A Table of Content:

B Albert Camus Albert Einstein S Anton P. Checkov Bertrand Russel U Friederich Nietzsche H. D. Thoreau R D Jacques Derrida Karl Marx

Mahatma Gandhi D R Dr. Narayan Dutta Shrimali Osho U Pablo Picasso Rahul Sankrityayan S Sri Sri Ravishankar Sigmund S. Freud B Leo Tolstoy Alfred Nobel A Swami Vivekananda Brief introduction: Albert Camus was a representative of non-metropolitan French Albert Camus A literature. His origin in Algeria and his experiences there in the thirties were dominating influences in his thought Writer/Philosopher and work. Of semi-proletarian parents, early attached to intellectual circles of B strongly revolutionary tendencies, with a deep interest in philosophy (only chance prevented him from pursuing a university career in that field), he came to France at the age of twenty-five. The man and the S times met: Camus joined the resistance movement during the occupation and after the liberation was a columnist for the newspaper Combat. But his journalistic activities had been chiefly a response to the demands of the time; in 1947 Camus retired from political journalism and, besides writing U his fiction and essays, was very active in the theatre as producer and playwright (e.g., Caligula, 1944). He also adapted plays by Calderon, Lope de Vega, Dino Buzzati, and Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun. The R D essay Le Mythe de Sisyphe (The Myth of Sisyphus), 1942, expounds Camus’s notion of the absurd and of its acceptance with “the total absence of hope, which has D R nothing to do with despair, a continual refusal, which must not be confused with renouncement - and a conscious dissatisfaction”. Meursault, central It is absurd to smoke and absurd not to smoke character of L’Étranger (The Stranger), 1942, illustrates much of this essay: man as the nauseated victim of the absurd orthodoxy of habit, Born: 1913 Died: 1960 later - when the young killer faces execution - tempted by despair, hope, U and salvation. Dr. Rieux of La Peste (The Plague), 1947, who tirelessly Famous For: Absurdism attends the plague-stricken citizens of Oran, enacts the revolt against a world of the absurd and of injustice, and confirms Camus’s words: “We refuse to despair of mankind. Without having the unreasonable ambition to save men, we still want to serve them”. Other well-known S works of Camus are La Chute (The Fall), When I look in the glass I see that every line in my face means pes- 1956, and L’Exil et le royaume (Exile and simism, but in spite of my face - that is my experience - I remain an the Kingdom), 1957. His austere search for optimist. moral order found its aesthetic correlative in - Richard Jeffries B the classicism of his art. He was a stylist of great purity and intense concentration and rationality. A Brief introduction: Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March Albert Einstein A 14, 1879. Six weeks later the family moved to Munich, where he later on began his schooling at the Luitpold Scientist Gymnasium. Later, they moved to Italy and Albert continued his education at Aarau, Switzerland and in 1896 he entered B the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss S citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as technical assistant in the Swiss Patent Office. In 1905 he obtained his doctor’s degree.During his stay at the Patent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was U appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 1914 R D he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his D R citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the Nothing is absolute, but is relative position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton*. He became a United States citizen in 1940 and retired from his post in 1945. After Born: 1879 Died: 1955 World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government U Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he Famous For: Theory of relativity declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.In the 1920’s, Einstein embarked on the construction of unified field theories, although he continued to work on the probabilistic interpretation of quantum theory, and he persevered S with this work in America. He contributed to statistical mechanics by his development In other words, apart from the known and the unknown, what else is of the quantum theory of a monatomic gas there? and he has also accomplished valuable - Harold Pinter work in connection with atomic transition B probabilities and relativistic cosmology. A Brief introduction: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in the small seaport of Taganrog, Anton P. Chekhov A southern Russia, the son of a grocer. Chekhov’s grandfather was a serf, who had bought his own freedom and Writer/Philosopher that of his three sons in 1841. He also taught himself to read and write. Yevgenia Morozov, Chekhov’s mother, was the B daughter of a cloth merchant. In 1879 Chekhov entered the Moskow University Medical School. While in the school, he began to publish hundreds of comic short S stories to support himself and his mother, sisters and brothers. His publisher at this period was Nicholas Leikin, owner of the St. Petersburg journal Oskolki (splinters). His subjects were silly social situations, marital problems, farcical encounters between