Vedānta and the Resurgence of Indian Life:Vivekananda’s Perspective

Abstract

In this paper, I shall discuss Vedānta and the resurgence of Indian life. Vivekananda’s life and work appear to coincide with modern India rediscovering itself. For him, Vedānta was not simply a closed system of philosophical belief but a worldview that could be transformed into active social and political praxis. Vivekananda attempted to combine the lofty idealism of Advaita Vedānta with a philosophy of social praxis. He aimed to revive the traditional Advaita Vedānta philosophy. In his interpretation of the Vedānta, he wanted to establish it as a system with the view that man is an essential spirit. His primary aim was ‘man making’ following the Vedāntin ideology. Taking the case of Vedāntic non-dualism itself, there can be no doubt that Vivekananda was seriously attracted to it as a school of philosophy. However, it was also the fact that he was a penchant for Advaita Vedānta from a radically different perspective. In the non-sectarian qualities of Advaita Vedānta, Vivekananda also claimed to have found immense humanism and extraordinary powers of accommodation. The grandest idea, Vivekananda remarks, in the religion of the Vedānta is that we may reach the same goals by different paths. Vivekananda’s humanism was intensified and considerably strengthened by the Vedāntic premise that self-realization was tantamount to the realization of God.