The Philosophical And Religious Lectures of Swami Vivekananda
Book Specification
Item Code: | NAG120 |
Author: | Swami Tapasyananda |
Publisher: | ADVAITA ASHRAM KOLKATA |
Language: | English |
Edition: | 2012 |
ISBN: | 8175050608 |
Pages: | 231 |
Cover: | Paperback |
Other Details | 7.0 inch X 5.0 inch |
Weight | 150 gm |
Book Description
The first edition of this book was published by Sri Ramarishna Math, Mylapore, Madras-600 004, in 1984. Since then, the copyright of the book has changed hands. It is now being published by Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, as the earlier edition got exhausted in such a short time.
The Philosophical and Religious Lectures of Swami Vivekananda is the second volume in the Series entitled Studies in Swami Vivekananda. The success of the first volume, The Four Yogas of swami Vivekananda, which has run into a second edition within two years of its publication, emboldens us to bring out this second one in the series.
The method followed is the same as in the first- to make a précis of the lectures in about one third of the size of the originals, with appropriate paragraph headings that would serve as landmarks to guide the reader through the thought content of the lectures. While the lectures of the first volume expound four distinct themes in four Books, those dealt with here are individual lectures, each dealing with a definite theme. They have, however, got their unity in that they all seek to expound some aspect or other of Vedanta in its practical application to the conditions of modern life.
In the Indian tradition philosophy and religion have always gone hand in hand. Our philosophers never adopted the Western philosophical outlook of an intellectual aloofness that seeks to steer clear of religion. When philosophy accepts the furtherance of man’s spiritual life as its aim, it becomes the best ally or religion, exercising an ennobling and liberalising influence on it. Swami Vivekananda’s philosophical lectures provide the best example of philosophy put to such a use. They present the universal spiritual values and their rational justification without reference to any particular cult or creed. Though their background is Vedantic, they are so closely related to the fundamentals of spiritual life that the followers of any religion will find in them some aid both to deepen and to broaden their faith.
If this volume finds favour with readers of Swami Vivekananda literature, we propose to follow it up with a third one under the heading The Nationalistic and Religious Lectures of Swami Vivekananda. It will comprise summaries of that great series of talks called Colombo to Almora Lectures and of his writings on Patriotic and cultural themes.
Preface | iii | |
Practical Vedanta-I | ||
1 | What is Practicality | 1 |
2 | Divinity of Man, a Practical Gospel | 2 |
3 | Vedanta and Everyday Life | 4 |
4 | The God of Vendanta is Every One's Experience | 5 |
Practical Vedanta-II | ||
1 | Practical Of The Upanishadic Teachers | |
2 | The Practical Nature Of the Vedantic Idea Of Salvation | 7 |
3 | The Impersonal God | 9 |
4 | Advantages of the Impersonal Conception | 11 |
Practical Vendanta-III | ||
1 | Requirements of a Scientific Religion | 13 |
2 | Buddhist Criticism of Dualism | 14 |
3 | The Only Answer lies in Advaitism | 15 |
4 | The Personal and The Impersonal Reconciled | 16 |
Practical Vedanta-IV | ||
1 | Soul-Body Theory Criticised | 19 |
2 | The Advaitin's Reconciliation | 20 |
3 | the Problem from the Individual's Point of View | 22 |
4 | Advita and Individuality | 24 |
5 | Individuality and Morality | 24 |
The Way To The Realisation Of A Universal Religion | 27 | |
1 | Truth and Religious Plurality | 28 |
2 | Each Religion has a Soul Of Its Own | 29 |
3 | What From Universal Religion is Possible | 31 |
The Ideal Of A Universal Religion | ||
1 | Differences as an Unavoidable Feature Of Religion | 34 |
2 | Unity in Diversity as The Law of Life | 35 |
3 | Some Basic Truths Underlying Universality | 37 |
4 | The Four Types Of Nature And Universal Religion | 37 |
5 | Raja yoga | 38 |
6 | Karma Yoga | 40 |
7 | Bhakti Yoga | 40 |
8 | Jnana Yoga | 41 |
The Importance Of psychology | ||
1 | Psychology As The Science Of Sciences | 43 |