husbands, wives, mistresses whims of U young women, of whom Chekhov had not much knowledge – the author was was shy with women even after his marriage. His works appeared in St. Petersburg daily papers, Peterburskaia gazeta from 1885, R D and Novoe vremia from 1886. Chekhov’s first novel, Nenunzhaya pobeda (1882), set in Hungary, parodied the novels of the popular Hungarian writer Mór Jókai. As a politician Jókai was also mocked for his D R ideological optimism. By 1886 Chekhov had gained a wide fame as a Who was to blame! writer. His second full-length novel, Agatha Christie used its characters and atmosphere in her mystery novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Born: 1860 Died: 1904 (1926). Chekhov graduated in 1884, and practiced medicine until 1892. U In 1886 Chekhov met H.S. Suvorin, who invited him to become a regular Famous For: Literary writing contributor for the St. Petersburg daily Novoe vremya. His friendship with Suvorin ended in 1898 because of his objections to the anti-Dreyfus campaingn conducted by paper. But during these years Chechov developed his concept of the dispassionate, non-judgemental author. He S outlined his program in a letter to his brother There is not, or there hardly is, a single Russian gentleman or univer- Aleksandr: “1. Absence of lengthy verbiage sity man who does not boast of his past. The present is always worse of political-social-economic nature; 2. than the past. Why? Because Russian excitability has one specific total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of characteristic: it is quickly followed by exhaustion persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. -Dostaviski B audacity and originality; flee the stereotype; 6. compassion.” A Brief introduction: Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born at Trelleck on 18th May, 1872. Bertrand A. W. Russell A His parents were Viscount Amberley and Katherine, daughter of 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley. At the age of Writer/Philosopher three he was left an orphan. His father had wished him to be brought up as an agnostic; to avoid this he was made a ward of Court, B and brought up by his grandmother. Instead of being sent to school he was taught by governesses and tutors, and thus acquired a perfect knowledge of S French and German. In 1890 he went into residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after being a very high Wrangler and obtaining a First Class with distinction in philosophy he was elected a fellow of his college in 1895. But he had already left Cambridge in the summer of 1894 and for some U months was attaché at the British embassy at Paris. In 1920 Russell had paid a short visit to Russia to study the conditions of Bolshevism on the spot. In the autumn of the same year he went to China to lecture R D on philosophy at the Peking university. On his return in Sept. 1921, having been divorced by his first wife, he married Miss Dora Black. They lived for six years in Chelsea during the winter months and D R spent the summers near Lands End. In 1927 he and his wife started a It is better to worship a free man rather than a savage GOD school for young children, which they carried on until 1932. He succeeded to the earldom in 1931. In 1938 he went to the United States and during Born: 1872 Died: 1970 the next years taught at many of the country’s leading universities. He U accepted a five-year contract as a lecturer for the Barnes foundation, Famous For: Philosophy on historical development Merion, Pa., but the cancellation of this contract was announced in Jan. 1943 by Albert C. Barnes, director of the foundation. Russell was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908, and re-elected a fellow of Trinity College in 1944. He was awarded the Sylvester medal of the Royal S Society, 1934, the de Morgan medal of the London Mathematical Society in the same Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts be- tween men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion year, the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950.In .. . and thediscovery of a standard of judgement. a paper “Logical Atomism” (Contemporary - Epictetus British Philosophy. Personal Statements, B First series. Lond. 1924) Russell exposed his views on his philosophy, preceded by a A few words on historical development. Brief introduction: Nietzsche was born in Röcken, the Prussian province of Saxony, on Friedrich Nietzsche A October 15th, 1844. His father died when Nietzsche was five years old, hence, his childhood was spent Writer/Philosopher with his mother, sister and two maiden aunts. At fourteen the young Nietzsche was awarded a scholarship to enter the B preparatory school, Schulpforta, with the intent of training for the clergy. He excelled in religious studies, German literature, and classical studies. He also began to suffer S from migraine headaches, an ailment that would trouble him for most of his adult life. Schopenhauer and his recent text, The World as Will and Idea.Although Nietzsche served in the army in 1868 his appointment was cut short by illness. However, he was thought to be a brilliant student, and rather U than return to the army, the University of Basel called him to the chair of classical philology at the age of 24, even though arrangements to award him a doctorate had to be made