Table of ContentsChapter 1Paper on Hinduism by Swami VivekanandaAbout the authorAbout the workIdeas of Interest from Paper on HinduismThe Reading Selection from Paper on Hinduism[Introduction][The Vedas][The Concept of Creation][Soul, Karma, and Reincarnation][Soul and Nature][The Goal of Hinduism][The Unity of the Universe][Hinduism and World Religions]Topics Worth InvestigatingIndexTable of Contents1. “Paper on Hinduism” by Swami Vivekananda.............................................1Ideas of Interest from “Paper on Hinduism”.................................................2The Reading Selection from “Paper on Hinduism” ......................................2[Introduction]........................................................................................3[The Vedas]........................................................................................... 3[The Concept of Creation]....................................................................3[Soul, Karma, and Reincarnation]........................................................4[Soul and Nature]..................................................................................6[The Goal of Hinduism]........................................................................ 7[The Unity of the Universe]................................................................10[Hinduism and World Religions]........................................................10Topics Worth Investigating..........................................................................15Index....................................................................................................................17iChapter 1“Paper on Hinduism” by SwamiVivekanandaSwami Vivekananda, (detail)About the author...Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), humanist and social reformer, attended CalcuttaUniversity and later studied the Vedas, Upanishads, Sufism, the Bible, Sikhismand Buddhism with Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa. Perhaps, more than any otherindividual, Vivekananda is credited with introducing and explaining the universalteachings of the Vedas and Upanishads to the unaquainted Western World.1Chapter 1. “Paper on Hinduism” by Swami VivekanandaAbout the work...Vivekananda’s “Paper on Hinduism,”1was read at the World Parliament on Reli-gions in 1893. Vivekananda’s addresses at this congress emphasized the belief thatno one religion is superior to another. In his opening address, He quoted the Gita:“As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle theirwater in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through differenttendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.” Hetaught that all religions are different ways of undersanding and different paths tothe same goal and strongly opposed bigotry and fanaticism.From the reading...“Where is the common basis upon which all these seemingly hopeless con-tradictions rest?”Ideas of Interest from “Paper onHinduism”1. According to Vivekananda what is the cosmology expressed in the Vedas?2. What are the reasons Vivekananda offers for the belief that the universe wasnot created?3. How does Vivekananda explain reincarnation and past lives? What is his ex-planation for why we cannot remember past lives?4. Why does Hinduism reject the notion that we are all sinners?5. According to Vivekananda, what is the main goal of Hinduism?6. How does the use of mental imagery and physical representation give rise tothe charge of idolatry, superstition, and bigotry in world religions?7. How does Hinduism account for the major differences among the world reli-gions?1. Swami Vivekananda. “Paper on Hinduism,” World’s Parliament on Religions, 1893.2 Readings in Eastern Philosophy: An Open-Source TextChapter 1. “Paper on Hinduism” by Swami VivekanandaThe Reading Selection from “Paper onHinduism”[Introduction]Three religions now stand in the world which have come down to us from time pre-historic—Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism. They have all received tremen-dous shocks, and all of them prove by their survival their internal strength. Butwhile Judaism failed to absorb Christianity and was driven out of its place of birthby its all-conquering daughter, and a handful of Parsees is all that remains to tellthe tale of their grand religion, sect after sect arose in India and seemed to shakethe religion of the Vedas to its very foundations, but like the waters of the sea-shore in a tremendous earthquake it receded only for a while, only to return in anall-absorbing Hood, a thousand times more vigorous, and when the tumult of therush was over, these sects were all sucked in, absorbed and assimilated into theimmense body of the mother faith. From the high spiritual flights of the Vedantaphilosophy, of which the latest discoveries of science seem like echoes, to the lowideas of idolatry with its multifarious mythology, the agnosticism of the Buddhistsand the atheism of the Jains, each and all have a place in the Hindu’s religion.Where then, the question arises, where is the common center to which all thesewidely diverging radii converge? Where is the common basis upon which all theseseemingly hopeless contradictions rest? And this is the question I shall attempt toanswer.[The Vedas]The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They holdthat the Vedas are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous tothis audience, how a book can be without beginning or end. But by the Vedas nobooks are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discoveredby different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravitation existed beforeits discovery, and would exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws thatgovern the spiritual relations between soul and soul and between individual spiritsand the Father of all spirits were there before their discovery, and would remaineven if we forgot them.Readings in Eastern Philosophy: An Open-Source Text 3Chapter 1. “Paper on Hinduism” by Swami Vivekananda[The Concept of Creation]The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honor them as perfectedbeings. I am glad to tell this audience that some of the very greatest of them werewomen.From the reading...“Then, if there was a time when nothing existed, where was all this mani-fested energy? ”Here it may be said that these laws as laws may be without end, but they must