Find inspiration and wisdom in these inspiring talks by Sarah Ellen Waldo and Swami Vivekananda. Featuring a range of topics from spirituality and the human condition to personal growth and empowerment, Inspired Talks is a must-read for anyone seeking to expand their horizons and deepen their understanding of the world. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

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.

“…Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu/Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid…The Christian is not to become a Hindu or Buddhist, nor a Hindu or Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth…”