Swami Vivekananda and Vedanta: Relevance to Contemporary Indian Society
Dr. Rajesh Kumar
Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU),
Swami Vivekananda awakened Indian consciousness to the rich cultural heritage of India and her unique contribution to human progress in spiritualism. In spite of such a glorious past, he was perturbed with the ailments afflicting Indian society, some of which still persists in the present like, devaluation and weakening of human beings, oppressive hierarchical power relations, over-obsession with material pursuits and narrow interpretation of religion. He suggested a roadmap to rejuvenate Indian nation in the light of Vedantic ideals. He made a prophetic prediction that for development of India, religion needs to be strengthened, education is to be reformed, women and marginalized are to be empowered, common man to be emancipated from unequal power relations and spiritualism should form the foundation of our every endeavor. The present paper aims at analyzing Vivekananda's thoughts on Vedanta's applicability and usefulness; and its relevance in ameliorating the problems in contemporary Indian society
