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Swami Vivekananda and
Non-Hindu Traditions

The Hindu thinker Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) was and remains an

important figure both within India and in the West, where he was notable
for preaching Vedanta. Scholarship surrounding Vivekananda is dominated
by hagiography and his (mis)appropriation by the political Hindu Right.
This work demonstrates that Vivekananda was no simplistic pluralist, as
portrayed in hagiographical texts, nor narrow exclusivist, as portrayed by
some modern Hindu nationalists, but a thoughtful, complex inclusivist.
The book shows that Vivekananda formulated a hierarchical and inclusivistic
framework of Hinduism, based upon his interpretations of a fourfold system
of Yoga. It goes on to argue that Vivekananda understood his formulation
of Vedanta to be universal, and applied it freely to non-Hindu traditions,
and in so doing demonstrates that Vivekananda was consistently critical
of ‘low-level’ spirituality, not only in non-Hindu traditions but also within
Hinduism.
Demonstrating that Vivekananda is best understood within the context
of ‘Advaitic primacy’ rather than ‘Hindu chauvinism,’ this book will be of
interest to scholars of Hinduism and South Asian religion and of South
Asian diaspora communities and religious studies more generally.

Stephen E. Gregg is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of

Wolverhampton, UK. His interests include religion in contemporary society
and method and theory in the study of religion. He is a member of the
executive committee of the British Association for the Study of Religions and
his books include Jesus Beyond Christianity (2010) Engaging with Living
Religion (2015) and The Insider/Outsider Debate: New Approaches in the
Study of Religion (2019).
Frontispiece: A seated Vivekananda in a professionally staged photograph – probably
Bangalore, February 1893. See Chattopadhyaya, R. Swami Vivekananda in India: A
Corrective Biography (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999) pp. 120–121.
Source: CC BY-SA 3.0. Public domain version available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Swami_Vivekananda_Jaipur.jpg
Swami Vivekananda and
Non-Hindu Traditions
A Universal Advaita

Stephen E. Gregg
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 Stephen E. Gregg
The right of Stephen E. Gregg to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
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retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gregg, Stephen E., author.
Title: Swami Vivekananda and non-Hindu traditions : a universal
Advaita / Stephen E. Gregg.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018053766 (print) | LCCN 2018058186 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781315611631 (e-book) | ISBN 9781317047445 (PDF) |
ISBN 9781317047438 (ePub) | ISBN 9781317047421 (Mobi) | ISBN
9781472483751 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315611631 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Vivekananda, Swami, 1863–1902. | Gurus—India—
Biography. | Hinduism—Relations. | Advaita. | Hinduism—History—
19th century.
Classification: LCC BL1280.292.V58 (ebook) | LCC BL1280.292.
V58 G74 2019 (print) | DDC 294.5/55092—dc23
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ISBN: 978-1-4724-8375-1 (hbk)
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Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To my parents, who showed me the way
And to Helen, who is my journey’s end.
Contents

List of abbreviations viii

1 Contexts and complications 1

2 Religion and reform in nineteenth-century Bengal 24

3 Master and pupil 86

4 Formulating Hinduism 113

5 Critiquing Christianity, Buddhism and Islam 153

6 The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893 187

7 Locating Vivekananda 225

Bibliography 231
Index 252
Abbreviations

Barrows Barrows, J. H. (ed) The World’s Parliament of Religions: An

Illustrated and Popular Story of the World’s First Parliament of
Religions, Held in Chicago in Connection with the Columbian
Exposition of 1893, Vols. I & II (Chicago: The Parliament Publishing
Company, 1893)
CW Vivekananda, Swami, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, Vols. 1–8, 1999, Vol. 9, 1997)
Life The Life of Swami Vivekananda By His Eastern and Western
Disciples, Vol. I & II (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1989)
MLB Burke, M. L. Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries,
Vols. I–VI (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1992)
1 Contexts and complications

The central aim of this work is to explore how Swami Vivekananda engaged
with non-Hindu religious traditions and to examine how this affected his
own interpretation and systematisation of Hinduism. This work demon-
strates that Vivekananda was no simplistic pluralist, as portrayed in hagio-
graphical texts, nor narrow exclusivist, as portrayed by some modern Hindu
nationalists, but a thoughtful, complex inclusivist. His was a position which
necessitated interaction with, rather than damnation of, the non-Hindu, and
empathy for the universal human religious condition, rather than sympathy
for individual traditions per se.
I will argue that Vivekananda formulated a hierarchical and inclusivistic
framework of Hinduism, based upon his interpretations of a fourfold system
of yoga. This framework valorised Advaita (a non-dualist Hindu tradition)
and devalued aspects of Hinduism that were associated with what Vive-
kananda perceived to be ‘low levels’ of spiritual awareness, such as Gauni
Bhakti (theistic devotion). I will further argue that Vivekananda understood
his formulation of Vedanta to be universal, applying it freely to non-Hindu
traditions. An exploration of his engagement with non-Hindu traditions is
therefore essential to a full understanding of his ‘Hindu’ framework. In light
of this, I will detail how Vivekananda applied his framework to non-Hindu
traditions and, in so doing, will demonstrate that Vivekananda was consis-
tently critical of ‘low-level’ spirituality, not only in non-Hindu traditions
but also within Hinduism, thus refuting claims in some recent scholarship
that Vivekananda was a Hindu chauvinist. I will argue that Vivekananda is
best understood within the context of ‘Advaitic primacy’ rather than ‘Hindu
chauvinism.’
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) was a Hindu raised within the middle
classes of Bengali society, who received Western-style education in Cal-
cutta and became a devotee of the mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
(1836–1886). After Ramakrishna’s death in 1886, Vivekananda wandered
throughout India as a sanyassin (renouncer) before travelling to America in
1893, during which time he spoke at the World’s Parliament of Religions in
Chicago. After the Parliament, Vivekananda embarked upon a lecture tour
of America and Western Europe, attracting large audiences and a number
2 Contexts and complications
of Western ‘converts’ to Vedanta. He founded the Vedanta Society of New
York in 18941 and published monographs and lectures in both New York
and London, ensuring his place as the first high-profile Indian to preach
Vedanta in the West. He returned to India to popular acclaim in 1897, before
embarking on another tour of America and Europe from 1899–1900. He
died in India in 1902.
Vivekananda and his legacy remain of central importance both within
India and the West, long after his premature death at the age of 39. This
continued importance is reflected in the central place his name occupies in
contemporary Indian society and politics, in the continuing spread of Indian
traditions to the West and in the burgeoning academic scholarship on his
social and political significance in contemporary ‘globalised’ contexts.
Vivekananda is a source of pride as a ‘Father’ figure in India to this day.
National Youth Day is celebrated annually on his birthday,2 and the Vive-
kananda Memorial at Cape Comorin on the southernmost tip of India has
grown from a small shrine to an international centre of pilgrimage. Numer-
ous schools, hospitals and research centres are named after Vivekananda,
and the annual publication of a best-selling calendar ensures that this high-
profile Indian ‘saint’ is venerated through popular culture. The Ramakrishna
Math and Mission, founded by Vivekananda in 1897, remains one of India’s
highest profile charitable organisations. Providing famine relief, promoting
human rights and women’s rights, and running medical services, schools and
orphanages, the Ramakrishna Movement is in many ways the embodiment
of Vivekananda’s vision of social service and religion.3
Vivekananda remains an influential figure in modern interfaith dialogue.
Popular understandings of his performance at the Chicago Parliament,
fuelled by hagiographical accounts, have placed Vivekananda at the centre
of the genesis of the interfaith movement. Whilst this work will question this
popular view, it remains the case that Vivekananda is consistently posthu-
mously valorised for his role as a pioneer of modern approaches to religious
dialogue.4 Vivekananda is also associated with the growth of ‘alternative
spiritualities’ in the West. De Michelis has provided a systematic survey of
Vivekananda’s influence on the growth of modern yoga,5 and van der Veer
notes that Vivekananda’s “effort to systematize disparate notions of ascetic
practice [i.e. Yogas] . . . is now India’s main export article on the ‘spiritu-
ality market.’”6 Vivekananda is also credited with originating the popular
notion of the East as a ‘spiritual’ society and the West as a ‘materialistic’
society – a theme that can be seen to have influenced later thinkers such as
Radhakrishnan.7
Vivekananda remains an important cultural icon in contemporary mani-
festations of Hindu nationalism within right-wing Indian politics. Indeed,
van der Veer notes that Vivekananda’s dualistic construction of the ‘mate-
rial’ West and the ‘spiritual’ East was the “source and inspiration for the
RSS/BJP/VHP brand of Indian nationalism.”8 Importantly for this work,
however, is Radice’s note of warning that it is necessary for scholarship to
 Contexts and complications 3
focus upon “Vivekananda’s social and religious ideals, to rescue them from
the distortions that were being worked on them by fundamentalists keen
to co-opt Vivekananda to their cause.”9 Radice’s comment is at the heart
of this work’s aim to contribute to this debate. I argue that a gap exists in
the scholarship on Vivekananda, concerning his treatment of non-Hindu
traditions which, if explored, may prove supportive of Radice’s desire to
re-appropriate Vivekananda from the clutches of Hindutva ideologues and
activists.

