Vivekananda

A modern reformer and monk who reframed Vedanta philosophy for a global audience and connected classical ideas to contemporary social concerns.

scholarship. Modern scholarship — academic/historical analysis.
Tradition: hinduism Tradition: vedanta Period: modern Theme: modern-thought Theme: reform Theme: philosophy Theme: public-life

Vivekananda is a modern figure, and — as with B. R. Ambedkar elsewhere in this archive — that changes the kind of evidence available. Public lectures, published writings, and correspondence survive in abundance, so this page rests on the documented record rather than on the tradition-versus-history caution that governs the archive's ancient figures.

A modern reinterpreter, not a founder

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Concept

Jnana

Knowledge or insight as a path to liberation — not information, but a transforming realization of how things ultimately are.

Concept

Moksha

Liberation or release, framed as the ultimate aim in several Indian traditions — with each defining what it means differently.

Person

Adi Shankara

An influential philosopher associated with a non-dualist reading of Vedanta and with extensive commentarial work — with much of his biography known through later tradition.

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Tagore

A modern poet, writer, and thinker whose work drew on Upanishadic ideas and devotional sensibility to address distinctly modern questions about self, nation, and humanity.

Tradition

Vedanta

A family of interpretive schools centered on the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagavad Gita.

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