Modernity in Hindu Monasticism: • Swami Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna Movement

Abstract

This paper attempts first to define "modernity" within a Hindu context, using Religion in Modem India (Robert D. Baird, ed.) and Modem Religious Movements in India (J.N. Farquhar) as points of departure. Many of the Hindu thinkers studied by both the Baird and the Farquhar texts were either monastic or ascetic leaders, and of the four Hindu modem movements described in the Baird edition, three were monastic centered movements. Thus, "modem" in the Hindu context is closely interrelated with a monastic or an ascetic way of life and with monastic movements as institutions of socio-religious change. Indeed, Agehananda Bharati, in his insightful article entitled, "The Hindu Renaissance and its Apologetic Patterns" (1970), identifies Swami Vivekananda, who is a key figure in the Baird and Farquhar texts, as an ideal model of a scientific, modem man, who, nevertheless is a monastic. Bharati concludes that "Modern Hindus derive their knowledge of Hinduism from Vivekananda, directly or indirectly." The remainder of the paper provides an analysis of Swami Vivekananda's definition of modernity, which he first formulated in 1893 at the World's Parliament of Religions. The paper concludes with notes on the monastic institution, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, that Vivekananda founded in order to carry out his vision of Hindu modernity.

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