Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda

Historian Harris (The Man on Devil’s Island) delivers a granular biography of 19th-century Indian monk Vivekananda, née Narendranath Datta, who helped introduce yoga and the Vedanta school of Hinduism to the English-speaking world. Seeking to “restore an understanding of Vivekananda’s complexity,” Harris rigorously details her subject’s social, economic, and political milieu and contradicts modern-day misinterpretations that place his teachings at the center of a resurgent Hindu nationalism linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tracing Vivekananda’s development from his youthful disillusionment as the educated son of a high-ranking but impoverished civil servant to his spiritual reawakening under the guidance of the religious guru Ramakrishna and his travels across India and the world, Harris spotlights how Vivekananda “synthesize[d] ideas of service, Karma yoga, and anticolonial assertion.” After catapulting to international fame from giving a series of speeches extolling religious tolerance and India’s spiritual traditions at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, he went on speaking tours, published the first English-language manual on yoga, and helped win Western converts to the side of Indian independence. Throughout, Harris tackles controversies—including the anti-Semitism of one of Vivekananda’s most devoted and influential followers—but her insights frequently get lost in a thicket of tangents. Still, readers willing to slog through the minutiae will gain a clearer picture of the swami and his movement. (Oct.)