From the Publisher

Indian culture has an amazing vitality which has enabled it to withstand and overcome the shocks of millennia of history. That vitality lies in the rational and universal dimension of her spirituality, which evaluates man, not in terms of the external variables of his creed, race or nationality, but in terms of that which is inalienable in him, namely, the Atman, the divine Self in all.

In her long history of over 5,000 years, India has sometimes fallen from this high vision and policy, but her inner spiritual vitality has thrown up great teachers who have helped her to regain her national health and strength. To this class be-long Krishna, Buddha, Shankaracharya and a large number of other luminaries.

In the modern period also, we are living through another challenging era of national decline as well as national rejuvenation. After a halting and defensive response to the challenge of the modern world, in the first part of the 19th century, India rose to her full spiritual stature in two unique teachers, Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

The following pages will give the reader the fascinating story of Vivekananda (1863-1902), who roused his nation from its sleep of centuries and gave to it a man-making and nation-building faith and resolve. At the same time, he imparted, to the waiting peoples of the West, the rational and universal message of India's Vedanta philosophy. He also forged the unity of East and West-and all this within ten brief working years, from 1893 when he began his work to 1902 when he passed away.              

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