shortly thereafter. Then during R D the Franco-Prussian war, he served as a medical orderly for a brief period, returning this time to Basel in ill-health, and though he managed to teach there from 1869-79, he was again forced by his health to retire. D R The second part of The Birth of Tragedy is devoted to Wagner’s music. Appolo felt alone in the veil of maya when Dionysus arrived With the publication of The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music in 1872 Nietzsche returned to Basel to lecture. Upon Nietzsche’s rise to Born: 1844 Died: 1900 celebrity, he sought to bring his friend along, and together, they managed U to convince the government to fund the construction of the Bayreuth Famous For: Apollonianism and Dionisiasm theatre, built to feature Wagner’s work. The theatre was completed in 1876, and Wagner’s self-proclaimed masterpiece, The Ring of the Nibelung, was performed for the Emperor. Much to his despair, Nietzsche found that he hated the work, and began to question not only Wagner’s S work, but Prussian culture in general. His friendship with Wagner ended in 1878, at Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposi- the time Nietzsche discovered the French tion for benevolence, confidence, justice. Enlightenment. Tensions between the - Benedict Spinoza two rose as Wagner disapproved of the B French and Nietzsche refused the cult of Wagnerian ideals in Bayreuth, particularly A the anti-Semitism. Brief introduction: Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817, in Concord, H. D. Thoreau A Massachusetts. He would live the majority of his life in that same town and die there in 1862. His father, a pencil Writer/Philosopher manufacturer named John Thoreau, and mother Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau christened him David Henry but always B called him Henry. As an adult, Thoreau began to give his name as Henry David but never had it legally changed.The Thoreaus had three other children in addition to S Henry - Helen, five years older than Henry, John, Jr., two years older, and Sophia, two years younger. In 1821, the family moved to Boston, where they lived until 1823, when they returned to Concord. Thoreau later recalled a visit the family made to Walden Pond from Boston when he was four U years old.When he was sixteen, Thoreau entered Harvard College, his grandfather’s alma mater. His schooling was paid for by the money his father made as a pencil manufacturer, combined with contributions R D from his elder siblings salaries from their teaching jobs. While at college, Thoreau studied Latin and Greek grammar and composition, and took classes in a wide variety of subjects, including mathematics, D R English, history, philosophy, and four different modern languages. He also Nature is more communicable than the silence you break! made great use of the Harvard library holdings before graduating in 1837. After graduating, Thoreau accepted a job as a schoolteacher in Concord. Born: 1817 Died: 1862 His refusal to beat his students led to his dismissal from the position after U only two weeks. That same year, Thoreau began keeping the journal Famous For: Transcendentalism in which he would write for the rest of his life and became friends with Concord residents Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Ellery Channing, and became a follower of Transcendentalism. Emerson provided a letter of reference for young Thoreau, when he traveled to Maine in search S of a teaching position at a private school. Unable to find a job in Maine, Thoreau Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of returned to Concord and opened a school great sculpture. with his brother John. Concord Academy - Aldous Huxley differed from other schools in its lack of B corporal punishment and encouragement of learning by doing ? A Brief introduction: Derrida was born to an Algerian Jewish family in El-Biar, Algeria, in 1930. Jacques Derrida A At the age of 22, he moved to France and began studies at the École Normale Supérieur in Paris, focusing on Critique the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. Of particular interest for Derrida is the analysis of écriture, the writing of philosophy itself. B He published several articles in the 1960’s for Tel Quel, France’s forum of leftist avant- garde theory. During the first half of the decade, he taught at the Sorbonne in Paris. S He wrote reviews on publications devoted to history and the nature of writing, which appeared in the latter half of the 1960’s in the Parisian journal, Critique. These works would be foundational to Derrida’s highly influential work, Of Grammatology. Derrida was introduced to America in 1967 by the Johns U Hopkins University, where he delivered his lecture “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.”Derrida taught at the Ecole Normale Supérieur from 1965 to 1984, dividing much of R D his time between Paris and American universities such as Johns Hopkins and Yale. He is currently the director at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales in Paris. Since 1986 he has also D R been Professor of Philosophy, French and Comparative Literature at Nothing could be the final definition the University of California, Irvine and continues to lecture in academic institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.Derrida published