2 | How The Mind Can Be studied | 44 |
Soul, God And Religion | 45 | |
1 | The Idea Of The Soul | 46 |
2 | The Idea Of The Deity | 48 |
3 | Religion as Realisation | 48 |
What Is Religion? | ||
1 | Quest For Freedom as The Genesis Of Religion | 50 |
2 | The Comprehensive Idea Of God as The Fulfillment Of The Struggle For Freedom | 51 |
3 | The True 'I' | 52 |
The Veda And The Vedanta | ||
1 | monotheism Of The Veda | 53 |
2 | From Vedism to Vedanta | 54 |
The Vedanta Philosophy | ||
1 | Texts Of The Vedanta | |
2 | The World- View Of The Vedanta | |
3 | The State Of Advaitic Realisation | |
Reason And Religion | ||
1 | The Conflicting Claims Of Religion And Science | 60 |
2 | Reason as an Arbiter in The Conflict of Scriptures | 61 |
3 | Principles of Scientific Reasoning | 62 |
4 | How Vedanta Fulfils The Needs Of a Scientific Religion | 63 |
5 | Vedanta is not Pantheism | 64 |
6 | The Deficiency Of a Personal God | 65 |
7 | The Impersonal; and Problem Of Evil | 65 |
8 | Complementary Nature Of the Personal And The Impersonal | 66 |
Some Special Features Of The Vedanta | 69 | |
Steps Of hindu Philosophic Thought | ||
1 | Jiva and Nature | 71 |
2 | The Jiva and His Embodiments | 72 |
3 | Qualified Non- Dualism | 74 |
4 | Non- dualism | 74 |
Steps To realisation | ||
1 | The seven Steps | |
2 | Purity Attained through Disciplines leads to Realization | 76 |
Vedanta And Privilege | 78 | |
1 | The Absolute and Manifestation | 80 |
2 | Diversity and Inequality, a Necessity Of Life | 80 |
3 | Demand For Privilege an Unjustifiable Evil | 81 |
Work And Its Secret | ||
1 | Power Of Attachment And Detachment As The Secret Of Work | 83 |
2 | Detachment does not mean Imperviousness | 84 |
3 | Unselfishness The Secret Of True Detachment | 84 |
4 | Control Yourselves; Then The Environment Will be Controlled | 85 |
The Powers Of The Mind | ||
1 | The Mystery Of Power of Personality and unaccountable Phenomena | 86 |
2 | Yoga as Aid To Rapid Evolution | 87 |
Hints On Practical Spirituality | ||
1 | The Meaning And Purpose Of Pranayama | 88 |
2 | Prana as Universal Energy | 89 |
3 | The Unconscious Aspect Of Mind | 90 |
4 | A New Outlook on sin and Wickedness | 90 |
5 | Control of the Unconscious and the Supra- Conscious | 91 |
Bhakti or Devotion | ||
1 | Ritualism as the universal Expression of Divine Adoration | 93 |
2 | When does Man Rise Above Ritualism | 93 |
3 | The Dawn of Longing For God | 95 |
4 | The three characteristics of genuine Love | 96 |
The Way To Blessedness | ||
1 | The Real can be Apprehended only by looking within | 98 |
2 | The Unity Of Existence | 98 |
3 | The Three Perceptions | 99 |
Soul, Nature And God | ||
1 | The Gross Body, Subtle Body And Atman | 101 |
2 | Nature and Evolution | 103 |
3 | The Soul In Its Three Phases | 103 |
Cosmology | ||
1 | Cyclic Nature of creative Activity | 105 |
2 | Bhutas, Prana and Akasa | 106 |
3 | Sukshma- Sarira and the Atman | 106 |
4 | Meaning Of Evolution | 107 |
5 | God of the Sankhyas | 107 |
6 | Subjectivity in Perception | 109 |
A Study Of The Sankhya Philosophy | ||
1 | Kapila, the World's first Philosopher | 110 |
2 | Prakriti and its Evolutes | 110 |
3 | The Sub- Conscious, conscious and super - conscious | 111 |
4 | Why the world looks imperfect | 112 |
5 | Purusha as antecedent to Intelligence and Will | 112 |
Sankhya And Vedanta | 114 | |
Unity , The Goal Of Religion | ||
1 | Religion a constitutional necessity for Man | 117 |
2 | The Relevancy of Religion | 117 |
3 | Religion And Discovery Of New Truth | 118 |
The Free Soul | ||
1 | You are the Whole Atman, not Part | 119 |
2 | The Knower cannot be the known | 120 |
3 | How the Free has become the Bound | 120 |
4 | How the Illusion came about , an impossible Question | 121 |
5 | Worship in the Monist's Perspective | 122 |
6 | Who is fit to be a Jnana Yogi | 123 |
One Existence Appearing As Many | ||
1 | Renunciation the Key-note Of Advaitism | 124 |
2 | The one Existence | 124 |
3 | Advaitin's View about the Hereafter | 125 |
4 | Causation, a Myth | 125 |
5 | Overcoming Slavery | 126 |
Real Worship | ||
1 | Without Purity no true worship is possible | 127 |
2 | Service and Unselfishness form true Religion | 127 |
The Vedanta | ||
1 | The Veda and the Vedanta | 129 |
