Swami Vivekananda - Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

Table of Contents

NOTE FOR THE KINDLE VERSION OF

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

1. Volumes 1 through 8 have been prepared from the First Subsidized Edition of the Mayavati Memorial Edition of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, published by Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata (Calcutta) in January 1989 on the occasion of the 125th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

2. Volume 9 has been prepared from the second reprint of the First Edition, published August 1999.

3. The Unpublished material in this version consists of two letters written by Swami Vivekananda and obtained from the web site of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society (www.vivekananda.org).

4. The entire text is available at www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info

5. Every attempt has been made to preserve the formatting of the print version but a few changes have become essential to suit the electronic format of Kindle.

(a) A combined table of contents have been created for all the nine volumes at the very beginning.

(b) Individual page footnotes have been replaced by endnotes appearing at the very end.

(c) Kindle currently does not support Devanagari font used for Sanskrit and therefore the Devanagari text appearing in the print version appears in the graphics mode in the Kindle.

(d) Sanskrit in the endnotes appears in the ITRANS format rather than Devanagari as endnotes appear not to support graphics in the Kindle.

(e) There is no index to the Kindle version, as the entire text can easily be searched using the search function.

(f) The chronological index of Swami Vivekananda's letters appearing at the end of the print version of Volume 9 does not appear in the Kindle version but is available in the Appendices section of www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info with active hyperlinks along with an addressee index.

6. Individual articles have been numbered to facilitate the reading experience..

7. The following text is from the printed version of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda .

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The year 1988 happens to be the 125th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, as he was born on 12 January 1863. His life's mission was to propagate the lofty teachings of the Vedanta, in the light of the realizations of his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, throughout the world, and to regenerate his Motherland in tune with her ancient tradition and inherent genius. Towards this end, he bent all his energies and passed away before he was forty.

He has left behind a rich legacy for the future generations his writings on the four yogas, epistles, speeches, poetic compositions, etc. in the form of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (8 volumes in English and 10 volumes in Hindi and other regional languages of India). Reflecting back on the inspiration the Swami's Works provided for our national patriotic leaders in the beginning of this century, the Government of India has declared 12 January as the National Youth Day to be observed every year all over the country. The communication issued in this connection by the Government of India in 1984 states: 'It was felt that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration to the Indian Youth.'

Ever since then, it had been our ardent wish to publish a cheaper edition of his Complete Works, heavily subsidizing the whole set, so that it may be within the reach of the common people, particularly the Youth. Now, we are happy to publish this subsidized edition on this memorable occasion. It may not be out of place to mention here that all our national leaders in the early part of this century, when the Freedom Movement was gaining ground, had unreservedly acknowledged that Swamiji and his speeches and writings inspired them to dedicate themselves, heart and soul, to serve the cause of the Motherland and work for her Freedom. It is not necessary to quote their words here, as they are available elsewhere. One of them proclaimed: 'Modern India is his (Swamiji's) creation.' The Youth of India needs to know what an invaluable legacy Swamiji has left for posterity, and try to cultivate the same love and spirit of sacrifice which he himself had and held aloft before them.

Swamiji was, first and foremost, a man of the Spirit, who had realized the ultimate Truth. This was the most prominent facet of his multi-sided personality. Apart from this, he was a patriot-monk, quite out of the ordinary run of patriots; he was a social reformer of an unusual type; he was an educationist with several original plans and programmes; he was an orator by 'divine right'; he was a gifted composer of poems in Sanskrit, Bengali, and English; and he was blessed with a melodious voice which charmed his Master.

His Complete Works contain his speeches and writings, as well as numerous epistles written to his brother-disciples, disciples, admirers, and friends. There are his conversations and dialogues with his disciples and intimate associates. In sending forth these volumes at a cheaper price, it is our earnest prayer that the Youth the world over may 'take advantage of this (Swamiji's) fountain of wisdom, of spirit and fire', imbibe even in a small measure his immortal message of the Vedanta, and capture even to a small degree his intense love for the Motherland, which was to him 'the queen of his adoration'.

We take this opportunity to express our grateful thanks to the Implementation Committee for the Commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of India's Independence and Jawaharlal Nehru Centenary, for their generous help in this regard.

PUBLISHER

12 January 1989

National Youth Day

Advaita Ashrama

Mayavati, Himalayas

PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION

In addition to the five lectures one on Krishna, three on the Gita, and one on Mohammed from the Vedanta and the West of Hollywood, reproduced in the last printing, three more lectures The Soul and God, Breathing, and Practical Religion: Breathing and Meditation are reprinted in this edition from the same magazine. The copyright is reserved by the Vedanta Society of Southern California. These lectures, originally taken down by Ida Ansell in shorthand, were later on transcribed into longhand. About these the editor of the magazine remarks:

"In the interest of absolute faithfulness, when transcribing them, no alterations were made in the somewhat incomplete notes Ida Ansell was able to take down. Where omissions were left because of some obscurity, these in the printed version have been indicated by three dots. Any matter added for purposes of clarification has been placed in square brackets."

Vilvamangala, added in the tenth edition, was found in the papers of Miss S. E. Waldo by Swami Raghavananda.

The Index is revised to include new references.

THE EDITOR

August 1962

PREFACE TO THE NINTH EDITION

As it will appear from the preface to the first edition, all the available works, lectures, letters and conversations of the Swami Vivekananda were originally planned to be published in four or five volumes. Subsequently, more materials came to hand, and the number of volumes multiplied, till at present we have no less than eight of them, each of which is self-contained and is equally inspiring.

It has always been our endeavour to keep abreast of time, so far as printing and get-up are concerned. Thus, though the first edition was printed at Mayavati, subsequent editions were printed in a better form in Calcutta. Besides, the successive editors have been constantly at work to remove all inaccuracies and to add fresh materials, such as the Sanskrit Yoga aphorisms in the second edition of the first volume. And the present edition of the first volume is enriched by an index which, we hope, will be greatly appreciated. It is our intention to add such indexes at the end of all succeeding volumes.