Sources
Scholarship on Vivekananda relevant to this work falls into three main cat-
egories. First, there are biographical works on Vivekananda that provide an
account of his life and times. The problem of hagiography undermines the
validity of early biographies of Vivekananda. In recent years, however, sev-
eral authors have published reliable texts detailing the life of Vivekananda.
Most notable in this field are Narasingha Sil,10 Amiya Sen11 and Rajagopal
Chattopadhyaya.12 Whilst Sil writes from a psycho-analytical background,
Sen and Chattopadhyaya write with a socio-historical understanding of
the subject. This work aims to add to these recent biographical endeavours
by detailing events that are not covered in detail by these works – in par-
ticular by analysing Vivekananda’s speeches at Chicago, which are largely
overlooked in modern biographies, suggesting that the legend surround-
ing Vivekananda’s performance at Chicago is occasionally accepted rather
uncritically, even by modern biographers. Indeed, an almost mythical nar-
rative has emerged surrounding Vivekananda at the Chicago Parliament,
which depicts Vivekananda as a ‘champion of Hinduism’ and/or as a propo-
nent of a form of pluralistic religious dialogue that foreshadowed twentieth-
century inter-religious discourse. I will argue that that neither of these views
is borne out by the evidence.
Alongside biographical work, there is much extant literature exploring
Vivekananda’s formulation of ‘practical Vedanta.’ Among the early studies
exploring this subject is Nalini Devdas’s Svami Vivekananda,13 where the
author outlines Vivekananda’s construction of a practical form of Vedanta.
Devdas understands Vivekananda to have encompassed a diversity of Hindu
traditions, including bhakti and yoga traditions, which he placed within
a universalistic framework. Devdas examines Vivekananda’s hierarchical
understanding of religiosity, and includes a brief outline of Vivekananda’s
understanding of Buddhism. In the 1970s, George Williams14 examined
the sources of Vivekananda’s religious authority and the evolving nature
of Vivekananda’s understanding of his own faith and his approach to vari-
ous forms of ‘Hinduisms.’ Williams outlines Vivekananda’s understanding
of a universal principle of eternal religion, which leads to a practical form of
Vedanta, and examines Vivekananda’s relationship with different forms of
Hinduism, including his view of scriptural authority and the role of the
4 Contexts and complications
Guru, highlighting the shifts in perspective that occurred throughout Vive-
kananda’s life.
More recently, Vivienne Baumfield, in Swami Vivekananda’s Practical
Vedanta,15 provides a survey of the background influences to Vivekananda,
from the Brahmo Samaj to the Positivist movement and the Theosophical
Society. The latter part of the work concentrates upon Vivekananda’s concep-
tion of ethical duty as the manifestation of Practical Vedanta, and explores
Vivekananda’s understanding of Christ, the Buddha and Mohammed.
Anantanand Rambachan, in The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda’s Rein-
terpretation of the Vedas,16 provides a well-argued and coherent account of
Vivekananda’s construction of a yoga-based path to realisation. Eloquently
raising the problems of Vivekananda’s re-interpretation of Sankara, this
study is key in understanding Vivekananda’s approach to, and treatment of,
different yogas within an Advaitic tradition. Elizabeth De Michelis, in A His-
tory of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism,17 provides a sys-
tematic assessment of Vivekananda’s construction of a fourfold yoga system
of religion. Examining the influences upon Vivekananda and his treatment
of raja, bhakti, jnana and karma yoga, De Michelis positions Vivekananda
within the movement towards Western occultism and esotericism that was
growing in late nineteenth-century America.
Missing in much of this scholarship is an engagement with Vivekananda’s
application of his religious framework to non-Hindu traditions. Devdas goes
some way towards exploring this when she assesses Vivekananda’s under-
standing of Buddhism. However, the scope of her investigation is limited
to Buddhism, and she does not take into account Vivekananda’s views on
Christianity and Islam. Baumfield too takes a step towards examining Vive-
kananda’s approach to non-Hindu traditions when she examines his views
on such religious figures as Christ, the Buddha, and Mohammed. She how-
ever confines her study to his engagement with religious leaders and does
not extend her research to investigate Vivekananda’s perceptions of these
‘other’ traditions in their entirety – their respective followers, their shared
beliefs and practices, and the changes undergone by these traditions over
time. There is thus a crucial gap in the existing literature on the question
of Vivekananda’s engagement with traditions outside his own. This work,
while drawing upon the insights of earlier studies, extends the scope of avail-
able research on Vivekananda by examining specifically how Vivekananda
engaged not only with mainstream non-Hindu traditions but also with the
alternative ‘others’ of Western spirituality.
Perhaps the most contentious issue in Vivekananda scholarship is the
association of Vivekananda with modern forms of Hindu nationalism. As
previously noted, van der Veer, amongst others, draws a connection between
Vivekananda’s view of an East/West, spiritual/material dichotomy and the
emergence of Hindu nationalism in the Indian subcontinent. Basu’s Religious
Revivalism as Nationalist Discourse: Swami Vivekananda and New Hindu-
ism in Nineteenth-Century Bengal18 makes a similar connection, comparing
 Contexts and complications 5
Vivekananda’s teachings with the political beliefs of contemporary public
leaders in nineteenth-century Bengal. A number of scholars, however, have
sought to rescue Vivekananda from what they perceive as misappropriation
by Hindutva ideologues. Harilela, for instance, in The Religious and Political
Thought of Swami Vivekananda19 concentrates on the writings of Krishna
Verma in the 1890s and the BJP political party in the 1980s and 1990s, who
claim Vivekananda’s legacy for a form of ‘righteous terrorism’ in an effort
to produce an ideological brand of Hinduism. Distancing Vivekananda from
such claims, Harilela argues that such views respond only to a narrow read-
ing of Vivekananda’s writings and speeches – a view supported by this work.
Of particular note in the ‘rescuing’ of Vivekananda from the claims of
Hindu nationalists is the work of Gwilym Beckerlegge. In ‘Saffron and
Seva: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Appropriation of Swami Vive-
kananda,’20 Beckerlegge highlights how the RSS and its associated political
party the BJP have appropriated aspects of Vivekananda’s message of social
