In today’s episode the Swami introduces some very profound and poignant perspectives that will have lasting impact as delve further into the Eternal Values and their relevance in modern day. He first talks about the infinite scope of Sanatana Dharma, and its ultimate objective is to empower and enable man reach the Divine. He then talks about Yoga as way to make this happen. He then goes on to expound on the essence of Sanatana Dharma being that of acceptance and not mere tolerance, and finally concludes this chapter discussingthe liberating influence of Vedanta on mind and thought.

In this episode we will continue reading the from the chapter we started last time, titled The Philosophy of The Eternal Religion. Swami Ranganathananda in this chapter talksabout concepts which to me personally, feel like the perfect playbook to not only survive but thrive in the 21st century. As Hindu from India, I feel I am being reintroduced to my faith with a completely new lens. It will interest you to know as we continue to read this chapter, this was a 2 session talk SwamiRanganathandanda presented over All India Radio, in Delhi on 17th and 24th of February 1950.

Today we will begin reading the chapter titled “The Philosophy of The Eternal Religion” where Swami Ranganathananda delves into the concepts of Vedanta, its philosophical and spiritual basis and its implications on Sanatana Dharma and of course the vision of such an ancient and yet temporally pertinentline of thought and action.

The chapter I will read today is called the Appeal of Vedanta to Modern Man, and in it Swami Ranganthananda begins with an explanation of the word Hindu followed by a very scientific introduction to the approach of the Upanishads. He then brings in the foundational concepts of Vedanta and its universality and a high level discussion of its key teachings. The universality of Vedanta is not only evident in the words he has written buteven in their reach. This chapter is a speech the Swami deilvered in Athens, Greece, way back in 1961, in collaboration with UNESCO during his 17 country lecture tour of Europe that spanned 4 months.

In the passages in this episode, we will conclude the reading of the first chapter in the first volume. It may be of interest to you know, these passages I have been reading in these first 5 episodes were from the speech titled “The Essence of Indian Culture” delivered by Swami Ranganathananda, at theRamakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Kolkata, in December of 1964. The reason I bring this up is to highlight how eternal his words are and how timely they will seem today. His thoughts on acceptance, tolerance, assimilation of various cultures and influences to create Indian thought is so inspiring from a global perspective.

Today’s episode we shall read passages that talk to the Godliness in man, the origin and evolution of such thought, and the synthesis of Greek and Indian philosophies during concurrent times.

In today’s readings, Swami Ranganathananda begins to explore the charm of the Upanishads and Upanishadic thought. He traces the development of Indian spirituality to ancient times and brings in the evolution of the inward thinking man, as opposed to the outward thinking often found in Greek history.Swamiji draws wonderful parallels of how ancient Greek saw man as a part of a society of community and gave precedence to his socio political identity. Indian Upanishadic thought went a step further and took the Greek dictum of “man know thyself” to become a practical reality in the Indian mind. One that became the wellspring of thoughts on manifestation of man’s true self, his questions on death and beyond, so on andso forth.

The passages I will read in this episode, continue from the previous one where Swamiji has starts to weave in the origin and significance of the Upanishads. He will talk more about this in the subsequent chapters but for now, he introduces the interconnectedness of this profound Hindu text with the philosophy that was found in India at that time, and thesynthesis with modern scientific thought seen in western civilization. Swami Ranganathandanda quotes Charles Darwin and Julian Huxley and various other thinkers in his passages. His mind was a library of cross referenced indicesthat continue to awe and inspire even today