Audio Tapes of Swami Vivekananda's Lectures

Exasperated in traffic? Why not calm your mind and raise your consciousness by listening to one of Swami Vivekananda's lectures? Listen as you "stop and go." These are faithful reproductions of Swamiji's finest lectures from the Complete Works, read by professionals. Try them out!

These tapes, originally produced by the Vivekananda Foundation are now distributed by the Vedanta Press and Catalog. Click on titles below to find individual tapes in the Catalog

SERIES I

 

Practical Vedanta (part I) Read by Bruce Robertson

Philosophy is of no use unless it helps us in our daily lives. Vedanta is above all a practical.
"Where is there a more practical God than He whom I see before me -- omnipresent, in every being, more real than our senses? For you are He, the Omnipresent God Almighty, the Soul of your souls, and if I say you are not, I tell an untruth."

 

The Real and the Apparent ManRead by Bruce Robertson

Explains our real nature and our place in the universe.
"In worshipping God we have always been worshipping our own hidden Self. The worst lie that you ever tell yourself is that you were born a sinner or a wicked man. He alone is a sinner who sees a sinner in another man."

 

Bhakti or Devotion Read by Bruce Robertson

Explains love and how it leads us to God.
"We come to supreme Bhakti, supreme devotion.... One who has reached that cannot belong to any sect, for all sects are in Him. To what shall he belong? For all churches and temples are in Him."

 

The Open Secret (and) Work and its Secret Two lectures. Read by Bruce Robertson

We all have to work. The question is how to work without the pain and distraction that work causes.
"We came to enjoy; we are being enjoyed. We came to rule; we are being ruled. We came to work; we are being worked."

SERIES II

 

What is Religion? (and) The Way to Blessedness Two lectures. Read by Alan Arkin & John Batiste

In the first lecture Vivekananda explains how religion can be far more positive and fulfilling than we often experience in the West.
The second lecture is about the teachings of the Katha Upanishad, one of the most dramatic Upanishads.
"The whole of nature is worship of God. Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom and that freedom is the same as God."

The Absolute and Manifestation Read by Alan Arkin

An explanation of the central idea of Advaita Vedanta.
"The Vedantist gives no other attributes to God except these three: that he is Infinite Existence, Infinite Knowledge and Infinite Bliss, and he regards these three as one."

Discipleship Read by John Batiste

"There are hundreds of thousands of teachers, but it is hard to find one disciple." What does it mean to be a disciple? Swami Vivekananda explains the four conditions that when fulfilled, "the lotus of the heart will open, and the bee shall come. Then the disciple knows that the Guru was within the body, within himself."
"The important thing is: how much less you think of the body, of yourself as matter -- as dead, dull, insentient matter; how much more you think of yourself as a shining immortal being. The more you think of yourself as a shining immortal spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free of matter, body and senses."

Christ the Messenger Read by John Abbott

The life and teachings of Christ from the standpoint of Vedanta.
"Let us, therefore, find God not only in Jesus of Nazareth, but in all the great Ones that have preceded Him, in all that came after Him, and all who are yet to come."

SERIES III

 

Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi (and) The Ishta, or Chosen Ideal
Two talks read by Robert Adjemian and Alan Arkin

The first talk describes the two final practices of Raja Yoga.
In the second talk, Swami Vivekananda explains that each person has his own path to God. Our spiritual ideal must be in accord with this personal spiritual ideal, or Ishta.
"We must take up the study of the superconscious state just as any other science. On reason we must lay our foundation; we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. When you hear a man say, 'I am inspired,' and then talk irrationally, reject it."

Karma in its Effect on Character (and) Para-Bhakti or Supreme Devotion Two lectures read by Alan Arkin and John Batiste

The first one on how to do our day-to-day work as a spiritual discipline that will free us from pain.
The second lecture discusses the highest ideal of love of God.
"That love of God grows and assumes a form which is called Para-Bhakti, or supreme devotion. Forms vanish, rituals fly away, books are superseded; images, temples, churches, religions and sects, countries and nationalities -- all these little limitations and bondages fall off by their own nature from the one who knows this love of God."