service to further their nationalistic social and political ideals. Highlighting
the RSS’s desire to promote what they understand to be the ‘revivalist’ mes-
sage of Vivekananda’s teachings, Beckerlegge suggests that this is best under-
stood by separating the desired goals of Golwalkar21 and Vivekananda as,
respectively, positions of ‘exclusivism’ and ‘inclusivism’ towards Islam and
Christianity; indeed Beckerlegge notes that “RSS writers ignore the positive
comments that Vivekananda frequently made about Islam, and specifically
about its social cohesion”22 highlighting the “carefully tailored selectivity of
the RSS’s borrowing from Vivekananda.”23
In ‘Swami Vivekananda and the sangh parivar: Convergent or Divergent
Views on Population, Religion and National Identity?’24 Beckerlegge further
articulates the appropriation of Vivekananda by the RSS, in their response
to the percentage decline of Hindus within Indian census figures. Highlight-
ing aspects of Vivekananda’s approach to Buddhism and Islam, Beckerlegge
demonstrates that “Vivekananda’s thinking [was] . . . culled by ideologists of
the Hindu Right” and that “the use made of Vivekananda by advocates of the
Hindu Right constituted both misrepresentation and (illicit) appropriation
when the symbolic power of Vivekananda has been invoked and deployed
to suggest that their cause and his mission are compatible and mutually
supportive.”25
Similarly William Radice, in Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation
of Hinduism,26 provides a highly relevant edited volume containing key arti-
cles by, among others, Tapan Raychaudhuri, Indira Chowdhury-Sengupta
and Dermot Killingley. The focus of the volume, the result of a SOAS work-
shop in 1993, was to demonstrate that “any attempt to project the Swami
as a Hindu revivalist, fundamentalist or communalist grossly contradicts
the evidence.”27 The resultant volume provides key evidence for aspects of
Vivekananda’s performance at Chicago, his treatment of the concepts of
‘East’ and ‘West,’ and his relationship to Hindu nationalism. Raychaudhuri,
for instance, notes that, in spite of the VHP claiming “the Patriot-Prophet
6 Contexts and complications
as one of their own” during the 1993 centenary celebrations of the Chi-
cago Parliament, in fact “Hindu revival . . . was at best peripheral and for
the most part antagonistic to Vivekananda’s concerns.”28 He argues that in
Vivekananda’s view “Vedanta . . . transcended the limits of any particular
religious or cultural tradition.”29
Killingley’s “Vivekananda’s Western Message from the East” offers impor-
tant insights into the East/West discourse and the context of Vivekananda’s
promotion of Hinduism to the West. Specifically focusing on Vivekananda’s use
of Western religious and cultural beliefs, Killingley highlights important
themes such as Vivekananda’s treatment of Jesus and the Buddha,30 and
the interaction of Vivekananda’s religious worldview with science – issues
I will address in relevant sections of Chapters 4 and 5. This work shares
compatible aims with Killingley, agreeing that it is essential to explore both
non-Hindu influences on Vivekananda, as well as Vivekananda’s approach
to Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, in studying his formulation of his reli-
gious framework.
This work will focus specifically on Vivekananda’s approach to non-
Hindu traditions in an attempt to analyse Vivekananda’s view of Hinduism
and its relationship to the religious ‘other.’ In so doing, I will distance Vive-
kananda from Hindu chauvinistic claims, instead locating him as a propo-
nent of Advaitic primacy – a keen advocate not of Hinduism in its entirety
but of Advaita in particular. It is hoped that, in so doing, Vivekananda may
be lifted from the quagmire of colonialism, nationalism and fundamental-
ism that has clouded judgements on his character from the earliest barbed
reports by Christian missionaries to his most recent misappropriation by
right-wing Hindu parties.
The primary sources most crucial to this work are the lectures and writ-
ings, both public and private, of Vivekananda that have been compiled by the
Advaita Ashrama publishing wing of the Ramakrishna Mission. Spanning
nine volumes and approximately 5,500 pages, the Complete Works31 are a
problematic source for several reasons: First, the contents are not arranged
chronologically and, although most epistles are dated, large sections of lec-
tures or writings are undated. To clarify when and where Vivekananda made
statements relevant to this work, I have accessed the scholarship of Mary
Louise Burke32 and Hohner and Kenny.33 Second, notes taken by stenogra-
phers are often fragmented, for example in the case of a lecture appearing in
one volume, and the subsequent question and answer session being found in
a different volume. Third, the editing process is highly hagiographical. For
example, the speech My Master, outlining Vivekananda’s view of Ramak-
rishna, is placed sequentially with Vivekananda’s major work on Jesus,
Christ, The Messenger, despite being based on lectures given several years
apart. Fourth, the Complete Works contain versions of Vivekananda’s writ-
ings on Bhakti, Jnana, Raja and Karma Yoga that differ from editions pub-
lished both during his lifetime and also posthumously in the early twentieth
century. Indeed, an understanding of the provenance, editing and redaction
 Contexts and complications 7
of early published works of Vivekananda is crucial when establishing the
authority of sources and texts for this work – an overview follows.
Two published versions of Vivekananda’s key Bhakti Yoga text exist to
this day, plus variations of source material within the Complete Works in the
form of lecture notes. E. T. Sturdy, Vivekananda’s guide and host for much
of his 1895 tour of England, published Addresses on the Vedanta Philoso-
phy Vol. II: Bhakti Yoga in London in 1896.34 Based on Vivekananda’s lec-
tures of 1895 and 1896, Sturdy’s text is probably the closest documentation
we have relating to Vivekananda’s lectures, which appear largely unedited.
Herein, however, lies the problem. Vivekananda had previously (probably in
January or February 1896) promised publication rights to the Vedanta Soci-
ety of New York, seemingly contradicting his personal message to Sturdy of
29th December 1895, when he sent Sturdy typed manuscripts, remarking
that he “hope[d] they may be of some use.”35 Sturdy had taken this to mean
that he should publish the works in England, the result of which was the now
rare 1896 book. Its publication caused a minor sensation throughout Vive-
kananda’s inner circle.
In a letter dated 17th March 1896, Vivekananda replied to Sturdy’s news
of his publication of the Bhakti lectures with a mixture of embarrassment
and anger:

