VIVEKANANDA DESCRIBES VEDANTA

In the book Pathways to Joy, Swami Vivekananda describes Vedanta this way:  “The Vedanta philosophy has certain peculiarities.  In the first place, it is perfectly impersonal:  it does not owe its origin to any person or prophet, and it does not build itself around one person as a center.  Yet it has nothing to say against philosophies that do build themselves around certain persons.

“In later days in India, other philosophies and systems arose, built around certain persons--such as Buddhism or many of our present sects.  They each have a certain leader to whom they owe allegiance, just as the Christians and Muslims have.

“But the Vedanta philosophy stands at the background of all these various sects, and there is no fight and no antagonism between the Vedanta and any other system in the world.”