From Holy Wanderings To Service Of God In Man

This book presents the inspiring memoirs of Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and the third president of the Ramakrishna Order. It is an English translation of the Bengali work, Smriti-Katha, written by the great Swami. The book is divided into three chapters—the first one dealing with the story of his transformation under his Master’s guidance; the second one dealing with his experiences during his adventurous wanderings in India and Tibet and his gradual transformation into a zealous worker for the cause of the poor and the afflicted; and the final one dealing with the story of his pioneering relief activities in the famine affected villages. A letter from Swami Vivekananda that motivated Akhandananda to carry on the relief activities is given in the appendix. The book is full of thrilling encounters and narratives and will help the readers draw inspiration from his fearless life

This book is an absorbing travelogue of the Himalayan pilgrimages of Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and the fourth president of the Ramakrishna Order. The great Swami wandered as a pilgrim for almost ten years, from 1887 to 1897, visiting pilgrimage centres in the Himalayas, Tibet, Rajputana, Gujarat and Bengal. He recorded his experiences in Bengali with a beautiful diction and inimitable literary style, giving not only informative and thrilling accounts of men, countries and events but also the reflections of a philosopher and a lover of God. Translated in English by Dr. Narendranath B. Patil, this book will serve as a perennial inspiration for all adventurous spiritual seekers.

This humble work is an honest attempt to briefly study how Sri Ramakrishna's mission proceeded particularly during its early years towards fulfillment and in the process how The Ramakrishna Movement grew and developed in the early days. One charming feature of the book is the number of photos, illustrations and maps which explain the texts. This book will surely become the authoriatative source book for anyone doing research on the Ramakrishna Movement.

This book presents in the words of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) a history of Vedanta, the deep exploration of the inner human world going back to the most ancient rishis or seers whose testimony is still revered in India. He traces the tradition up to the beginning of the twentieth century, showing how the dynamics of social structures within Vedanta and the appearance from within Vedanta of traditions such as Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism influenced and molded the tradition. In addition, he studies the impact of the Western, Abrahamic invasions of India that began around the eleventh century CE. These brought to bear on Vedanta a worldview which operated on the assumption that the physical world was the primary reality and that the kind of radical exploration of the inner world embraced by Vedanta was highly suspect and not valid. The Vedantic tradition adapted in many different ways, producing a variety of philosophical positions that are still extant today. Along with these traditions went various forms of yoga or self-transformation, in Vedanta the key to experiencing the inner meaning of not only philosophy, but also of our human condition, and of reality itself. This tradition presents four contexts of experience (chatushpad), suggesting the “right brain” mode of approach as described by Iain McGilchrist (2009). Under the influence of Shri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) Vivekananda gained access to vijnana or a knowledge higher than those classically described and known in the chatushpad. Vijnana permitted the acceptance of not only the traditional, deeply experiential truths of Vedanta, but also of the validity of Western materialism when seen as related to each other on a continuum of consciousness to be traversed by contemporary forms of yoga. I see the result as a resolution of “right-left” brain conflict à la McGilchrist and thereby a model for universal human understanding, conciliation and co-operation. In my introduction I attempt to show how the whole picture can be related both experientially and conceptually to matrices of consciousness developed in India as far back as the early medieval period. A large glossary and index-cum concordance indicate the various contexts and depths of thought that emerge from Vivekananda’s multi-contextual vijnana.

This book contains Swami Jnanatmananda’s personal reminiscences of ten of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna—Swamis Premananda, Turiyananda, Brahmananda, Shivananda, Saradananda, Abhedananda, Vijnanananda, Akhandananda, Subhodananada and Adbhutananda. The reminiscences, originally recorded in Bengali, offer a vivid pen-picture of these great disciples and how each one them represented as a conduit to their Great Master’s mission. Translated into English by J.N. Dey, the book will help the readers acquire an intimate pen-picture of these great disciples and will inspire them to learn more about these stalwart personalities.

This is the biography of Mrs. Charlotte Elizabeth Sevier, one of the foremost Western disciples of Swami Vivekananda. Obeying the command of her guru, she left her own home in England, and, along with her husband, devoted her life to establish and nurture the Advaita Ashrama at Mayavati in the lofty heights of Himalayas, dedicated to the practice of Advaita Vedanta. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India, this groundbreaking work is the first biography of Mrs. Sevier, and underscores the struggles, achievements, and convictions of this great woman, who was truly the 'Mother of Mayavati'.

Explores the nature and function of bhakti or devotional involvement in religious practice in India in areas where it is seldom sought or where its existence has been doubted or even denied.