I received your last [letter] just now, and it frightened me immensely.

The lectures were delivered under the auspices of certain friends who
paid for the stenography and all other expenses on condition they alone
will have the right to publish them. . . . The friends here [New York]
are furious at the idea of these books being published in England . . .
legally, I am at a loss what to do. . . . The books have been so much
re-arranged and changed that the American edition will not recognise
the English one. Now pray don’t publish these books, as they will place
me in a very false position and create endless quarrel and destroy my
American work.36

The Vedanta Society would publish their own 1897 version, which became
the second available edition of the work titled Vedanta Philosophy: Lec-
tures by the Swami Vivekananda on Raja Yoga and Other Subjects, which
was edited by Sarah Ellen Waldo, acting in accordance with Vivekananda’s
wishes.37
Vivekananda was certainly right that the two texts differed somewhat –
Sturdy’s text is split into seven sections, without titles, with the exception of
the final section on Preparatory and Supreme Bhakti Yoga, and the 1897 ver-
sion is split into ten sections on Bhakti, and then ten further sections on Para
Bhakti which were based on lectures given by Vivekananda between 27th
January and 17th February in 1896. In the modern editions of the Complete
Works, the Bhakti section of the 1897 Raja Yoga work is reproduced almost
exactly in Volume III and the lectures on which Sturdy based his work are
8 Contexts and complications
reproduced, in Waldo’s edited form, in Volume IV. A further stray document,
the lecture notes from the 9th February 1896 lecture, appear in Volume II,
again with differences from the Sturdy text which uses this lecture for its
final section.
This therefore presents the problem of which text to take as the key
source. Chronologically, the Sturdy version has priority, but it can also be
argued that the Waldo edited lecture transcripts, and the Vedanta Society
of New York publication, actually tell us more about Vivekananda, even
if they are not his precise original words, as they offer a clearer picture
of how he wished to manage his teachings and mission to the West. The
answer, of course, is to examine both sources, as no text can be seen to be
completely definitive. In this work, I will approach the sources with caution,
referencing both the Sturdy and Waldo texts where appropriate, situating
each of Vivekananda’s comments in the context within which it was edited
or reproduced.
Two major volumes on Jnana Yoga were printed, one published right at
the end of Vivekananda’s life in 1902 and one published posthumously in
1907, titled Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures by the Swami Vivekananda on
Jnana Yoga and Vedanta Philosophy – Jnana Yoga Part II: Seven Lectures
by Swami Vivekananda, respectively. Both were published by the Vedanta
Society of New York, and are attributed to the editorship of Swami Abhe-
dananda. Both texts are based primarily on lectures given by Vivekananda
in 1896 – the 1902 volume relying on his London lectures of that year and
the 1907 volume consisting mainly of his New York–based lectures. Prob-
lems abound, however, when the versions printed in the Complete Works
are examined – here we find lectures printed out of order,38 titles changed,39
and a general confusion (as in much of the Complete Works) as to the chro-
nology, method and context of Vivekananda’s speeches – indeed, the 1907
work based on Vivekananda’s New York lectures is split across Volumes
I, II and III of the Complete Works. In addition, even within texts we see
enormous difficulties, in that sections from the 1907 work are reproduced
in the Complete Works, with publishing editors having – quite literally – cut
and pasted paragraphs and whole sections, dissecting them and changing
their order in the relevant chapter, often for no discernible reason and with
no noticeable improvement of clarity. In addition to this, the 1902 text con-
tains problems for analytical study in itself, as it is principally a primer text
based on introductory lectures for Westerners new to Indian thought – it is
in the 1907 text that we find Vivekananda’s more insightful comments on
Jnana Yoga, and it is upon this work, and the corresponding sections of the
Complete Works, that I will concentrate.
The sources for Karma Yoga are better systematised than those of Bhakti
or Jnana and are based primarily upon Vivekananda’s lecture series of
December 1895 and January 1896.
The original publication of Karma Yoga was organised by Vivekananda
in conjunction with the Publication Committee of the Vedanta Society (New
 Contexts and complications 9
York), under the auspices of Mrs Ole Bull,40 who oversaw the first of Vive-
kananda’s books to be published on 23rd February 1896, based upon the
stenography of Mr J. Goodwin:

It was on this [final] Sunday that the Swami’s first volume appeared.
For some time the lectures of one Sunday has been for sale on the
book table the next Sunday in pamphlet form. Now a whole collection
of lectures on Karma-Yoga was brought out in a large, thin, closely
printed volume – very different from the edition published later. It was
not very beautiful, but the workers were extremely proud of it.41

The provenance of Raja Yoga was complicated by a critical dialogue

between Sturdy and the New York–based disciples. In Vivekananda’s let-
ter of 17th March 1896, referenced above with regard to Bhakti Yoga,
Vivekananda is keen to point out to Sturdy that “The Raja-Yoga especially
has been much altered and rearranged along with the translation of ‘Yoga-
Sutras of Patanjali.’ The Raja-Yoga is in the hands of Longmans.”42 Having
already published, and then withdrawn the unofficial version of Bhakti
Yoga, Sturdy was more circumspect regarding Vivekananda’s other win-
ter lectures from 1895–1896, and Raja Yoga was to become a joint proj-
ect between New York and London, although not without instances of
disharmony.
The principle disagreement between Sturdy and the Publication Commit-
tee was one of expense. In his original reply to Vivekananda’s letter of 17th
March, Sturdy was keen to point out that his unauthorised texts were to
have sold for 1s/1d,43 whereas the American copies were projected to cost
$1, which was the equivalent of 4s/2d,44 a huge percentage difference.45 This
concern was similarly expressed in a follow-up letter on 31st March:

If they [the American committee] are going to bring out books here
[London] at any price much over I/–46 they will be quite unread: people
will not buy them. Books to be popular and tempt to purchase when
the subject is new must be almost given away. Your friends here have
had to be dissuaded from making a protest to the American Committee
for having so entirely crippled your prospects for the coming season.47

Sturdy’s letters caused dissent and consternation in New York, leading to

an extended correspondence between Goodwin and Bull,48 the conclusion
of which was that Sturdy won out, and American plans for the publication of
Raja Yoga ceased in April 1896. The text, edited under close supervision
from Vivekananda himself,49 was eventually published on 13th July 1896
with a remarkable quality – it had no registered copyright. So perturbed did
Vivekananda seem to be by the argument over legal and moral rights by his
disciples from either side of the Atlantic that he settled the matter swiftly
in his own inimitable style. As he stated in a letter to Alasinga in October
10 Contexts and complications
1896: “You can very well get out a cheap edition of Raja Yoga if you like. I
have not reserved any copyright on it purposely.”50
With regard to secondary sources, Sil51 separates recent works on Ramak-
rishna and Vivekananda into two distinct categories – hagiography and
hermeneutics – and claims that only three dissertations and seven mono-
graphs written in recent years fall into the latter category.52
Hagiography, a distinct form of literature designed to glorify people cat-
egorised as saints, is common enough in the East and the West, and Sil has
argued that the sponsored writings on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda – that
is, those published by the Ramakrishna Movement – fit seamlessly into the
Indian tradition of Medieval hagiography.53 Writers such as Rolland54 and
Muller55 also fit into this category, with their poetic eulogies of their sub-
jects. However, it is important to note that a text is not hagiographic simply
because it finds the actions or views of its subject praiseworthy. Hagiog-
raphy is text with an agenda, for example, the glorification of a saint (for
example, Ramakrishna), or the advancement of a political viewpoint seeking
sponsorship from a historic figure (for instance, Vivekananda). Hagiography
is an important tool in the socio-religious construction of identity for a given
community or organisation – indeed, the object of hagiography is often to
further the desired social, religious or political aims of the authors.
Hagiography, however, must not be viewed as intrinsically valueless source
material. Much may be learned from the writings of those that are internal
to an organisation or structure that is to be studied, as long as their stand-
point and agenda is acknowledged. Also, with many prominent historical
figures, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda being no exceptions, we are often
reliant upon writings from an ‘inner circle’ (antaranga)56 for biographical
details, especially of the individual’s childhood. Hagiography also informs
us of the agendas of senior figures in the development of an organisation or
movement, thus providing essential context and understanding for second-
ary academic writings on the subject. With this in mind, hagiography must
be included in a scholar’s source material on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda,
as long as the scholar appreciates the distinctive features of this genre.
Among the primary sources accessed for this work include The Gospel of Sri
Ramakrishna,57 The Life of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern and Western
Disciples58 and Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master.59 Clearly hagiographi-
cal in tone, these texts are used critically throughout this work, supported
by appropriate secondary scholarship.
Sil’s second category, that of hermeneutics – in which he includes aca-
demic monographs and articles published in peer-reviewed journals which
represent etic viewpoints, in relation to the Ramakrishna Movement – must
be understood both within its historical meanings and modern usage.
Simms has stated that “the task of hermeneutics is to discover meaning”60
and the term has historically been applied specifically to the interpretation
of texts,61 although this conception was extended by the work of Fried-
rich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) to “understand the general ground of
 Contexts and complications 11
understanding itself.”62 Schleiermacher rejected traditional interpretations
of holy texts and the existing sacred/profane dichotomy to articulate

a hermeneutics in accordance with the notion of creativity, in which

the work is understood as an expression of the creative genius of the
author . . . thereby shifting attention away from the nature of the text
itself to the nature of the understanding by which the text is read and
interpreted.63

