S.Lalitha, AJERR, 2018; 3:17 Research Article AJERR 2018,3:17 American Journal of Educational Research and Reviews (ISSN:2474-9265) Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo- A Critical Analysis S.Lalitha Asst Prof. of English，Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research Chennai. ABSTRACT Sri Aurobindo , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philos- *Correspondence to Author: opher, yogi, guru and poet. He joined the Indian movement for S.Lalitha freedom from British rule, for a while became one of its influen- Asst Prof. of English，Bharath In- tial leaders and then turned into a spiritual reformer, introducing stitute of Higher Education & Re- his visions on human progress and spiritual evolution. Swami search Chennai. Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendranath Datta, was born in an affluent family in Kolkata. His father,Vish- wanath Datta, was a successful attorney with interests in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneshwari Devi, was en- How to cite this article: dowed with deep devotion, strong character and other qualities. S.Lalitha.PHILOSOPHY OF SWA- A precocious boy, Narendra excelled in music, gymnastics and MI VIVEKANANDA AND SRI AU- studies. By the time he graduated from Calcutta University, he ROBINDO A CRITICAL ANALYSIS. had acquired a vast knowledge of different subjects, especially American Journal of Educational Western philosophy and history. These, then the Shâstras, the Research and Reviews, 2018,3:17. Guru, and the Mother¬land are the three notes that mingle them- selves to form the music of the works of Vivekananda .The pres- ent paper brings out the critical analysis of the philosophies of the two great spiritual philosophers and writers in a comparative style. eSciPub LLC, Houston, TX USA. Website: http://escipub.com/ Keywords: Philosophy, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Critical Analysis http://escipub.com/american-journal-of-educational-research-and-reviews/ 0001 S.Lalitha, AJERR, 2018; 3:17 DETAILED PAPER According to Vivekananda, three religions now stand in the world which has come down to us Swami Vivekananda is one of most admired from time prehistoric Hinduism, Zoroastrianism spiritual leaders of India. The world knows him and Judaism. They have all received as an inspiring Hindu monk, his motherland tremendous shocks and all of them prove by regards him as the patriot saint of modern their survival their internal strength. But while India, and Hindus consider him as a source of Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was spiritual power, mental energy, strength-giving driven out of its place of birth by its all- and open-mindedness. An avid scholar of conquering daughter, and a handful of Parsees Western and Hindu philosophy and ever thirsty is all that remains to tell the tale of their grand for the mystery of Creation and the law of religion, sect after sect arose in India and Nature, Vivekananda found his guru in Sri seemed to shake the religion of the Vedas to its Ramkrishna Paramhamsa. He toured across very foundations, but like the waters of the India to know his country and people, and seashore in a tremendous earthquake it found his spiritual alma mater at receded only for a while, only to return in an all- the Kanyakumari rock in Cape Comorin at the absorbing flood, a thousand times more southernmost tip of the Indian peninsula. The vigorous, and when the tumult of the rush was Vivekananda memorial is now a landmark for over, these sects were all sucked in, absorbed, tourists and pilgrims, and a tribute to him by his and assimilated into the immense body of the countrymen. "Art, science, and religion", mother faith. From the high spiritual flights of Vivekananda said once, "are but three different the Vedanta philosophy, of which the latest ways of expressing a single truth. But in order discoveries of science seem like echoes, to the to understand this we must have the theory of low ideas of idolatry with its multifarious Advaita."The formative influence that went to mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhists, the determining of his vision may perhaps be and the atheism of the Jains, each and all have regarded as threefold. These are the treasure a place in the Hindu's religion. Where then, the which it is his to offer. These furnish him with question arises, where is the common centre to the ingredients whereof he compounds the which all these widely diverging radii converge? world's heal-all of his spiritual bounty. To him, Where is the common basis upon which all there is no difference between service of man these seemingly hopeless contradictions rest? and worship of God, between manliness and And this is the question one shall attempt to faith, between true righteousness and answer. spirituality. All his words, from one point of view, read as a commentary upon this central The Hindus have received their religion through conviction. revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book Ramkrishna Paramhamsa. Ramkrishna can be without beginning or end. But by the Paramhamsa’s first spiritual teacher was an Vedas no books are meant. They mean the ascetic woman skilled in Tantra and Vaishnava accumulated treasury of spiritual laws bhakti. Later an Advaita Vedantic ascetic taught discovered by different persons in different him non-dual meditation, and according to times. Just as the law of gravitation existed Ramakrishna, he experienced nirvikalpa before its discovery, and would exist if all samadhi under his guidance. Swami humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that Vivekananda expanded on this knowledge and govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, he is considered a key figure in the introduction and spiritual relations between soul and soul of Hindu philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to and between individual spirits and the Father of the “Western” World. http://escipub.com/american-journal-of-educational-research-and-reviews/ 0002 S.Lalitha, AJERR, 2018; 3:17 all spirits, were there before their discovery, the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive and would remain even if we forgot them. So manifestation? Thus is it, through multiplicity then the Hindu believes that he is a spirit. Him and duality, that the ultimate unity is reached. the sword cannot pierce — he the fire cannot Religion can go no farther. This is the goal of all burn — he the water cannot melt — he the air science. cannot dry. The Hindu believes that every soul All science is bound to come to this conclusion is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but in the long run. Manifestation, and not creation, whose centre is located in the body and that is the word of science today, and the Hindu is death means the change of this centre from only glad that what he has been cherishing in body to body. Nor is the soul bound by the his bosom for ages is going to be taught in conditions of matter. In its very essence it is more forcible language and with further light free, unbounded, holy, pure, and perfect. But from the latest conclusions of science. somehow or other it finds itself tied down to Superstition is a great enemy of man, but matter, and thinks of itself as matter. A man he bigotry is worse. My brethren, we can no more attains perfection when he lives a life of bliss think about anything without a mental image infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, than we can live without breathing. By the law having obtained the only thing in which man of association, the material image calls up the ought to have pleasure, namely God, and mental idea and vice versa. This is why the enjoys the bliss with God. So far all the Hindus Hindu uses an external symbol when he are agreed. This is the common religion of all worships. He will tell you, it helps to keep his the sects of India; but, then, perfection is mind fixed on the Being to whom he prays. He absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or knows as well as you do that the image is not three. It cannot have any qualities. It cannot be God, is not omnipresent. He saw that, in spite an individual. And so when a soul becomes of poverty, the masses clung to religion, but perfect and absolute, it must become one with they had never been taught the life-giving, Brahman, and it would only realise the Lord as ennobling principles of Vedanta and how to the perfection, the reality, of its own nature and apply them in practical life. Thus the masses existence, the existence absolute, knowledge needed two kinds of knowledge: secular absolute, and bliss absolute. We have often knowledge to improve their economic condition and often read this called the losing of and spiritual knowledge to infuse in them faith individuality and becoming a stock or a in themselves and strengthen their moral stone.“He jests at scars that never felt a sense. wound.” The next question was how to spread these two Science is nothing but the finding of unity. As kinds of knowledge among the masses? soon as science would reach perfect unity, it Through education this was the answer that would stop from further progress, because it Swamiji found. One thing became clear to would reach the goal. Thus Chemistry could not Swamiji: to carry out his plans for the spread of progress farther when it would discover one education and for the uplift of the poor masses, element out of which all other could be made.