2 | The Vedanta Teaching are Complementary and not contradictory | 130 |
3 | Cosmology and Psychology of Vedanta | 131 |
4 | The Structure and Functions Of Antahkarana | 132 |
5 | The Provisional Conception Of the Atman and Iswara | 133 |
6 | The Atman and Evolution | 134 |
7 | The Buddhist Challenge | 136 |
8 | The Advaitta alone can answer these Critics | 137 |
9 | Brahman as the Unknown - How? | 138 |
10 | The Doctrine Of Maya | 140 |
11 | The Apprehension of Brahman in three Stages | 140 |
12 | Advaita alone is consistent with the Scientific Outlook | 142 |
13 | Adivaita and Morality | 143 |
14 | Practical Vedanta | 144 |
The Influence Of Indian Spiritual Thought In England | ||
1 | Expression is the Message Of the West | 146 |
2 | What India has to give to the West | 146 |
Sannyasa: Its Ideal and Practice | 149 | |
India's Spiritual Ideals | ||
1 | The Reformers and the Orthodox | 151 |
2 | The true Spiritual Ideal | 151 |
3 | The three Precious Attainments | 152 |
4 | Hindu Scriptures | 152 |
5 | Some important Doctrines of Hinduism | 153 |
6 | A Word to the Reformers and the Orthodox | 155 |
Addresses On Bhakti-Yoga | ||
1 | The Preparation | 156 |
2 | The First Step: The Outlook Of a true Aspirant | 157 |
3 | For Progress one must really want God | 159 |
4 | Teachers of Spirituality | 160 |
5 | Who is a fit Disciple and who is a proper Guru | 160 |
6 | World Teachers and Incarnations | 162 |
7 | Early stages of Bhakti | 163 |
8 | Prayers and Ceremonies for Satisfaction of Desires have no place in Bhakti | 164 |
8 | Symbols: Pratikas and pratimas | 165 |
10 | Sound Symbols | 167 |
11 | Ishtam or Freedom Of Choice in Religion | 168 |
12 | Ishtam is Sacred, not Secret | 170 |
Is The Soul immortal? | ||
1 | Death and Inherent Sense of immortality | 171 |
2 | The inherent Sense Of Freedom | 172 |
3 | Immortality of the soul as Explanation | 173 |
Reincarnation | ||
1 | The Mystery of Man's Internal Nature | 174 |
2 | Theories of the Soul | 174 |
3 | Soul Theory of the Vedas | 175 |
4 | Proofs of the soul's Pre-Existence | 176 |
Is Vedanta The Future Religion? | ||
1 | Requisites for a Religion to Prevail widely | 179 |
2 | The Difficulty of Vedantic Idea Of God | 180 |
3 | The Vedantic Idea Of God | 180 |
4 | The Goal of Vedantic Ideal Of Religion and the Difficulty of Realising it | |
Discourses On Jnana Yoga | ||
1 | Some Characteristics of Jnana Yoga | 184 |
2 | Sankaracharya | 185 |
3 | The Nature Of jnan On Gita and Krishna | 185 |
4 | On Gita and Krishna | 186 |
5 | Characteristics of Jnana and the Jnani | 186 |
6 | When is Jnana attained | 187 |
7 | Higher understanding very rare among Men | 187 |
8 | Sacrifice as Essential to True Religion | 188 |
9 | Dvaitins and Advaitins | 188 |
10 | What is perfection | 189 |
11 | Law, Sin and sinners | 190 |
12 | The Body and its true Evaluation | 190 |
13 | Instinct, Reason and Intuition | 191 |
14 | What is Jnana? | 191 |
The Methods And Purpose Of Religion | ||
1 | The two Approaches of Religion to Truth | 193 |
2 | The Quest of the Vedanta: Unity of Existence | 193 |
3 | Analysis of Religion into Philosophy, Mythology and Ritual | 194 |
4 | How Vedanta Escapes from Personality Cult | 195 |
5 | Rishihood for all as the Goal of Religion | 196 |
The Nature Of The Soul And Its Goal | ||
1 | The Egyptian Idea of a 'Double' | 198 |
2 | The Aryan Idea of soul as a Bright Body | 198 |
3 | From 'Bright Body' to Atman | 199 |
4 | The Atman as Inherently Perfect | 199 |
5 | Evolution is of the Body not of Atman | 200 |
6 | The Unity of the Atman | 202 |
Discipleship | ||
1 | Right Attitude of Discipleship | 203 |
2 | Spirit of Renunciation | 203 |
3 | Control of the senses and the Mind | 204 |
4 | Faith | 204 |
5 | Burning Desire to be free | 205 |
6 | Discrimination | 206 |
Six Lessons On Raja Yoga | ||
Introduction | 207 | |
1 | First Lesson : Early Disciplines | 207 |
2 | Second Lesson: Pranayama | 209 |
3 | Third Lesson: Kundalini | 211 |
4 | Fourth Lesson: Control of Mind | 211 |
5 | Fifth Lesson: Pratyahara and Dharana | 212 |
6 | Sixth Lesson: Sushumna | 213 |
Thoughts On The Gita | ||
1 | Gita in Historical Perspective | 214 |
2 | Gita Contrasted with the Upanishads | 215 |
3 | Samanvaya and Nishkama Karma | 215 |
4 | Manliness, the dominant Note of the Gita | 216 |