Vedanta

[Sunder Hattangadi]

On Mon, 24 May 1999 09:26:19 -0400, Jaldhar H. Vyas
<jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM> wrote:

>On Mon, 24 May 1999, Giridhar wrote:
>
>> namaste.
>>
>>                 This is not a question on advaita vedanta, but I hope
this
>> is appropriate for the list.
>>
>>                 In the discourse on Katha upanishad, Swami Vivekananda
>> says the following:

>>
>

>
>Vivekananda was not a scholar and has misunderstood the significance of
>the Nachiketas story in other ways too.
>
>--
>Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>

This is a revelation to me! Vivekananda, who was introduced by Prof. Wright,
Prof. of Philosophy at Harvard, to the Chairman of the Parliament of
Religions, as one " who knows more Philosophy than all the Professors here
combined"; who was hosted by Max-Muller and Deussen, the leading
Indologists and Sanskritists of the day; who stayed with B.G.Tilak for 10
days in Pune in 1893 (before he assumed the name of Vivekananda); who could
discuss Paninian grammar with a scholar from Kerala; who could compose
inspired poetry in Bengali, English, and Sanskrit; who un-learned the
Bengali accent so he could chant the Vedas correctly; who learned French in
6 mos. to give a scholarly leacture in French, in Paris; who could quote
verbatim from any volume of the Encyclopedia Brittanica; who read German in
Deussen's presence and gave him the gist in English flawlessly!!!!!

Rather than express such banal and flippant assessment, it would be better
to give the quotes where he has misunderstood the Nachiketa story, and
where it differs from Shankara's bhashya.

Vivekananda did not  proofread every lecture that was later published by
his disciples. The most important works on Yogas he did definititely edit.

Sunder