Swami Vivekananda’s Relevance in Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century
April 2019
Published by Swami Suparnananda, Secretary, RMIC., Gol Park, Kolkata 700 029. With Financial assistance from Ministry of Culture, Govt of India. 2014, paperback, pp. 155+x Price not given.
The Vedanta Kesari
44
Book Reviews
This is a companion volume to the book Swami Vivekananda’s Vision of Future Society. The writers of the essays, who were the speakers, may have looked at Swamiji through various lenses, but the common thread running through all of the writings is Swamiji’s clairvoyant abilities to recognise and diagnose the ills of his age and prescribe remedies that transcend time and space to remain relevant more than a century and half later. The topics chosen cover a wide gamut of concerns that Swamiji felt India must tackle if she is to take her place in the world. For example, in the first essay which examines the theme of The Eternal and Time bound Elements of the Ideas of Swamiji, the reader gets the transcendency of Swamiji’s disquiet from the immediate circumstances of his times (India under a foreign yoke) to his assertions about the future (having faith in oneself as proof of being a theist). The second essay views the same topic from a different perspective: of seeing the universal in the particular as, for example, in discerning the eternal quality of religion against considering a religion in particular. Other essays include the global dialogue that Swamiji set off through his writing and speeches, a real interfaith meeting ground. The writers have emphasised the futility of expecting lasting peace if this dialogue is not an on-going process. Today, more than any other time in history with the possible exception of the Crusades, religion is tearing apart human societies in various parts of the world which are
For review in The Vedanta Kesari, publishers need to send us two copies of their
latest publication.
without recourse to Swamiji’s prophetic words on religious amity. The theme of the essays – discussing the past while looking forward, with the journey being the goal, by realising the divinity inherent in our own natures – that link between all human beings, was one of Swamiji’s matchless contributions to spiritual thought and it is a timely reminder of the fragility of world peace. Working together does not mean thinking the same thoughts and the writers have brought out Swamiji’s widely declared views on the harmony of religions. This is a reflective look at a theme that will never be out of date, for the future is an imaginary concept, moving farther and farther away from our grasp, even as it becomes the present and the past. Swamiji’s entire world-view is futuristic and these essays are a useful examination of that. ____________________________ PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI
Sri Padukasahasram of Sri Vedanta Desika-Vol-1 & 2. Transcomposition in Tamil by Sri R Kesava Ayyengar and English Translation by Sri D. Ramaswamy Iyangar
Published by The Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, No.84,
