Vivekananda

These are His manifold forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings without distinction, He indeed is worshipping best his God. These significant and radiant lines were written by Vivekananda in his poem ‘To a friend’ on 28 January 1899. This maxim asserts his highest and deepest love towards universal humanity and his materialistic rebellious vision towards the cult of traditional spirituality.Here are the grains of conflicts and contradictions within his philosophical entity or personality which has gradually been manifested and developed since his youth. As if, two contending personalities have spread their roots within one magnificent body. In one space, there lives the creator of spiritual ‘Practical Vedanta’ and on the other, one radical socialist worker of the world of mankind.As to how these two self-contradictory and opposite philosophical mindsets have been co-existing all over his turbulent life, this has been dared to have deliberated in this book.The writer is not sure about which of these two has taken how much space each in his dynamic mind. But he is confident that these two opposite philosophies have been co-existing within his personality either peacefully or painfully.Let there be debate or deliberation on this and it should be.