The Ramakrishna Mission: The Making of a Modern Hindu Movement
Book Specification
| Item Code: | IDE608 |
| Author: | Gwilym Beckerlegge |
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press, New Delhi |
| Language: | English |
| Edition: | 2000 |
| ISBN: | 0195651332 |
| Pages: | 232 (B & W Illus: 20) |
| Cover: | Hardcover |
| Other Details | 8.7" X 5.7" |
Book Description
Most scholarly studies of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission to date have concentrated almost exclusively on the relationship between Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, the Bengali mystic in whose name the movement was created, and Swami Vivekananda, his close follower and the actual founder of the Movement. Such studies have raised questions about the degree of continuity between Ramakrishna and Vivekananda and the nature of the relationship of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission to Hinduism in its wider sense.
This book stands in this tradition of critical studies of the Ramakrishna movement. It offers selected studies of aspects of the movement's development down to the present day and examines the role of personalities, other than Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, who also played a part in the growth of the movement.
Beckerlegge explores ways in which the Ramakrishna movement has been presented by scholars, promoted by its own adherents, and has seen prominent defections from its own ranks. It combines both an overview of several important debates within the study of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda with distinctive studies of the growth of the Ramakrishna movement. This book will be of special interest to historians and religious studies specialists.
About the Author:
Gwilym Beckerlegge is Senior Lecturer and staff tutor in Religious Studies at the Faculty of Arts, The Open University, UK.
| Abbreviations | xi | |
| Illustrations | xii | |
| Introduction | 1 | |
| Part One: The Ramakrishna Movement in Theoretical Perspective | ||
| 1. | The Ramakrishna Movement and Its Tradition According to Two 'Sympathetic Outsiders': F. Max Muller and Romain Rolland |
7 |
| 2. | Ramakrishna and Vivekananda in Critical Studies of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission | 27 |
| 3. | Categorizing the Ramakrishna Math and Mission | 52 |
| Part Two: The Ramakrishna Movement in India | ||
| 4. | 'First of All Comes the Gift of Food': Swami Vivekananda's Response to the Problem of Modern Famine | 79 |
| 5. | The Ramakrishna Math and Mission's Practice of Seva and the Promotion of Human Rights | 96 |
| 6. | Iconographic Representatios of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda | 113 |
| Part Three: The Ramakrishna Movement in Britain | ||
| 7. | Sowing the seeds of Vedanta in Britain: Surprising Shoots or Disappointing Harvest? |
143 |
| 8. | Henrietta Muller's Search for the Religion of the Femme Libre | 180 |
| Bibliography | 202 | |
| Index | 215 | |
