54. Who was Swami Vivekananda?
Yoga Studies in Five Minutes - Theodora Wildcroft
Gwilym Beckerlegge [+ ]
The Open University
Gwilym Beckerlegge studied religion at the Universities of Oxford and Lancaster where he developed a particular interest in the religions of South Asia and Japan from the nineteenth century to the present. He is the author of The Ramakrishna Mission: The Making of a Modern Hindu Movement (Oxford University Press, 2000) and Swami Vivekananda’s Legacy of Service: A Study of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission (Oxford University Press, 2006). In 2006/2007 he held the post of Professor of the Study of Religions at University College Cork, and in 2010 was Visiting Professor at the Centre d’études de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociale, Paris. He is currently Professor Emeritus, Department of Religious Studies, The Open University, UK.
Description
Vivekananda has been credited with contributing to the resurgence of Hindu confidence during the closing years of the 19th century, which fed into the movement for independence. His ideas have been selectively assimilated into counter-cultural and New Age movements in North America and Western Europe, and into yoga during its transformation into a global phenomenon.