have you seen God?" Each time he came away without a satisfying answer. He put forward the same question to Sri Ramkrishna at his residence in Dakshinewar Kali Temple compounds. Without a moment's hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: "Yes, I have. I see God as clearly as I see you, only in a much deeper sense." Vivekananda, initially unimpressed by the simplicity of Ramkrishna, was astonished by Ramakrishna's reply. Ramakrishna gradually won over this argumentative young man with his patience and love. The more Narendranath visited Dakshineshwar, the more his questions were answered.
In 1884, Naredranath underwent considerable financial distress due to the death of his father as he had to support his mother and younger siblings. He asked Ramakrishna to pray to the Goddess for the financial welfare of his family. On Ramakrishna’s suggestion, he himself went to the temple to pray. But once he faced the Goddess he could not ask for money and wealth, instead, he asked for "Vivek" (conscience) and "Bairagya" (reclusion). That day marked the complete spiritual awakening of Narendranath and he found himself drawn to an ascetic way of life.
Politics
Swami Vivekananda was a prominent nationalist and had the overall welfare of his countrymen topmost in his mind. He urged his fellow countrymen to "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached."
Views
Swami's mission was both national and international. A lover of mankind, he 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 soul-stirring 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.
His religious conscience was an amalgamation of Sri Ramakrishna’s spiritual teachings of Divine manifestation and his personal internalization of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. He directed to achieve the divinity of the soul by undertaking selfless work, worship, and mental discipline. According to Vivekananda, the ultimate goal is to achieve freedom of the soul and that encompasses the entirety of one’s religion.
Quotations:
"Arise, awake, and do not stop until the goal is reached."
"You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul."
"You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself."
"We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far."
"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."
"The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong."
"Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way."
"All differences in this world are of degree, and not of a kind because oneness is the secret of everything."
"Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true."
"If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better."
Personality
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.
Quotes from others about the person
Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose once said: "Swamiji harmonized the East and the West, religion, and science, past and present. And that is why he is great. Our countrymen have gained unprecedented self-respect, self-reliance, and self-assertion from his teachings."
Interests
music
Philosophers & Thinkers
David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Baruch Spinoza, Georg W. F. Hegel, Arthur Schopenhauer, Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin
Writers
Bhagvad Gita
Sport & Clubs
gymnastics, wrestling, and bodybuilding
Music & Bands
Indian classical music
Connections
Swami Vivekananda was never married and had no children.
Vivekananda: A Biography
An absorbing biography of Swami Vivekananda that presents his vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture, deep spiritual insight, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, and colorful personality. Swami Vivekananda, India's first spiritual and cultural ambassador to the West, proclaimed the universal message of Vedanta: the non-duality of the Godhead, the divinity of the soul, the oneness of existence, and the harmony of religions.