150 Years of Swami Vivekananda: Pioneer of Transcendental Pluralism
June 3 - July 26, 2013
4th Floor Gallery
Curator: Debashish BanerjiSwami Vivekananda (1863-1902), born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, well known for introducing Vedantic philosophy and yoga to the western world. Traveling to the US in 1893, Vivekananda participated in the Parliament of the World's Religions at Chicago, where he was adulated for his message of religious pluralism founded in transcendentalist ideals. Taken from the Bhagavad Gita, Vivekananda's image exemplifying this message found wide resonance among his audience: "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to thee." Repeated by Vivekananda during his 4+ years' stay and travels in America and Europe, this message of universal acceptance appealed to an American world-embracing sensibility fostered by the Boston Transcendentalists and other thought leaders of the mid to late 19th c.; and contributed substantially to the development of the interfaith movement and mystical eclecticism of modern and contemporary America.
The exhibition celebrates the 150th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, one of the inspirations behind Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, founder of CIIS. It features photographs of Vivekananda in America and posters on his life and teachings, drawn largely from the archives of the Vedanta Societies of California.
Guest Curated by Debashish Banerji, with assistants Anthony Merrill and Frank Sabia
Sponsored by Nalanda International