He had experienced states of religious ecstasy since childhood and preached worship of the goddess Kali. Ramakrishna was the priest of a Kali temple in Dakshineswar, a fringe suburb of Calcutta. 3 In 1875 he met Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and introduced him to Brahmo circles. They therefore also need to be interpreted as a conscious attempt to bolster the self-confidence of the subcontinentвЂ™s population, suffering as it was under foreign domination and thus contributing to the rise of Indian nationalism.ДЄ role model for the young Vivekananda, Keshub Chandra Sen (1838вЂ“1884), the leader of the Nava VidhДЃna BrДЃhmo SamДЃj (вЂњChurch of New DispensationвЂќ), was at an early stage of his career heavily involved in social reform. Its reform initiatives took place under British colonial rule. Polytheism, popular veneration of images, extreme forms of asceticism, dependence on priestly rituals as well as blatant abuses and wrongs like the suttee, were all rejected by the Brahmo Samaj. Under the impression of Western science, the philosophy of the Enlightenment and elements of Christianity, and in conjunction with the Western criticism of South Asian traditions drawn from these sources, the aim was to modernise the richly-faceted religious heritage and unite its diverse strands into a form acceptable across the subcontinent. As in other variants of neo-Hinduism, this movement discussed and reinterpreted the Hindu traditions in a global context. 2Дuring his grammar school and early university years he was involved with SДЃdhДЃran BrДЃhmo SamДЃj and Nava VidhДЃna BrДЃhmo SamДЃj, two splinter groups of the BrДЃhmo SamДЃj reform movement founded by Ram Mohan Roy in 1828 and particularly influential in Bengal at the time. In his later work Vivekananda was still engaging with SpencerвЂ™s thought, particularly with respect to themes in the field of the philosophy of nature and the relationship modern science has to religion. He translated SpencerвЂ™s Education into Bengali and corresponded with the famous philosopher. Herbert SpencerвЂ™s philosophy played a special role for the young Vivekananda. Typically influential names here were the exponents of German Idealism as well as Arthur Schopenhauer, Auguste Comte and John Stuart Mill. Vivekananda went through a British-style schooling and came into contact with modern European philosophy at an early age. In Bengal they are considered to be a caste of scribes and landowners. In reality his family belonged to the sub-caste of the kДЃyastha, today counted amongst the higher castes but whose membership to the warrior nobility is questionable. He liked to present himself as a ksatriya, a member of the caste of warrior nobility and kings. Vivekananda was born in Calcutta (since 2001 Kolkata) in 1863 into the family of a lawyer. 1 Philosophically and theologically he was probably the most influential co-founder of a modern rereading of Advaita VedДЃnta known as neo-VedДЃnta.ДЄfter offering a biographical sketch and reflecting briefly on the uniqueness of his work I will concentrate on his understanding of religion, how he relates religion to the Indian nation and his idea of religious experience, which plays a pivotal role in his philosophy of yoga. His political importance resides in how he provided salient ideas on Hindu nationalism and its ideology of Hindutva (вЂњHinduismвЂќ). Vivekananda is regarded as one of the architects of modern Hinduism, a pioneer of Hindu missionary activities in the West and founder figure of modern yoga. The following article will look at Narendranath Datta (1863вЂ“1902), who became known under his monkвЂ™s name Swami Vivekananda, a late representative of the so-called Bengali Renaissance, a movement that in the nineteenth and early twentieth century contributed вЂ“ even beyond the borders of Bengal itself вЂ“ decisively to the modernisation of colonial India. Keywords: Vivekananda Neo-Hinduism VedДЃnta Indian nationalism religious experience modern yoga

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