three books Born: 1930 Died: 2004 in 1967-Speech and Phenomena; Of Grammatology; and Writing and U Difference, which outline the deconstructive approach to reading texts. In Famous For: Theory of Deconstruction Of Grammatology, in part influenced by his friend and peer, Emmanual Levinas, Derrida analyzes and criticizes Western Philosophy beginning with the pre-Socratics to Heidegger. He challenges the fundamental privileging of “logos” in Western Philosophy with its claims to authenticity S in the proposition of a direct link between speech and act in its form, which Derrida A writer is rarely so well inspired as when he talks about himself. reveals as having the presence of a centre - Anatole France B of identity and/or subjectivity. A Brief introduction: Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 in Trier, where he received a Karl Marx A classical education. He studied jurisprudence at Bonn and later in Berlin, where, however, his preoccupation with Economist philosophy soon turned him away from law. In 1841, after spending five years in the “metropolis of intellectuals,” he returned B to Bonn intending to habilitate. At that time the first “New Era” was in vogue in Prussia. Frederick William IV had declared his love of a loyal opposition, and attempts were S being made in various quarters to organise one. Thus the Rheinische Zeitung was founded at Cologne; with unprecedented daring Marx used it to criticise the deliberations of the Rhine Province Assembly, in articles which attracted great attention. At the end of 1842 he took over the editorship himself and U was such a thorn in the side of the censors that they did him the honour of sending a censor [Wilhelm Saint-Paul] from Berlin especially to take care of the Rheinische Zeitung. When this proved of no avail R D either the paper was made to undergo dual censorship, since, in addition to the usual procedure, every issue was subjected to a second stage of censorship by the office of Cologne’s Regierungspresident [Karl D R Heinrich von Gerlach]. But this also came to nothing and the newspaper Infrastructure determines superstructure ceased publication. His criticism of the deliberations of the Rhine Province Assembly compelled Marx to study questions of material interest. In Born: 1818 Died: 1883 pursuing that he found himself confronted with points of view which U neither jurisprudence nor philosophy had taken account of. Proceeding Famous For: Communism and capital from the Hegelian philosophy of law, Marx came to the conclusion that it was not the state, which Hegel had described as the “top of the edifice,” but “civil society,” which Hegel had regarded with disdain, that was the sphere in which a key to the understanding of the process of the historical Critics are biased, and so are readers. (Indeed, a critic is a bundle of S development of mankind should be looked biases held loosely together by a sense of taste.) But intelligent read- for. However, the science of civil society is ers soon political economy, and this science could not be studied in Germany, it could only be discover how to allow for the windage of their own and a critic’s preju- studied thoroughly in England or France. dices. B - Whitney Balliett A Brief introduction: Mahatma Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October, 1869 in Porbandar, Mahatma Gandhi A Gujarat, India. He died on the 30th of January, 1948 in New Delhi, India. Gandhi was a great political and spiritual Politician leader for India, when India was still under the rule of the British Empire.Gandhi showed through protesting in a non-violent B way, great things could be achieved. Through his pioneering way of the philosophy Satyagraha- (the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience) S Gandhi lead India to its independence. Gandhi studied at the University College London to train as a barrister. After finishing his time in England Gandhi moved back to India where he tried unsuccessfully to open his own law firm. In 1893 he accepted a year-long contract from an Indian firmto U a post in Natal, South Africa. Moving to South Africa was the changing point for him, here he experienced discrimination and racism in all areas of life. When his contract expired Gandhi had planed to R D return to India. At his farewell party it was brought to his attention about a new bill that the Natal Legislative Assembly was to deny the right to vote to Indians. In seeing this Gandhi was asked to stay in Durban and D R fight against the injustices levied against Indians in South Africa. After There is no greater weapon than satyagraha! twenty years of passive resistance and noncooperation the South African government finally made several concessions to the Indian people living Born: 1869 Died: 1948 there.At the end of the First World War, this caught on very quickly in U India and soon he had a good following. The British government deemed Famous For: Indian freedom this type of protesting revolutionary, so in 1920 British troops massacred many innocent Indians at a demonstration. Gandhi then instigated a policy of non-cooperation towards the Brits. Gandhi was imprisoned for a short time, in 1924 he decided to call an end to the campaign of non- S cooperation because of India’s increasing violence towards Britain.After six years I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy “Dear Jack: Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary. I’ll be damned if I am go- he again started various campaigns ing to pay for a landslide.” against the British Government, after been - John F. Kennedy imprisoned on several other occasions, B Gandhi formally retired from politics in 1934. A Brief introduction: Dr Narayan Dutta Shrimali was a Guru mantra, tantra, astrology, and Dr. Narayan D. Shrimali A ancient Indian sciences.He is considered to be the avatar of the great master of Siddhashram, Paramhans Guruji Swami Nikhileswaranand by his disciples. Dr .Shrimali was married to Bhagwati Devi at an early age of 12 . He was inspired B by the ancient Indian sciences such as Mantra and Tantra from his childhood . His eagerness to learn the ancient sciences made him quit his home and S search for masters in the Himalayas . He wandered in the Himalayas as a Sanyasi .After learning various occult studies such as Mantra , Tantra , Surya Vigyan , Hypnotism ,Palmistry , Alchemy from various sages , he finally had the chance of meeting his Guru Paramhans Swami Sachidanand in U Siddhashram . After he became complete master and enlightened , his Guru ordered him to go back to his family life and spread his knowledge to the common society . He took up the arduous task of removing R D the misconceptions of Mantra and Tantra Dr.Shrimali was nominated as the President of the World Astrology Conference from amongst representatives of various countries in 1979. He was the president of D R most of the astrological conferences that happened in India since 1979. Tranquility is the greatest power! In 1987 he was honored with the title of “Tantra Shiromani” by the Para- psychological Council. In 1988 he was honored with the title of “Mantra Born: 1933 Died: 1998 Shiromani” by the Mantra Sansthan. Dr.Shrimali was honored with the U title of “Maha Mahopadhyay” in 1982 by the then Vice-President of India, Famous For: Mantra, Tantra and Astrology Dr.B.D.Jatti. In 1989 he was honored with the title “Samaj Shiromani” by the then Vice President of India, Dr.Shankar Dayal Sharma. In 1991, he was honored by the then Prime Minister of Nepal, Sh.Bhattarai for his S unique and singular work in the social and religious fields. Bhadram karnevi srinuyama deva, bhadram pashyema kshyaviryajat- ra, sthirairangai stustawamasasta, nubhirbyasema devahitam yadayu! -Ishawashya Upanishad B A Brief introduction: Osho or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was born in 1931 in Central India. He Osho A was a charismatic and gifted speaker who became the leader of a worldwide new spiritual movement. It is said that at Meditation Teacher the age of 21 he attained enlightenment or Samadhi. At the time he was studying philosophy at the University of Saugar. B On receiving a masters degree he taught philosophy at the University of Jabalpur for nine years. As well as teaching philosophy he also began to attract disciples to follow S his own eclectic mix of philosophy and religion. In 1966 he decided to leave his teaching post and give full attention to his role as spiritual Master. In 1974 he moved with his disciples to Pune, India. Here he established a new ashram in a comfortable setting of 6 acres. In 1980 he was attacked U by a Hindu fundamentalist who disagreed with Osho’s unconventional stance on religion and spirituality. It is said that due to police incompetence the assailant was never convicted. Due to failing health Osho R D decided to leave India for America where he would be able to receive better medical treatment. His disciples bought a large plot of land near Antelope, Oregon. Here they wished to build a large ashram and other D R buildings. There was often friction between the local townspeople and Ohso never borned and died, only visited this plannet! the ashramites. There was a clash of cultures and the local townspeople felt threatened by the influx of devotees. Because of this many building Born: 1931 Died: 1990 permits were denied. This led to ashramites trying to get elected directly U to the town council. There were also allegations made that followers of Famous For: Meditative lifestyles Osho were involved in illegal activities such as spreading salmonella in a local restaurant. More seriously there were allegations of Murder made against some followers of Osho. Two were eventually convicted of the murder of Charles Turner who had tried to close the ranch. In 1987 S Osho became fearful of investigation by the authorities so he decided to leave the I’ll wager that in ten years it will be fashionable again to be a virgin. compound in Oregon and went to South - Barbara Cartland Carolina. Here he fell foul of US immigration law. He had arranged false marriages and B other violations of immigration laws. A Brief introduction: Pablo Ruiz Picasso (full name Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Pablo Picasso A Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso) was born Painter on the 25th October, 1881 in Malaga in Spain. He was the first son of Jose Ruiz y Blasco and Maria Picasso y Lopez. His B father was a painter and a professor of art at the School of Crafts and the curator of a local museum. Picasso learnt the basics of art from his father. Picasso also S attended the Academy of Arts in Madrid, but dropped out within a year of joining