Dialogues Read by Alan Arkin and John Batiste

A compilation of responses by Swami Vivekananda to questions on the nature of the mind, spiritual practice, renunciation, and spiritual experience.
"The instant the realization of 'I' as the Atman comes, this world of relative existence becomes false. What people speak of as sin is the result of weakness, it is but another form of the egoistic idea -- 'I am the body.' When the mind gets steadfast in the truth -- 'I am the Self,' then you go beyond merit and demerit, virtue and vice."

Maya and Freedom (and) The Teacher of Spirituality Two lectures read by Robert Adjemian and John Batiste

Maya is the mysterious divine power that hides the ultimate reality. Vivekananda explains what it is and how it makes us think that we are finite beings.
The second lecture is about the qualities and signs of a true teacher of religion.
"That ideal of freedom that you perceived was correct, but you projected it outside yourself, and that was your mistake. Bring it nearer and nearer, until you find that it was all the time within you, it was the Self or your own self. That freedom was your own nature, and this Maya never bound you."

Series I cover

A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, Vivekananda crammed immense labor and achievement into his short life, 1863-1902. Born in the Datta family of Calcutta, the youthful Vivekananda embraced the agnostic philosophies of the Western mind as well as the worship of science. At the same time, vehement in his desire to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach.
After Sri Ramakrishna's death Vivekananda renounced the world and crisscrossed India as a wandering monk. His mounting compassion for India's people drove him to seek their material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching. For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He died July 4,1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into eight volumes.

Vivekananda's teachings are nonsectarian and supportive of all faiths. They developed from the great themes of his own life-experience and those of his master, Ramakrishna. Among these themes are the divinity of men and women, the love of God and selfless service to others, the equal truth of religions, and the universal need for religion of actual spiritual experience that is also practical, rational, and strength-giving.

Series II cover

Vivekananda's participation in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago's World Fair in 1893 marked the beginning of his public work, a brief nine-year span which ended with his early death in 1902. In the years since, a growing number of people have come to regard Vivekananda as a prophet of the modern age. He himself said that he had a message for the West as Buddha had one for the East. Certainly his teachings speak directly to the present human condition.
For American people in particular, Vivekananda's life and teachings have profound significance. From the standpoint of time and energy expended, he worked longest and hardest among Americans, and it was also in America that the full form of his message took shape. The principles which he taught were the spiritual counterparts of America's own great founding concepts: freedom, equality, individualism, self-effort, growth, progress, and the doctrine of human perfectibility. Besides liking Americans for themselves, Vivekananda believed that they were humanity's best hope for carrying forward the humane, monistic heart of his message -- the actual experience of the attributeless Self, as the changeless, unitary principle in human personality. Although Vivekananda was an illumined sage of the purest Indian tradition, his universality was such that in intellect, outlook and temperament he was also a man of the West.

"But we are trying to be disciples. Our sole concern is to know the highest truth. Our goal is the loftiest. We have said big words to ourselves -- absolute realization and all that. Let us measure up to the words. Let us worship the spirit in spirit, standing on spirit. Let the foundation be spirit, the middle spirit; the culmination, spirit. There will be no world anywhere. Let it go and whirl into space -- who cares? Stand thou in spirit! That is the goal."

Series III cover

"Vivekananda's attitude towards Western religions is briefly this. He propounds a philosophy which can serve as a basis to every possible religious system in the world, and his attitude towards all of them is one of extreme sympathy. His teaching is antagonistic to none. He directs his attention to the individual, to make him strong, to teach him that he himself is divine, and he calls upon men to make themselves conscious of divinity within. His hope is to imbue individuals with the teachings to which he has referred, and to encourage them to express these to others in their own way; let them modify them as they will; he does not teach them as dogmas; truth, at length, must inevitably prevail."

Boston Evening Transcript, March 21,1896
in VIVEKANANDA IN THE WEST- NEW DISCOVERIES, IV
Marie Louise Burke, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta.

"We must take up the study of the superconscious state just as any other science. On reason we must lay our foundation; we must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. When you hear a man say, 'I am inspired,' and then talk irrationally, reject it."

From Dhyana (Meditation) and Samadhi