Neo-Vedanta

Neo-Vedanta, also called neo-Hinduism, is a modern interpretation of Hinduism which developed in response to western colonialism and orientalism, and aims to present Hinduism as a "homogenized ideal of Hinduism" with Advaita Vedanta as it's central doctrine.

History

Colonialism and modernism

See also: Orientalism and Hindu reform movements

With the colonisation of India by the British began a new era in the history of India. In contrast to the Moslimrulers, the British had a great impact on Indian society, actively engaged in developing the country economically and socially. In response to the British rule and cultural dominance, Hindu reform movements developed, propagating societal and religious reforms, exemplyfying what Spear has called "the 'solution of synthesis'—the effort to adapt to the newcomers, in the process of which innovation and assimilation gradually occur, alongside an ongoing agenda to preserve the unique values of the many traditions of Hinduism (and other religious traditions as well)." According to Larson, this "solution of synthesis" prevailed in the work of Rammohun Roy, Sayyid Ahmed Khan, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, M.K. Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Muhammad Iqbal, V.D. Savarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru, "and many others". According to Spear, it is "such willingness to achieve a synthesis that is neither fearful of the new nor dismissive of the old is 'the ideological secret of modern India'."

Vedantification

A central theme in these reform-movements is Advaita Vedanta. it has become a broad current in Indian culture, extending far beyond the Dashanami Sampradaya, the Advaita Vedanta Sampradaya founded by Adi Shankara. It was popularised in the 20th century in both India and the west by Vivekananda, who emphasised anubhava ("personal experience" over scriptural authority, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and western orientalists who regarded Vedanta to be the "central theology of Hinduism". Oriental scholarship portrayed Hinduism as a "single world religion", and denigrated the heterogeneousity of Hindu beliefs and practices as 'distortions' of the basic teachings of Vedanta.

Major proponents

Vivekananda

Main articles: Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Mission

In the 19th century Vivekananda played a major role in the revival of Hinduism, and the spread of Advaita Vedanta to the west via the Ramakrishna Mission. His interpretation of Advaita Vedanta has been called "Neo-Vedanta".

In a talk on "The absolute and manifestation" given in at London in 1896 Swami Vivekananda said,

I may make bold to say that the only religion which agrees with, and even goes a little further than modern researchers, both on physical and moral lines is the Advaita, and that is why it appeals to modern scientists so much. They find that the old dualistic theories are not enough for them, do not satisfy their necessities. A man must have not only faith, but intellectual faith too".

Vivekananda emphasised samadhi as a means to attain liberation. Yet this emphasis is not to befound in the Upanishads nor with Shankara. For Shankara, meditation and Nirvikalpa Samadhi are means to gain knowledge of the already existing unity of Brahman and Atman, not the highest goal itself:

[Y]oga is a meditative exercise of withdrawal from the particular and identification with the universal, leading to contemplation of oneself as the most universal, namely, Consciousness. This approach is different from the classical Yoga of complete thought suppression.

Vivekenanda's modernisation has been criticised:

Without calling into question the right of any philosopher to interpret Advaita according to his own understanding of it, [...] the process of Westernization has obscured the core of this school of thought. The basic correlation of renunciation and Bliss has been lost sight of in the attempts to underscore the cognitive structure and the realistic structure which according to Samkaracarya should both belong to, and indeed constitute the realm of māyā.

Influence on western spirituality

Main article: Spirituality

Due to the colonisation of Asia by the western world, since the late 18th century an exchange of ideas has been taking place between the western world and Asia, which also influenced western religiosity. In 1785 appeared the first western translation of a Sanskrit-text. It marked the growing interest in the Indian culture and languages. The first translation of Upanishads appeared in in two parts in 1801 and 1802, which influenced Arthur Schopenhauer, who called them "the consolation of my life". Early translations also appeared in other European languages.

A major force in the mutual influence of eastern and western ideas and religiosity was the Theosophical Society. It searched for ancient wisdom in the east, spreading eastern religious ideas in the west. One of it's salient features was the belief in "Masters of Wisdom", "beings, human or once human, who have transcended the normal frontiers of knowledge, and who make their wisdom available to others". The Theosophical Society also spread western ideas in the east, aiding a modernisation of eastern traditions, and contributing to a growing nationalism in the Asian colonies. Another major influence was Vivekananda, who popularised his modernised inerpretation of Advaita Vedanta in the 19th and early 20th century in both India and the west, emphasising anubhava ("personal experience" over scriptural authority.

See also

• Buddhist modernism
• Zen Narratives

Sources

Published sources

• Dense, Christian D. Von (1999), Philosophers and Religious Leaders, Greenwood Publishing Group
• Fields, Rick (1992), How the Swans Came to the Lake. A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, Boston & London: Shambhala
• Gilchrist, Cherry (1996), Theosophy. The Wisdom of the Ages, HarperSanFrancisco
• Johnson, K. Paul (1994), The masters revealed: Madam Blavatsky and the myth of the Great White Lodge, SUNY Press, ISBN 0-7914-2063-9
• King, Richard (2002), Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East", Routledge
• Larson, gerald James (201), "The Issue of Not Being Different Enough: Some Reflections on Rajiv Malhotra's Being Different", International Journal of Hindu Studies, Volume 16, Issue 3, December 2012, pp 311-322
• Lavoie, Jeffrey D. (2012), The Theosophical Society: The History of a Spiritualist Movement, Universal-Publishers
• McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195183276
• McRae, John (2003), Seeing Through Zen. Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism, The University Press Group Ltd, ISBN 9780520237988
• Michaelson, Jay (2009), Everything Is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, Shambhala
• Mukerji, Mādhava Bithika (1983), Neo-Vedanta and Modernity, Ashutosh Prakashan Sansthan
• Rambachan, Anatanand (1994), The Limits of Scripture: Vivekananda's Reinterpretation of the Vedas, University of Hawaii Press
• Renard, Philip (2010), Non-Dualisme. De directe bevrijdingsweg, Cothen: Uitgeverij Juwelenschip
• Sinari, Ramakant (2000), Advaita and Contemporary Indian Philosophy. In: Chattopadhyana (gen.ed.), "History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Volume II Part 2: Advaita Vedanta", Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations
• White, David Gordon (2006), "Digging wells while houses burn? Writing histories of Hinduism in a time of identity politics", History and Theory, Theme Issue 45 (December 2006), pp. 104-131
• Yelle, Robert A. (2012), "Comparative Religion as Cultural Combat: Occidentalism and Relativism in Rajiv Malhotra's Being Different", International Journal of Hindu Studies, Volume 16, Issue 3, December 2012, pp 335-348

Further reading

• King, Richard (2002), Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East", Routledge

External links

• Bithika Mukerji , Neo-Vedanta and Modernity
• Kelamuni, The Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda: Part One
• Kelamuni, The Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda: Part One
• DharmaCentral.com, A Devastating Critique of Neo-Hinduism
• E. LutherCopeland, Neo-Hinduism and secularism