In so doing, Schleiermacher insisted upon a contextual understanding of

the text as a “temporally conditioned object”64 which must be understood
within a process of movement between grammatical understanding – that
is the author’s use of language – and psychological understanding – that is
an attempt to uncover the author’s intention – in a process labelled the
‘hermeneutical circle.’ Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) extended the concept
of the hermeneutical circle by arguing that it contained “the possibility of
a primordial kind of knowing” which he understood as ‘fore-structures.’
Hans Georg Gadamer (1900–2002) labelled these fore-structures ‘preju-
dices,’ which he believed to be inevitable.65 Indeed, Gadamer’s conception
of prejudices challenged notions of objectivity in understanding and meant
that “every hermeneutical endeavour occurs . . . not in a vacuum [but] takes
place as a historically mediated event.”66
Specifically engaging with hermeneutical approaches to Hinduism,
Sharma argues that “Western hermeneutics functions under a definition of
religion which has been uncritically applied to Hinduism.”67 The basis of
this is the application of Western hermeneutics which understands ‘religion’
as a ‘unilateral’ category of participation,68 which is “separate from and
separable from culture.”69 Further, Sharma argues that this categorisation
is incompatible with much Hindu thought, which led to a tension between
acceptance and resistance to this foreign concept when it was introduced
into India during the British colonial period.70 Subsequently, this tension
gave rise to societal responses, “which might not have arisen in a purely
Indian context”71 which developed into aggressive forms of Hindutva ide-
ology. This work will demonstrate how Vivekananda sat at the very heart
of this tension between acceptance and rejection of these Western herme-
neutical interpretations of ‘Hindu’ thought and practice, and will situate
Vivekananda within a historical, political and socio-religious context. These
categories are not rigid, but must be understood as relational categories that
contain overlapping information and issues. Vivekananda’s political con-
text is of importance due to the context of colonialism in India as a whole,
and also specifically within Bengal. The impact of British rule upon India
shaped Vivekananda’s economic and social opportunities, the place of his
family in Bengali society, his higher education and his later engagement with
non-Hindu traditions in general and with Christianity in particular. The
socio-religious context in which Vivekananda must be understood includes
12 Contexts and complications
the changing and ‘reforming’ aspects of Hinduism, and the influence of
‘non-Hindu’ traditions of Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Vivekananda’s
engagement with Hinduism, in the light of earlier reformers, and the pres-
ence of a highly influential guru, conditioned his engagement with Vedanta
and underpinned his formulation of a distinct notion of ‘Hinduism’ in the
light of ‘Hindu reformation’ and Christian missionising.
It is therefore in regard to this political and socio-religious context that
this work seeks to interpret Vivekananda’s primary sources. The Complete
Works have been approached thematically, and I have undertaken a close
reading and analyses of selected readings relevant to Vivekananda’s for-
mulation of ‘Hinduism,’ and his approach to non-Hindu traditions. This
approach has preferenced attention upon Vivekananda’s statements about
Hinduism (particularly in the West), his observations on individual reli-
gious traditions, his comments on the relationship between these traditions,
and his reflections upon what he understood to be universal aspects of the
human religious condition. The aim of this close reading and analysis is
to clarify precisely what Vivekananda said about non-Hindu traditions in
the light of his self-reflective understanding of Hinduism – an approach I
believe to be particularly important with reference to Beckerlegge’s observa-
tion upon the (mis)use of Vivekananda’s writings and rhetoric subsequent
to his death. This approach focuses in particular upon Vivekananda’s public
discourse, often in the form of class lectures or public speeches, and special
use has been made of Vivekananda’s 1895–1896 New York lecture series
and his speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. Although
this work does include references to some letters or diary entries, no attempt
has been made to systematically analyse the personal correspondence of
Vivekananda with his devotees and correspondents. Likewise, there is
also no systematic engagement with Vivekananda’s writings to his Indian
audiences. Although some sources written in Bengali have been accessed,
through translations provided by suitable scholars, and some lectures given
in India have been used where they support an understanding of Vivekanan-
da’s comments in the West, the focus of this work is the public projection
of Vivekananda’s understanding of Hinduism and non-Hindu traditions,
particularly to the West.
To this end, therefore, the opening part of this work aims to provide
a clear context for Vivekananda, outlining relevant political and socio-
religious influences from nineteenth-century Bengal which informed the cul-
tural milieu within which Vivekananda’s ideas developed. This is necessary
to contextualise Vivekananda’s thought within the milieu of British colonial-
ism, Bengali Hindu-Muslim identity, and Hindu ‘reform’ movements which
informed much of his early education, personal religious orientation and
subsequent public discourse. Similarly, it is essential to contextualise Vive-
kananda’s approach to non-Hindu traditions in the light of his relationship
with his guru, Ramakrishna, not by accepting the standardised hagiographi-
cal narrative provided by the Ramakrishna Movement, but by examining
 Contexts and complications 13
transitions and tensions between the ‘master and pupil,’ together with a
close analysis of how Vivekananda used the ‘Ramakrishna persona’ in his
projection of Hinduism to the ‘Christian’ West. The middle section of this
work is based on a close textual analysis of Vivekananda’s key writings
upon Hinduism and also Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. By exploring
Vivekananda’s own understanding of ‘Hinduism,’ both in the light of earlier
Hindu ‘reformers’ and also contemporaneous scholarship from the West, of
which Vivekananda would have been aware, his ideas may be understood as
‘historically mediated events.’ This contextualisation of Vivekananda allows
for a fuller understanding of his approach to non-Hindu traditions within
his Advaita-informed universal understanding of the human religious condi-
tion. For this work, I have selected the non-Hindu traditions of Christianity,
Islam and Buddhism for the following reasons.
As Flood has noted, “Christianity and missionary activity were bound
up in the colonial enterprise”72 and Vivekananda’s education, bhadralok
upbringing and subsequent career in the West ensured that he came into con-
tact with a diversity of Christian worldviews throughout his life and work.
Also, for Vivekananda, the person (or indeed, persona) of Christ formed an
essential part of his discourse with the West, and engagement with Chris-
tian missionising was a constant theme in Vivekananda’s writings. To this
end, much of this work concentrates upon Vivekananda’s (and Hinduism’s)
interaction with Christianity. Islam has been chosen due to the social and
political relevance of the faith for Bengal at the time of Vivekananda’s birth,
and the relevance that Vivekananda places upon Islamic conceptions of reli-
gious and social unity. The place of Mohammed in Vivekananda’s concep-
tion of spiritual leaders also places an emphasis on the importance of Islam,
as Mohammed is treated rather differently from Jesus and the Buddha by
Vivekananda, highlighting again the hierarchical nature of his understand-
ing of religion. Buddhism has been chosen as it provides the clearest exam-
ple of Vivekananda’s tendency towards inclusivism highlighting the shape
and nature of Vivekananda’s hierarchical framework of religion which will
be explored in this work. The person of the Buddha is also important to
Vivekananda, as he is often valorised by Vivekananda in public discourse,
particularly when being compared to other spiritual leaders. Importantly,
Vivekananda also specifically spoke on Buddhism at the World’s Parliament
of Religions – indeed, Buddhism was the only religion other than Hinduism
about which Vivekananda gave a specific speech, thus providing a specific
example of how Vivekananda engaged with non-Hindu traditions in rela-
tion to Hinduism in practical discourse in the West. Interestingly, Buddhism
also offers a counter to Christianity and Islam as, unlike these other tradi-
tions, it originated in India, which often affects Vivekananda’s engagement
with it, and it was also not a major religious demographic in Bengal at the
time of Vivekananda, meaning that Vivekananda’s treatment of Buddhism
is somewhat reliant on his own historical interpretations, rather than con-
temporary engagement.
14 Contexts and complications
The final part of the work is a close study of Vivekananda’s performance
at the World’s Parliament of Religions through an examination of the pri-
mary sources of the Proceedings of the Parliament, and also the body of
secondary literature which surrounds this event. The chapter provides an
important part of this work, as it examines the ways in which Vivekananda
both presented Hinduism to the West, often in direct relation to Christian-
ity, and also how he interacted with non-Hindu traditions in a practical
environment of dialogue, monologue and discourse. I have also specifi-
cally included a close analysis of the speeches made by Vivekananda at the
Parliament, which have received scant attention in recent biographies, in
an attempt to demythologise Vivekananda’s performance on the Chicago
stage. Of course, it is important to contextualise Vivekananda’s words and
actions at Chicago within the wider proceedings of the event. To this end,
I have provided a detailed discussion of the background to the Parliament,
taking care to contextualise Vivekananda’s approach to the event. I have
also undertaken a close reading of the speeches of other representatives of
‘Hinduism’ at the Parliament, so as to compare and contrast Vivekananda’s
understanding of Hinduism in direct relation to other Hindu voices at the
Parliament. Further, I have completed a close reading of other speeches
from participants at the Parliament which called for religious unity. This
has been undertaken so as to contextualise Vivekananda’s approach to the
‘religious other,’ highlighting his reliance upon his self-constructed hierar-
chical framework of religion.