it. He made his first trip to Paris in 1900 and loved the city. He lived with a friend Max Jacob who was a journalist and a poet. Max worked in the day and slept in the night, while Picasso slept during the day and U worked during the night. Those were hard times for Picasso and he burned many of his paintings to keep himself warm.In 1901, Picasso started a magazine called ‘Arte Joven’ in Madrid with his friend Soler. He R D completely illustrated the first edition of the magazine. It was at this point that he began to sign his paintings as simply ‘Picasso’ rather than ‘Pablo Ruiz y Picasso’.While in Paris, Pablo Picasso had a propensity for D R entertaining and had among his friends people such as Andre Breton Paint cannot reflect art but only a mode of expression! and Gertrude Stein. Picasso also had an active love life and usually had several mistresses along with a wife or a primary partner.All the paintings Born: 1881 Died: 1973 by Pablo Picasso are usually classified into various ‘periods’ based on the U moods and styles of the paintings. These, in turn, were largely affected Famous For: Abstract painting by his personal and love life.His real work and career as a painter is said to begin around 1894 with a painting called ‘The First Communion’ which showed his sister Lola, and the more famous painting by Pablo Picasso called ‘Portrait of Aunt Pepa’. In 1897, his realistic style of painting became S influenced by Symbolism and came across in a series of landscapes where he used An amateur is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to violet and green tones in the colors. From enable him to paint. 1899 to 1900 was a period where Picasso - Ben Shahn was creating paintings in a Modernist style B which emerged due to his influence and exposure to the works of Rossetti, Edward A Munch etc. Brief introduction: Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan was born Kedarnath Pande on 9 Rahul Sankrityayan A April 1893 in a simple Bhumihar Brahmin family. His father, Govardhan Pande, was a religious-minded farmer. His Writer mother, Kulawanti, used to stay with her parents at the village of Pandaha,where Kedar was born. As his mother died at the B age of twenty-eight and hid father at the age of forty-five, he was brought up by his grandmother. His earliest memories as recorded by him were of the terrible S famine in 1897. The well known historian Kashiprasad Jaisawal compared Rahul Sankrityayan with Buddha. Rahul’s personality was as impressive and memorable as are his achievements.He travelled widely and wrote in five languages-Hindi,Sanskrit,Bhojpuri,Pali and Tibetan. His published U works include autobiography, biography, travelogue, sociology, history, philosophy, Buddhism, Tibetology, lexicography, grammar, textual editing, folklore, science, fiction, drama, essays, politics, and R D pamphleteering. Rahul Sankrityayan (1893-1963) was one of the most widely traveled scholars of India, who spent forty- five years of his life on travel and away from home. Rahul Sankrityayan was born D R on 9 April, 1893 in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and his original name was God is the product of human thinking! Kedarnath Pandey. He spent part of his childhood in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar states of India. In 1923, he became a Bhikkhu. His travels took him Born: 1893 Died: 1963 to different parts of India, including Ladakh, Kinnaur, and Kashmir. He U also covered several other countries including Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Famous For: Physical and metaphysical philosophy Iran, China, and the former Soviet Union. While traveling, he mostly used surface transport, and he went to certain countries clandestinely, like Tibet where he went disguised as a Buddhist monk. He made several trips to Tibet and brought from their valuable manuscripts of Pali and S Sanskrit, several books and paintings. Most of these formed a part of the libraries God seems to have the receiver off the hook. of Vikramshila and Nalanda Universities - Arthur Koestler and were taken to Tibet by fleeing Buddhist monks during 12th century and onwards B when the invading armies had destroyed these universities. A Brief introduction: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a famous spiritual leader of India. He is credited with Sri Sri Ravishankar A being the initiator of a foundation, known as the Art of Living Foundation. His aim in life is to teach people cope Spiritualist up with the stresses of everyday life and be at peace with themselves. He is also the founder of a number of charitable B organizations, like the International Association for Human Values. Read this biography on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar further, to know more about him and his life history. S Sri Sri Ravishankar was born in 1956 in the southern part of India. It is said that at the tender age of four, he could recite parts of the scared Bhagwad Gita. By time he was 17 years old, he had already attained an advanced degree in Modern Physics. Some time later, he received an Honorary Doctorate U from Kuvempu University of India. Other than that, there is very little information on the childhood and the early life of Sri Sri Ravishankar. It is believed that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar received Enlightenment R D in the year 1982. He had retreated into silence and on the tenth day of his silence, he became Enlightened. Enlightenment also bestowed Ravi Shankar with the technique of Sudarshan Kriya, a rhythmic D R breathing exercise. In 1982, the year he received Enlightenment, Sri Sri Neo-humanism can be the perfect art of living! Ravi Shankar established the Art of Living Foundation. Thorough this foundation, he promoted the Sudarshan Kriya. Today, his foundation Born: 1956 is considered to be one of the largest volunteer-based educational U and humanitarian organizations in the world. In 1997, he founded the Famous For: Art of living International Association for Human Values (IAHV), along with Dalai Lama and a number of other people.Sri Sri Ravi Shankar teaches people to replace hatred and suffering with love and wisdom. He spreads the message of universal love, peace and brotherhood throughout the world. S He aims at promoting spirituality amongst people and making them realize that there Everyone who has ever built anywhere a “new heaven” first found the is goodness in every individual. He advises power thereto in his own hell. people to accept as well as respect each - Friedrich Nietzsche B other. A Brief introduction: As the father of Psychoanalysis, a movement in Psychology, which dealt Sigismund S. Freud A greater with subconscious motives to behavior, Sigmund Freud alone sculpted what modern psychology would Psychologist become. His renowned ideas, which have focused on the Id, Ego, and Super-Ego of the mind are still studied in academic B circles to this day and are employed in the offices of psychologists in some form or another worldwide. Born into a Jewish family, Freud grew up in Austria in the S mid-1800s and was noticeably gifted at a young age. After attending the University of Vienna until 1881 and after eight years of higher study, he began his own private practice, which focused upon nerve and brain disorders. Around the time of his marriage, Freud began using hypnosis as a form U of therapy, but to no real avail. He decided to try something that seemed to work well – simply allow patients to lie comfortably and discuss their own problems. He found that eventually, even if it took several sessions R D together, the patient would be able to access some subconscious, or often repressed feelings about his or her life. This often resulted in the patient exploring his or her childhood and coming to a self- D R realization about how childhood had shaped their present state. Even Sex is the root cause of human civilization! with this method of psychoanalysis, many psychologists of the day felt this form of “free association” as it was called, wouldn’t actually render Born: 1856 Died: 1939 the patient back to a stable mental state. However, Sigmund kept up U with his pursuits and eventually discovered that a person’s mind was Famous For: Sex psychology constructed in different layers. And, in order to get to the ‘root’ of an issue, a patient would have to unpeel the layers him or herself. The doctor’s role was to facilitate the process and help the patient keep digging inward without getting overly sidetracked. With the uprising of the Nazi Party S in Germany and Austria, Freud was able to cross into France. His books were publicly Romanticism is the expression of man’s urge to rise above reason and common sense, just as rationalism is the expression of his urge to rise burned on the streets and further research above theology and emotion. into Freudian Psychoanalysis was banned - Charles Yost throughout the regime. It was believed that B psychoanalysis was the study of the Jews and should not be considered a worthwhile A pursuit. Brief introduction: Count Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in his Leo Tolstoy A ancestral estate Yasnaya Polyana, South of Moscow, Russia. He was the fourth of five children in a wealthy family Writer/Philosopher of Russian landed Gentry. His parents died when he was a child, and he was brought up by his elder brothers and relatives. B Leo Tolstoy studied languages and law at Kazan University for three years. He was dissatisfied with the school and left Kazan without a degree, returned to his estate and S educated himself independently. In 1848 he moved to the capital, St. Petersburg, and there passed two tests for a law degree. He was abruptly called to return to his estate near Moscow, where he inherited 4000 acres of land and 350 serfs. There Tolstoy built a school for his serfs. He briefly U went to a Medical School in Moscow, but lost a fortune in gambling, and was pulled out by his brother. He took military training, became an Army officer, and moved to the Caucasus, where he lived a simple life R D for three years with Cossacs. There he wrote his first novel - “Childhood” (1852). With writing “Boyhood” (1854) and “Youth” (1857) he concluded the autobiographical trilogy. I He split from aristocratic class and D R developed an ascetic lifestyle, becoming a vegetarian, and a farmer. War and peace are the counterparts! He sponsored and organized free meals for the poor. He transfered his copyright on all of his writings after 1880 to public domain. In his Born: 1828 Died: 1910 later age Tolstoy was pursuing the path of a wandering ascetic. He U corresponded with Mahatma Gandhi, who was directly influenced by