Swami Vivekananda - Pathways to Joy

I have come here (Belur Math) to pay my homage and respect to the revered memory of Swami Vivekananda, whose birthday is being celebrated today. I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold.

Mahatma Gandhi

The going forth of Vivekananda as the heroic soul destined to take the world between his two hands and change it was the first visible sign that India was awake... He was a power if ever there was one, a very lion among men. We perceive his influence still working gigantically in something grand, intuitive, upheaving...

Sri Aurobindo

Please send me the book by Swami Vivekananda. It is more than a pleasure, it is a broadening of the soul.

Leo Tolstoy

The paragon of all Unity systems is the Vedanta philosophy of India, and the paragon of Vedantist missionaries was the late Swami Vivekananda who visited our land some years ago. I have just been reading some of Vivekanandas addresses in England, which I had not seen. The man is simply a wonder for oratorical power... the Swami is an honor to humanity.

William James
Father of American Psychology

Where can you find a man like him? Study what he wrote, and learn from his teachings, for if you do, you will gain immense strength. Take advantage of the fountain of wisdom, of Spirit, and of fire that flowed through Vivekananda!

Jawaharlal Nehru
First Prime Minister of India

Vivekananda said that there was the power of God in every man, that God wanted to have our service through the poor. This is what I call real gospel. This gospel showed the path of infinite freedom from mans tiny egocentric self beyond the limits of all selfishness. This was no sermon relating to a particular ritual, nor was it a narrow injunction to be imposed upon ones external life. Vivekanandas gospel marked the awakening of man in his fullness... If you want to know India, study Vivekananda.

Rabindranath Tagore

I cannot write about Vivekananda without going into raptures. Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, Swamiji was a full-blooded masculine personality and a fighter to the core of his being. I can go on for hours and yet fail to do the slightest justice to that great man. He was so great, so profound, so complex. He was a Yogi of the highest spiritual level, in direct communion with the Truth, who consecrated his whole life to the moral and spiritual uplift of his nation and of humanity.

Subhas Chandra Bose

Swami Vivekananda will be remembered as one of the most significant figures in the whole history of Indian religion, comparable in importance to such great teachers as Shankara and Ramanuja. Since the days of the Indian missionaries who traveled in Southeast Asia and China preaching Buddhism and Hinduism more than a thousand years earlier, he was the first Indian religious teacher to make an impression outside India.

A. L. Basham

Vivekanandas words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his at thirty years distance without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. The present leaders of India: Gandhi, Aurobindo, and Tagore, have grown, flowered, and borne fruit under the double constellation of the Swan (Ramakrishna) and the Eagle (Vivekananda) a fact publicly acknowledged by both Gandhi and Aurobindo.

Romain Rolland

N EW W ORLD L IBRARY
N OVATO , C ALIFORNIA

New World Library 14
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Previously published as Vivekananda: Lessons in Classical Yoga by Namaste Books Copyright 2003 by Dave DeLuca

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means or in any form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

Cover design by Antista Fairclough
Book design by Madonna Gauding

PUBLISHER CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Pathways to joy / edited by Dave DeLuca.
p. ; cm.
ISBN 978-1-930722-67-5 (pbk.)
A selection of 108 sacred teachings of Swami Vivekananda,
who brought yoga and the ancient wisdom of Vedanta philosophy
to the West at the 1893 Parliament of Religions.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Vivekananda, Swami, 1863-1902. 2. Yoga. 3. Philosophy,
Hindu. 4. Religious life Hinduism.
I. DeLuca, Dave.
BL1280.292.V58 P38 2006
294.5/55 dc22 0606

ISBN 978-1-930722-67-5 (pbk.)
Printed in the United States of America

New World Library is a proud memeber of the Green Press Initiative.

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Dedicated to my mother, Annette DeLuca,
in honor of a lifetime of kindness,
service, and selfless love

My deepest thanks to the following:

Swami Swahananda, for his majestic kindness and encouragement, and for his generous blessings in the compiling and editing of Swamijis lectures and writings.

Swami Sarvadevananda, for his unwavering support, and for his continually inspiring example of goodness and spiritual light.

Shiva, for his invaluable assistance, and for his consistent and heartfelt enthusiasm during this long period of compiling and editing.

Swami Nikhilananda, for his editions of Vivekanandas works, and for his wonderful biography of Swamiji. These books first exposed me to Swami Vivekananda, and they have been great sources of inspiration for many years.