The Modern Monk Archives - Penguin Random House India

When we think of Vivekananda, the image is that of a saintly monk. But was he really that?
Swami Vivekananda was nothing like the monks we have known forever. He was confined neither by history nor by ritual, and was constantly questioning everything around him – including himself. He broke numerous stereotypes which he deemed regardless and harmful for mankind. There’s a lot that we can learn from him and more importantly, there’s a lot we can learn about him.
Here are 12 things we can bet you didn’t know about Swami Vivekananda:

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With his book The Modern Monk, Hindol Sengupta deconstructs the accepted, idolised image of Swami Vivekananda, giving us the coolest monk, whose ideas and thoughts are relevant even today.

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Vivekananda is one of the most important figures in the modern imagination of India. He was also an utterly modern man who consistently challenged his own views, and embraced diverse, even conflicting arguments. It is his modernity that appeals to us today and makes him the coolest monk we know.

More than 100 years after his death, do we really know or understand the bewildering, fascinating, complex man Swami Vivekananda was?
Vivekananda is not merely a religious teacher. He is one of the most powerful and charismatic intellectuals in Indian history – a true modernist with a rigorous scientific temperament. And Hindol Sengupta brings his teachings for the modern readers in his latest work – ‘The Modern Monk’