ramakrishna-vivekananda

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e-book from www.belurmath.org


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Great Thinkers onRamakrishna-Vivekananda

Ramakrishna Mission Institute of CultureGol Park, Kolkata - 700 029


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Published bySwami Sarvabhutananda

SecretaryRamakrishna Mission Institute of Culture

Gol Park, Kolkata 700 029

1983 : Ramakrishna Mission Institute of CultureKolkata, India

ISBN : 978-81-87332-58-9

First Published : October 1983 : 6M

Fourth Print : July 2000 : 5MRevised Edition : December 2007Revised Second Edition : March 2009

Price : Rupees sixty only

Printed at

Trio ProcessKolkata 700 014


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Preface to the Revised Second Edition

The increasing popularity of the book, viz. World Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda , originally published in 1983, hasnaturally called for its revision, additions, and alterations throughthe passage of time.

In its revised edition the book in fitness of things bears a newtitle, viz. Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda . In thewords of Sri Aurobindo, Of all these souls [ avat ra s] SriRamakrishna was the last and greatest, for while others felt Godin a single or limited aspect, he felt Him in His illimitable unity asthe sum of an illimitable variety. In him the spiritual experiences of the millions of saints who had gone before were renewed andunited. Sri Ramakrishna gave to India the final message of Hinduism to the World.

The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement has been the mostmarvellous contribution of creative India to world civilization. If

Sri Ramakrishna is regarded as the prophet of the newmovement, Swami Vivekananda is certainly its greatestpreacher of protagonist. India is born anew through theRamakrishna-Vivekananda movement to work out the salvationnot only of India but of the world at large.

The main inspiring force behind this revised edition is SwamiPrabhananda, (now General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Mathand Ramakrishna Mission) while acting as the Secretary of theRamakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, we entrusted ProfessorHaridas Mukherjee of the Indological Studies and Research wingto revise the whole book in the light of certain suggestions and the

new materials presented by the former to the latter.We hope that the revised edition of the book will receiveproper appreciation from the thinking minds all over the world.

Kolkata Swami Sarvabhutananda27 February, 2009 Secretary

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Foreword to the First Edition

Ramakrishna and Vivekananda represent one single truth, oneits spirit and other its form. What is the truth they represent? Thatman can develop till he feels he is one with God. To develop to

that point is, according to them, the goal of life. Every effort thatman makes should be directed to that end.

Between themselves, they have done much to regenerateIndia. They are not just religious and social leaders, they havegiven back to India her lost identity by rousing her national pride.Indian Renaissance can truly be said to have begun with them.

Yet Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are above all barriers of race and creed. Their concern is for mankind as a whole, for tothem it is one despite its many superficial divisions. If today theirinfluence is spreading, it is because they address themselves toentire humanity. No wonder they enjoy universal love and respect,a fact to which the following pages bear ample testimony. Thissmall book, with tributes to Sri Ramakrishna and SwamiVivekananda from savants across the world, has provedimmensely popular in that it has needed a second edition within ashort while.

Calcutta Swami Lokeswarananda14 November, 1983 Editor

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Tributes to Sri Ramakrishna by

Aldous Huxley 3

Amaury de Reincourt 4Amiya Chakravarty 4Arnold J. Toynbee 5Ashapurna Devi 7Sri Aurobindo 7Benoy Kumar Sarkar 9Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya 12Brojendra Nath Seal 14C. Rajagopalachari 15Christopher Isherwood 15

Claude Alan Stark 16D. S. Sarma 17Dalai Lama 18Ernest C. Brown 18Friedrich Max Mller 18Francis Younghusband 25George C. Williams 26Govind Ballabh Pant 26Harlow Shapley 27Henry R. Zimmer 27

Hiren Mukherjee 27Humayun Kabir 28Huston Smith 29Jadunath Sarkar 31Jawaharlal Nehru 32

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Contents

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Joseph Campbell 32K. M. Munshi 33Leo Tolstoy 33Leroy S. Rouner 34Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 35Mahendranath Sircar 35Mohitlal Majumdar 36

Muhammad Daud Rahbar 36Muhammad Sahidullah 39Nicholas K. Roerich 39Paul Brunton 41Philip Glass 41Pitirim A. Sorokin 44Pramathanath Tarkabhusan 44Protap Chandra Mozoomdar 45Rabindranath Tagore 48Radhakamal Mukerjee 48R. C. Majumdar 51Richard Schiffman 52Romain Rolland 53Sarat Chandra Bose 54Sarojini Naidu 55Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 56Satis Chandra Chattopadhyaya 56Sayed Mujtaba Ali 57Sivanath Sastri 58

Subhas Chandra Bose 60Tarasankar Bandyopadhyaya 61Thomas Merton 61Will Durant 62William Digby 62References and Notes 62

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Tributes to Swami Vivekananda by

A. D. Pusalker 69A. L. Basham 69Annie Besant 70A. Ramaswami Mudaliar 71Bal Gangadhar Tilak 71Benoy Kumar Sarkar 72Bepin Chandra Pal 75Brahmabandhab Upadhyaya 81Brojendranath Seal 84C. F. Andrews 85C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar 85C. Rajagopalachari 86

Christopher Isherwood 86D. S. Sarma 91E. P. Chelishev 91Ella W. Wilcox 94Federico Mayor 94Felix Marti- Ibanez 96Francis Younghusband 96Gopal Halder 97Henry Miller 97Hiren Mukherjee 98Huang Xin Chuan 99Huston Smith 101Indira Gandhi 103J. C. Bose 103

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Jadunath Sarkar 104Jawaharlal Nehru 104Jay Prakash Narayan 106Kakasaheb Kalelkar 107K. M. Munshi 108K. M. Panikkar 109Lal Bahadur Shastri 109Leo Tolstoy 110Emma Calv 112M. K. Gandhi 113Mahendranath Sircar 113Manabendra Nath Roy 114Michael Talbot 115Munshi Premchand 116Nagendranath Gupta 117

Prafulla Chandra Ray 118R. C. Dutt 118Radhakamal Mukerjee 119Radhakumud Mukerjee 119R. C. Majumdar 120R. G. Pradhan 125R. Rybakov 125R. Sugathan 128Rabindranath Tagore 129

Rajendra Prasad 133Romain Rolland 134Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 140Satyendra Nath Bose 141Shyama Prasad Mookerjee 141

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Sri Aurobindo 142Subhas Chandra Bose 143Subrahmanya Bharati 147Suniti Kumar Chatterji 148

U Thant 152

Vincent Sheean 153

Vinoba Bhave 154

Will Durant 156

William Ernest Hocking 157

William James 159

References and Notes 161

Biographical sketch of the Great Thinkers 169

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