Famous For: War and peace Tolstoy’s “The Kingdom of God is Within You” (1894), which was praised by many nonviolent movements.In 1902 Tolstoy wrote a letter to the Tsar, calling for social justice, to prevent a civil war, and in 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Tolstoy wrote a condemnation of war. The Tsar S replied by increasing police surveillance on Tolstoy. In November of 1910 he left I have never understood disliking for war. It panders to instincts al- ready catered for within the scope of any respectable domestic estab- his estate, probably taking the path of a lishment. wandering ascetic, which he had been - Alan Bennett pursuing for decades. He left home without B explanations and took a train, in which he caught pneumonia, and died at a remote A station of Astapovo. Brief introduction: Alfred Nobel was born the son of a Swedish construction worker in Alfred Nobel A Stockholm, 1833. His father, Immanuel, often built bridges, and so was interested in finding different ways to blast Scientist away unwanted rock formations. In the year of Alfred’s birth however, the construction business went bankrupt. Seeing nothing B left for him in Sweden, Immanuel and his family moved to St. Petersburg in Russia, where a factory was set up, making mines out of gunpowder, for use by the Russian S Army during the Crimean War. The demand for this product was high, the business was booming and Alfred Nobel and the other children received an excellent private education whilst in Russia. His father also insisted that he travel the world during his education, and by the age of seventeen, he was U fluent in five different languages. Having been educated in chemical engineering, Alfred Nobel returned to St. Petersburg to try and develop a safe way of handling the highly volatile liquid nitro-glycerine, which R D had recently been invented. Within a few years, Alfred Nobel had increased the production of dynamite from his factories dramatically, and showed his supreme skill as a businessman by being able to D R sell it all over the world. Although he worked for the majority of his life We all are sons of beach now! developing explosives, Nobel was essentially a pacifist. When, in his later years he drew up a will, he stated that he wished the majority of his nine Born: 1833 Died: 1896 million dollar fortune to be used to fund awards in different fields of study U (Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Physiology and Medicine, Peace). He Famous For: Dynamite and Nobel Peace Prize stated that the awards should be given to ‘those who have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind’. It was five years after his death that the first Nobel awards were handed out, in 1901. The Nobel foundation had been set up to organise and structure the awards. Since their inception the S Nobel prizes have come to be recognised as the highest honour a person can recieve So let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes in a particular area of study. Through his needed effortsto convert retreat into advance. will, outstanding artists, scientists and - Franklin D. Roosevelt humanitarians alike have been able to B push through their invaluable work for the good of humankind. A Brief introduction: SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S inspiring personality was well known both in Swami Vivekananda A India and in America during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The Spiritualist unknown monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented B Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, S colourful personality, and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many types of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or heard Vivekananda even once still cherish his memory after a lapse of more than half a century.In America Vivekananda’s mission was the U interpretation of India’s spiritual culture, especially in its Vedantic setting. He also tried to enrich the religious consciousness of the Americans through the rational and humanistic teachings of the Vedanta R D philosophy. In America he became India’s spiritual ambassador and pleaded eloquently for better understanding between India and the New World in order to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of D R religion and science.In his own motherland Vivekananda is regarded as Thoughts are the most powerful than anything else! the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer of her dormant national consciousness, To the Hindus he preached the ideal of a strength-giving Born: 1863 Died: 1902 and man-making religion. Service to man as the visible manifestation U of the Godhead was the special form of worship he advocated for the Famous For: Spiritual discourses Indians, devoted as they were to the rituals and myths of their ancient faith. Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their indebtedness to Swami Vivekananda.The Swami’s mission was both national and international. A lover of mankind, and human brotherhood S on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of existence. A mystic of the I am afraid I shall not find Him, but I shall still look for Him. If He exists, highest order, Vivekananda had a direct He may be appreciative of my efforts. and intuitive experience of Reality. - Jules Renard B A