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Swami Ranganathananda
Reader
The sacred writings of the erudite, legend monk, the eponym Swami Ranganathananda, enriches the reader spiritually, educating them—thoroughly and analytically—to the scientific spiritual philosophy, Vedanta. Centring the galaxy of monks from different faiths on it, interpreting it in the context of modern theories, proving its kinship with science, illustrating its enduring relevance with historical facts and the opinions of world’s greatest philosophers, the scholarly writings evidently show Vedanta to be the way to man’s spiritual growth, the alleviation of human anguish and an enriching and fulfilling life. The philosophically conclusive essence of Vedanta—man in his essential nature—is divine; behind the finite man is the Atman, ever free, ever pure and ever luminous, and is the pressing need for the modern world, wanting in spiritual values. Spirituality requires us to practice altruism committedly, which is at the core of Vedanta and Swami Ranganathananda’s writings. For its strong argumentation and analytical approach to religion, the spiritual narrative makes a forceful read. The spiritual and ethnic elements are fundamentally two dimensions of any religion. The former elements—universal, rational in nature—and the later—temporal, centered in priest—cause integration and segregation of different religions, respectively. The domination of the former over the later and vice-versa caused the flourishing and stagnation of Hinduism and Islam, respectively. The treatment meted out to the iconoclastic Vivekananda, contrasting sharply with the tragic fate of several mystic and innovators in the semitic traditions, accounts for the liberal, experimental/scientific temper of the Hindu traditions, the narrative underlines. A cheer for the feminists. In the discovery of eternal spiritual truths, chiding the sexist behavior as morally fallacious and retracing and elaborating the role of women monks from different faith, the narrative attains feminist value. Such is the scope of the interdisciplinary, voluminous writings that the editor, Rajiv Mehrotra, Swami Ranganathananda’s student, justly asks the reader to go to the whole hog to relish the real taste. Hence, the collection of the distilled writings offers only the flavour of extensive spiritual research made by Swami Ranganathananda, an embodiment of scholarship, the worthy heir of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna. The piece Diving Call: An Interview with Swami Ranganathananda, furnishing the biographical sketch of the holy soul, the staunch champion and practitioner of Vedanta, stimulate the reader’s interest in this guide to spirituality.
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AN avid reader of fiction,
this reviewer entered the spiritual realm of Swami Ranganathananda
Reader frowningly, but ended with it blessedly—infused with
much-needed spiritual uplift.