Modern Vedanta and Hindu inclusivism

This section aims to introduce two major concepts that are utilised in this
work so as to provide clarity for the reader regarding my use of the terms
and their application to Vivekananda’s religious thinking.
First, Vivekananda’s understanding of Hinduism and non-Hindu tradi-
tions is underpinned by a worldview inherited from a pre-existing but oft-
reinterpreted Hindu philosophical position. Throughout this work, I will
position Vivekananda within an Advaita Vedanta worldview, which is par-
ticularly important to Vivekananda’s understanding of bhakti – a hierar-
chical understanding of which underpins Vivekananda’s entire framework
of religion – indeed, much of Vivekananda’s argument for an evolving or
hierarchical understanding of individual and societal religious awareness is
based upon a clear progression from Dvaita (dual) to Advaita (non-dual)
philosophical understandings of reality. It is therefore necessary to carefully
explain these terms so as to clearly situate Vivekananda within this philo-
sophical worldview, which I will attempt below.
Second, throughout this work, I purposefully position Vivekananda as
an ‘inclusivist.’ Although in my conclusion I will defend Vivekananda from
accusations of ‘Hindu chauvinism’ by positioning him within a category of
Advaitic primacy, it is important to contextualise Vivekananda within wider
 Contexts and complications 15
critiques of understandings of Hindu inclusivism. These, too, are outlined in
the following.
Vivekananda sits within a line of high-profile Hindu sages, scholars and
reformers who are categorised as representing a form of Hinduism labelled
‘Neo-Vedanta’ or ‘Modern Vedanta’ – indeed, Hatcher notes that “in the
modern era, Vedanta has come to be widely associated by both Hindus and
non-Hindus with the essential core of Hinduism . . . [and] . . . it is not
unusual to find modern Hinduism construed as a species of ‘neo-Vedanta.’”73
Specifically, Vivekananda represents a form of Advaita Vedanta, which is
perhaps the largest component of Vedanta, which has been represented sub-
sequently by Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(1888–1975), amongst others. As early as 1860, the Oxford-based scholar
Monier-Williams had argued for Advaita as the primary philosophical con-
cept of Hinduism, a standpoint which perhaps explained the dominance that
Advaita philosophy had on Western conceptions of Hinduism throughout
the past century – indeed, Advaita is undoubtedly the best known of the
various forms of Vedanta, particularly in the modern West, which has led to
the mistaken understanding of Advaita as underpinning all Hindu thought.
In this short section, I shall briefly explain the provenance and context of the
term Vedanta, along with relevant associated concepts.
Vedanta literally means ‘the end of the Vedas,’ which are the foundational
texts of Brahminical Hinduism. The Vedas are texts which focus upon
knowledge of ritual and liturgical matters and which are accepted as sruti
(the highest authority of text, meaning ‘that which is heard’). The Upani-
shads, which include uses of the word ‘Vedanta’74 are subsequent texts, writ-
ten between 700 bce and the early centuries of the Common Era, which are
“the repositories of many of the theological and philosophical ideas which
come to dominate later Vedantic thought.”75 Killingley has noted that:

in later texts Vedanta refers to the Upanisads themselves, and to a body

of thought which seeks to interpret certain key terms in the Upanisads
such as Brahman [‘ultimate reality’], atman (‘self’), isvara (‘the Lord’),
and thereby show the way to salvation – that is, to freedom from sam-
sara, the continuum of existence to which we are bound by karma and
rebirth. This body of thought is what is usually referred to as Vedanta
today.76

The Upanishads, therefore, may be understood as Vedanta in two ways:

first, that they are the concluding texts chronologically, in relation to the
earlier Vedas; and second, that they are understood to present the culmina-
tion of ideas developed in these earlier texts.
Of course, throughout the centuries, philosophers have variously under-
stood the relationships between these interconnected concepts, with
particular reference to atman and Brahman, which has led to different philo-
sophical schools of Vedanta. For the purposes of this survey, the three largest
16 Contexts and complications
approaches will be summarised briefly, with notes referring the reader to
wider treatments of the subjects.
Advaita Vedanta is most closely associated with the philosopher Sankara,77
who lived c. 700 ce,78 in Kerala in South-West India. Advaita, meaning lit-
erally ‘non-dual,’ is commonly used as an epithet for Sankara’s teachings
due to the philosophical view of the identity between atman and Brahman.
Sankara taught a non-dual nature of atman and Brahman nirguna (without
attributes) – in simple terms, ultimate reality, indeed all existence, is not
fragmented, but unified, and any conceptions of difference are the result
of avidya (‘ignorance’) which is caused by maya (‘illusion’) which “causes
beings to view as multiple and differentiated what is in reality one.”79 This
has important implications for conceptions of isvara – particularly in regard
to achieving moksha (liberation from the cycle of samsara) – indeed, as
Flood notes, Advaita devalues conceptions of isvara: “To see the absolute
as the Lord is to maintain a distinction between self and absolute, which is
to retain a vestige of ignorance which must finally be transcended. If real-
ity is one, all distinctions must be illusory.”80 This, in turn, may be seen to
underpin Vivekananda’s approach to theism, his devaluing of Gauni Bhakti
in particular and his understanding of Advaitic influences upon non-Hindu
traditions.
Visishtadvaita Vedanta is the formulation of Vedanta codified by Ramanuja,
a Brahmin from Tamil Nadu who lived c. 1037–1137 and who practiced
Vaishnavism, or worship of Vishnu, often coming into conflict with Saiva
members of the ruling class of the area.81 The fact that Ramanuja was a
devotee of Vishnu is of great relevance to his interpretation of Vedanta for,
as Lipner notes: “[he] was a man of deep faith in God and wrote essentially
as a theologian: that is, his main concern as a thinker was to reflect system-
atically on the nature of God and God’s relation to the world.”82 Perhaps
predictably, this focus on God meant that Ramanuja rejected the non-dual
philosophy of Advaita, which understood existence (including deities) to
be conditioned by maya, and therefore representative of Brahman saguna
(with attributes). In response to this, Ramanuja reinterpreted maya as “the
way in which God manifests reality of prakriti [nature].”83 This reconcep-
tion of deity and reality was based upon a qualified understanding of the
relationship between atman and Brahman, which was compatible with a
theistic understanding of reality, which had been rejected previously by San-
kara. Visishtadvaita – meaning literally ‘qualified non-dualism’ – argued that
atman and Brahman were not completely identical, but that distinct indi-
vidual selves (atmans) are real, but exist as a part of Brahman. As Pandit has
noted: “Visishtadvaita declares that Brahman possesses internal distinctions,
since the conscious selves and the unconscious matter (prakriti) are His inter-
nal parts. Thus according to Visishtadvaita, Brahmin is the unity qualified
by many internal parts or attributes.”84 This theo-philosophical reinterpreta-
tion allowed room for bhakti (‘devotion’) in the cosmology of Ramanuja,
and thus validated theistic conceptions of Vedanta, in direct response to
 Contexts and complications 17
Sankara. Importantly, Vivekananda uses this conception of Vedanta to for-
mulate his understanding of Christian conceptions of incarnation and also
places this philosophical view as the mid-point of his understanding of an
evolutionary aspect to social forms of religious tradition.
Dvaita Vedanta is a philosophical/theological position formulated in response
to Advaita and Visishtadvaita by Madhva. A native of Southern Karna-
taka, Madhva lived c. 1238–1317 ce,85 and wrote commentaries on sev-
eral Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma Sutra and the Bhagavata
Purana.86 Madhva’s great departure from the pre-existing Vedanta tra-
ditions was to reject any notion of non-dualism, based on his reading of
sacred scripture – indeed, “Whereas the Advaita tradition emphasizes the
non-difference (abheda) between the self and the absolute, Madhva insists
on their complete distinction. Difference or bheda is a cornerstone of his
theology and scriptural interpretation.”87 This philosophical formulation
allows for a strong understanding of theism, wherein “nothing can exist
outside the Lord’s will . . . [and] liberation is . . . a participation in the bliss
of the Lord, attained through devotion (bhakti) to an icon and the Lord’s
grace.”88 Indeed, so important is the notion of divine grace to Madhva that
he deconstructed the conception of moksha, or liberation, to involve dif-
fering levels dependent upon the intensity of each individual practitioner’s
devotion to the Lord.89 Dvaita, for Vivekananda, represented the lowest
common denominator of human spirituality and the step from which people
could progress up towards higher spiritual truths. It was also clearly through
a Dvaitic lens that Vivekananda understood Muslim theism.
These ‘classical’ interpretations of Vedanta have been reinterpreted over
time. For the purposes of this study, the term ‘modern Vedanta’ refers to
the philosophical worldview of a diverse set of nineteenth-century Indian
reformers who sought to revitalise Hindu identity with reference to these
classical sources of authority from Brahminical traditions. Hatcher has
noted that

