Philosophy

Swami Vivekananda

1863 to 1902, Calcutta, India

Practical Vedanta - each soul potentially divine, the harmony of religions, service as worship, and strength as the message.

Start learning Swami →

Lessons

The Divinity of the Soul

Vivekananda’s central claim of practical Vedanta : that each soul is not a fallen sinner to be rescued but a divinity to be unfolded - ‘each soul is potentially divine,’ and religion is the manifesting of that divinity…

The Harmony of Religions

Vivekananda’s message to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions: that the many faiths are not rivals but different paths to one goal, and that the true ideal is not grudging tolerance but positive acceptance of all re…

The Four Yogas: Four Paths, One Goal

Vivekananda’s map of the spiritual life: four disciplines - karma (work), bhakti (love), raja (meditation), and jnana (knowledge) - suited to four temperaments, all leading to the one goal of freedom, because religion i…

Service as Worship

Vivekananda’s turning of Advaita toward the poor: because the same divinity dwells in every being, serving the suffering is literally worshipping God - daridra-narayana , God in the poor - and this conviction founded th…

Strength Is Life, Weakness Is Death

Vivekananda’s gospel of fearlessness: that weakness is the root of all sin and misery, that the one word bursting from the Upanishads is fearlessness , and that true religion is ‘man-making’ - it should make us strong,…

More in Philosophy

AristotlePlatoImmanuel KantFriedrich NietzscheConfuciusSenecaEpictetusMarcus Aurelius
← All thinkers

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.