Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
Guru to the World
The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda
-
Ruth Harris
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2022
About this book
Guru to the World tells the story of Swami Vivekananda, the nineteenth-century Hindu ascetic who introduced the West to yoga and to a tolerant, scientifically minded universalist conception of religion. Ruth Harris explores the many legacies of Vivekananda’s thought, including his impact on anticolonial movements and contemporary Hindu nationalism.
Reviews
This is a deeply researched and compellingly argued biography of Swami Vivekananda, one of the first Indian religious thinkers to become known in the west, and one of the makers of modern India.
-- Rana Mitter BBC History Magazine
-- Rana Mitter BBC History Magazine
Guru to the World is a triumph of research and ambition, drawing connections between a dazzling array of philosophies, figures, languages, geographies and religions.
-- Abhimanyu Arni Literary Review
-- Abhimanyu Arni Literary Review
This will be the standard biography of [Vivekananda] for years to come…Admirable.
-- Jon M. Sweeney Spirituality & Practice
-- Jon M. Sweeney Spirituality & Practice
Vivekananda’s life was an embarrassment of epiphanies and contradictions, and Harris exhaustively uncovers all of them.
-- Pratinav Anil History Today
-- Pratinav Anil History Today
The definitive book on [Swami Vivekananda] that seeks to present his complexity as a person and in his teachings…useful and perhaps even fascinating.
-- John Jaeger Library Journal
-- John Jaeger Library Journal
Vivekananda was many things to many people: the first global religious celebrity, an apostle of Indian nationalism, a man whose message was heard, and heard differently, in salons as well as slums. It’s not just any biographer who can do justice to such a complex life. He’s fortunate to have found a perfect interpreter in Ruth Harris.
-- Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sontag: Her Life and Work
-- Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sontag: Her Life and Work
In Ruth Harris’s vivid portrait of India’s Vivekananda, we discover a compelling story of interconnected lives—the guru, his disciple, the international followers, his own teacher—that sheds new light on religion, race, gender, colonialism, and nationalism. This impressive book introduces us to some important but half-forgotten cultural currents in the life of India, Europe, and America at the end of the nineteenth century. To understand contemporary India, we need to pay more attention to these currents, and Harris is a sure-footed guide.
-- Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury
-- Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury
In Guru to the World, Ruth Harris gives us riveting accounts of both the Indian and the international sides of Swami Vivekananda, one of the most provocative personalities of the nineteenth century. The connections between tradition and modernity forged by him over a century ago continue to influence culture, politics, and religion worldwide. A brilliant read.
-- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization
-- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization
An inspired blend of religion, politics, and biography, Guru to the World takes a novel approach to the history of empire and cross-cultural encounters that foregrounds the workings of love, friendship, and faith. In the lives of Vivekananda and his associates, Ruth Harris delivers insight into topics ranging from yoga to anticolonial nationalism that should interest any readers curious to understand the workings of what might be called globalized culture.
-- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch
-- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch
Topics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Preface
ix -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Note on Transliteration
xiii -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 - PART ONE: INDIA
-
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1. Earliest Days
19 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2. Ramakrishna
38 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda
67 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4. Vivekananda and His Travels
84 - PART TWO: THE WEST
-
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5. The World’s Parliament of Religions
111 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6. Women East and West
138 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7. Magic, Science, Transcendence
167 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
8. Green Acre, William James, and Raja Yoga
189 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
9. Female Devotees and the Labors of the Guru
217 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
10. The Pains and Pleasures of Love in America
243 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
11. The Pains and Pleasures of Love in Great Britain
257 - PART THREE: INDIA AND THE WORLD
-
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
12. Vivekananda Returns
275 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
13. The Clinch
308 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
14. Education, “Divine Play,” and the Nation
331 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
15. Femininity, the National Idea, and Politics
360 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
16. Malign Influences and Harrowing Deaths
395 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Conclusion
411 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Chronology
425 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Dramatis Personae
431 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
441 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Acknowledgments
521 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Illustration Credits
525 -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
529
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 27, 2022
eBook ISBN:
9780674287334
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
560
eBook ISBN:
9780674287334
Keywords for this book
Ramakrishna; Kali; Nivedita; Hindu nationalism; William James; Mary Baker Eddy; Sarah Farmer; Sara Bull; Raja Yoga; Hindu Universalism; Theosophy; Christian Science; Max Muller; British Empire; Bhagavad Gita; Swadeshi; Advaita; Orientalism; India; nationalism