the genealogy of modern Vedanta rightly begins with Rammohun Roy90

[the nineteenth-century religious and social reformer who founded
the organisation that would become widely known as the Brahmo
Samaj] . . . who after 1815 initiated the project of making Vedanta
modern through an ambitious program of translation, publication, and
public debate.91

This was necessary due to the fact that “the Upanisads and Advaita Vedanta
were little known in Bengal in Rammohun’s time.”92 This public focus on
Advaita gave rise to the term ‘Neo-Vedantists’ which was used by Christian
missionaries in the 1840s as a derogatory name for the reformers of the Tat-
tvabodhini Sabha93 who were “bent on the modern revival of Vedanta.”94
This concentration on Vedanta took the specific shape of Advaita Vedanta
in relation to Sankara. Of course, individual reformers understood the
18 Contexts and complications
philosophy variously, but non-dualism was clearly preferenced – for exam-
ple, by Roy who presented “himself as an upholder of Advaita Vedanta
[throughout his writings]”95 and Keshub Chunder Sen who, Koar argues,
“opted for the monistic path of the Vedanta”96 after 1881. Indeed, so influ-
ential was this philosophical inheritance, within which Vivekananda firmly
positioned himself, that “Advaita Vedanta, as interpreted by Vivekananda,
Radhakrishnan and many others, is a familiar part of modern Hindu
self-understanding.”97
Paul Hacker first used the term ‘inclusivism’ in a 1957 article titled Reli-
gious Tolerance and Intolerance in Hinduism, suggesting that the Hindu
practice of ‘doctrinal tolerance’ was synonymous with what he described
as an ‘inclusivistic attitude.’98 In 1964, Hacker furthered his conception of
inclusivism by arguing that inclusivism was a ‘typically Indian’ hermeneu-
tic.99 This engagement with the term, by which he means “‘claiming for, and
thus including in one’s own religion’ or world view what belongs in reality
to another, foreign competing system”100 also led to the conclusion that
inclusivism was essentially “a subordinating identification of other teachings
with parts or preliminary stages of one’s own religious system, which is thus
presented as a superior structure, and an implicit anticipation of competing
views.”101 Particularly relevant to this work is the fact that Hacker links this
conception directly to Christian approaches to different religions – in other
words, Hindu inclusivism and conceptions of ‘Hindu unity’ – which Hacker
sees as a modern phenomenon, and a product of neo-Hinduism102 – were
formulated in direct response to “the Christian approach to other religions,
which presupposes . . . a clear recognition of others in their otherness.”103
As noted earlier, this work analyses Vivekananda as a hierarchical inclu-
sivist. Cush and Robinson104 too, perceive Vivekananda as an hierarchical
inclusivist and describe Vivekananda’s ‘Hindu Universalism’ as inclusive.
Locating Vivekananda within an Advaitic framework, they argue that:
“Advaita Vedanta . . . established a firm foundation on which Hindu uni-
versalism could be constructed by Neo-Vedantins. Invariably this involves
an inclusivist view of Hinduism extended beyond Hinduism to encompass
the truth and validity of all religions.”105 Furthermore, Cush and Robinson
note that inclusivism tends towards the reconciliation of different world-
views “by building the diversity of claims into a single system . . . [and] such
a system often takes a hierarchical form.”106
Halbfass has further commented that “Vedantic ‘inclusivism’ is the very
framework and basis for Vivekananda’s encounter with the West”107 and
that Vivekananda was “committed to propagating Hindu principles beyond
the borders of India and to utilizing their international recognition in his
efforts to regenerate Hindu self-awareness and self-confidence.”108
This work will examine these claims, with specific reference to Vivekanan-
da’s treatment of non-Hindu traditions in relation to his self-reflective for-
mulation of a codified yoga-based construction of Hinduism. In so doing, it
will be demonstrated that Vivekananda’s inclusivism was not chauvinistically
 Contexts and complications 19
hierarchical, but universal in its valorising of ‘higher-level spirituality’ and
devaluing of ‘lower-level spirituality’ both within Hinduism and with respect
to wider religious traditions.

