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.