Notes
1 Jackson, C. T. Vedanta for the West: The Ramakrishna Movement in the United
States (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994) p. 28.
2 National Youth Day. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/national-youth-
day (accessed 01/10/18).
3 See in particular Beckerlegge, G. Swami Vivekananda’s Legacy of Service: A
Study of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 2006) and, for an ‘insider’ account, Lokeswarananda, Swami (ed.) The
Story of Ramakrishna Mission: Swami Vivekananda’s Vision and Fulfilment
(Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2006).
4 See, for example, Bharat’s note: “The inspiration for [the interfaith move-
ment] . . . is generally understood to have been the moment Swami Vive-
kananda addressed his ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’ at the first Parliament
of World Religions in Chicago in 1893.” Bharat, S. & Bharat, J. A Global Guide
to Interfaith (Winchester: O Books, 2007) p. 4. It is important to note that the
concept of ‘interfaith dialogue’ is a twentieth-century, largely Christian ven-
ture which manifested as a result of theological approaches to Christology and
salvation, particularly influenced by the works of Rahner, Tillich, Hick, Knit-
ter and D’Costa. Whilst this work examines Vivekananda’s approach to non-
Hindu traditions, it is important to understand this within his own context
of Indian identity and interaction with Christianity in particular, rather than
through later conceptions of ‘interfaith dialogue’ as a specific form of religious
interaction, with which Vivekananda would not have been familiar.
5 De Michelis, E. A History of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism
(London: Continuum, 2004).
6 Van der Veer, P. Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India (Berkeley &
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1994) p. 70.
7 See, for example, Radhakrishnan, S. Eastern Religions and Western Thought,
2nd edn. (London: Oxford University Press, 1940). It may be pertinent to
offer a note on terminology at this juncture. Vivekananda’s use of terminology
such as ‘spirituality,’ ‘religion’ and ‘Hinduism’ was interchangeable and incon-
sistent throughout his public lectures and private letters. The words ‘religion’
and ‘spirituality’ are not endowed with consistent meaning and are often used
as synonyms by Vivekananda. On occasions, Vivekananda does apply a spe-
cific meaning to the terms, linking ‘religion’ to sectarianism and low levels of
philosophical understanding and ‘spirituality’ to Advaita and higher universal
understandings of Truth. It must be stressed, however, that there is no system-
atic consistency in this approach. Such is the case with ‘Hindu’ and ‘Hinduism.’
Indeed, as Bose has noted, “there was no over-sensitivity to the word Hindu or
Hinduism in Vivekananda. It was the content, not the container and the label
fixed on it, that concerned him.” Often, Vivekananda uses the word ‘Hindu’
when he clearly means ‘Advaita.’ This work will contextualise Vivekananda’s
use of terms and will carefully use these terms in ways relevant to Vivekanan-
da’s hierarchical framework of religion. See Bose, N. S. ‘Swami Vivekananda
and the Challenge to Fundamentalism’ in Radice W. (ed.) Swami Vivekananda
and the Modernisation of Hinduism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1998) p. 282.
8 Van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, p. 70.
20 Contexts and complications
9 Radice, Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism, p. vii.
10 Sil, N. P. Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment (London: Associated University
Press, 1997).
11 Sen, A. P. Swami Vivekananda (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).
12 Chattopadhyaya, R. Swami Vivekananda in the West (New Delhi: KP Bagchi &
Company, 1994) and Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography (New
Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1999).
13 Devdas, N. Svami Vivekananda (Bangalore: The Christian Institute for the
Study of Religion and Society, 1968).
14 Williams, G. The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda: A Study of Reli-
gious Change (Chico: New Horizons Press, 1974).
15 Baumfield, V. Swami Vivekananda’s Practical Vedanta (University of Newcastle
upon Tyne: Unpublished PhD Work, 1992).
16 Rambachan, A. The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda’s Reinterpretation of the
Vedas (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994).
17 De Michelis, A History of Modern Yoga.
18 Basu, S. Religious Revivalism as Nationalist Discourse: Swami Vivekananda
and New Hinduism in Nineteenth-Century Bengal (New Delhi: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2002).
19 Harilela, A. The Religious and Political Thought of Swami Vivekananda (Uni-
versity of Hull: Unpublished PhD Work, 1996).
20 Beckerlegge, G. ‘Saffron and Seva: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Appro-
priation of Swami Vivekananda’ in Copley, A. (ed.) Hinduism in Public and
Private: Reform, Hindutva, Gender and Sampraday (New Delhi: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2009 [2003]).
21 Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, second leader of the RSS.
22 Beckerlegge, ‘Saffron and Seva,’ p. 54.
23 Ibid., p. 60.
24 Beckerlegge, G. ‘Swami Vivekananda and the Sangh Parivar: Convergent or
Divergent Views on Population, Religion and National Identity?’ in Postcolo-
nial Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2006) pp. 121–135.
25 Ibid., p. 133.
26 Radice, W. Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998).
27 Ibid., p. vii.
28 Raychaudhuri, T. ‘Swami Vivekananda’s Construction of Hinduism’ in Radice,
Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism, p. 1.
29 Ibid., p. 2.
30 Killingley notes that the Buddha was made known to Bengali intellectuals by
Western Indology. See Killingley, D. ‘Vivekananda’s Western Message from
the East’ in Radice, Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hindu-
ism, p. 144.
31 Vivekananda, Swami, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta:
Advaita Ashrama, Vols. 1–8 1999, Vol. 9 1997). The Complete Works will be
abbreviated to CW in references throughout this work.
32 Burke, M. L. Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, Vols. 1–6 (Cal-
cutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1992). Hereinafter MLB.
33 Hohner, T. & Kenny, C. (eds.) Chronology of Swami Vivekananda in the West
(Online Digital Edition) accessed online at https://vedanta.org/wp-content/uploads/
2016/10/Swami-Vivekananda-in-the-West-A-Chronology.pdf (accessed 01/10/18).
34 Vivekananda, Swami, Addresses on the Vedanta Philosophy, Vol II: Bhakti
Yoga (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd, 1896).
35 Cited in Chattopadhyaya, Swami Vivekananda in the West, p. 114.
36 CW VIII, p. 374.
 Contexts and complications 21
37 Vivekananda, Swami, Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures on Raja Yoga (New York:
The Baker & Taylor Company, 1899 [1897]). See Chattopadhyaya, Swami
Vivekannada in the West, p. 84.
38 For example, The Absolute and Manifestation given on 21st October according
to Hohner and Kenny’s Chronology, appears after Maya and Freedom given on
22nd October. See CW II, pp. 118–143.
39 For example, The Highest Ideal of Jnana Yoga, which is chapter VI of the 1907
work, is included as a heavily edited article in the Complete Works under the
title Steps of Hindu Philosophic Tradition. This confusion is consistent across
the other sections of the 1907 work when reproduced in the Complete Works.
40 MLB III, p. 524.
41 Ibid., p. 527.
42 CW VIII, p. 374.
43 One English shilling and one English penny.
44 Four shillings and two pennies.
45 MLB IV, p. 114.
46 One shilling.
47 MLB, IV, p. 116.
48 Ibid., pp. 118–119.
49 Chattopadhyaya, Swami Vivekananda in the West, p. 88.
50 MLB IV, p. 241. A ‘cheap edition’ did indeed come out in Madras in 1898,
which caused Sturdy much consternation regarding his relationship with his
publishers and the economic losses associated with flooding the market with
cheap alternatives of successful books. The incredible irony of this argument,
given his own stance in his March letters of 1896, seems to have been lost on
Sturdy.
51 Sil, N. P. ‘Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Research: Hagiography versus Herme-
neutics’ in Religious Studies Review, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Oct., 2001) pp. 355–362.
52 Ibid., p. 355.
53 Sil, N. P. ‘Vivekananda’s Ramakrsna: An Untold Story of Mythmaking and Pro-
paganda’ in Numen, Vol. 40 (1993) p. 40.
54 Rolland, R. The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel, trans. E. F.
Malcolm-Smith (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1997 [1931]).
55 Muller, F. M. Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,
2001 [1951]).
56 Ramakrishna himself used this word to describe his inner circle of devotees –
see CW VII, p. 413.
57 Gupta, M. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, trans. Swami Nikhilananda (New
York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1984 [1942]).
58 The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples, Vols. 1 & 2,
(Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1989). Hereinafter Life.
59 Saradananda, Swami Sri Ramakrishna: The Great Master, trans. Swami Jag-
adananda, Vols. 1–2 (Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1978).
60 Simms, K. Paul Ricoeur (London: Routledge, 2003) p. 33.
61 Sherma, R. D. & Sharma, A. (eds.) Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward
a Fusion of Horizons (London: Springer, 2008) p. 1.
62 Ibid., p. 2.
63 Green, G. ‘Hermeneutics’ in Hinnells, J. (ed.) The Routledge Companion to the
Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2005) p. 396.
64 Sherma & Sharma (eds.), Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought, p. 3.
65 See in particular, Gadamer, H. G. Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer &
Donald G. Marshall (London: Continuum, 2006 [1989]) Part II, Chapter 4,
p. 268ff.
66 Sherma & Sharma (eds.), Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought, p. 5.
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