Concept

Neo-Vedanta

Overview

Neo-Vedanta, also called neo-Hinduism, Hindu modernism, Global Hinduism and Hindu Universalism, are terms to characterise interpretations of Hinduism that developed in the 19th century. The term "Neo-Vedanta" was coined by German Indologist Paul Hacker, in a pejorative way, to distinguish modern developments from "traditional" Advaita Vedanta.

Scholars have repeatedly argued that these modern interpretations incorporate Western ideas into traditional Indian religions, especially Advaita Vedanta, which is asserted as central or fundamental to Hindu culture. Other scholars have described a Greater Advaita Vedānta, which developed since the medieval period. Drawing on this broad pool of sources, after Muslim rule in India was replaced by that of the East India Company, Hindu religious and political leaders and thinkers responded to Western colonialism and orientalism, contributing to the Indian independence movement and the modern national and religious identity of Hindus in the Republic of India. This societal aspect is covered under the term of Hindu reform movements.

Among the main proponents of such modern interpretations of Hinduism were Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan, who to some extent also contributed to the emergence of Neo-Hindu movements in the West.

Neo-Vedanta has been influential in the perception of Hinduism, both in the west and in the higher educated classes in India. It has received appraisal for its "solution of synthesis", but has also been criticised for its Universalism. The terms "Neo-Hindu" or "Neo-Vedanta" themselves have also been criticised for its polemical usage, the prefix "Neo-" then intended to imply that these modern interpretations of Hinduism are "inauthentic" or in other ways problematic.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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Empiricists on the other hand are not uncommonly materialistic, and their optimism is apt to be decidedly conditional and tremulous. Rationalism is always monistic. It starts from wholes and universals, and makes much of the unity of things. Empiricism starts from the parts, and makes of the whole a collection-is not averse therefore to calling itself pluralistic. Rationalism usually considers itself more religious…
William James, Pragmatism
States what Neo-Vedanta is; the author is tied to Neo-Vedanta in the knowledge graph.
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Such _historical philosophising_ in most cases produces a cosmogony which admits of many varieties, or else a system of emanations, a doctrine of successive disengagements from one being; or, finally, driven in despair from fruitless efforts upon these paths to the last path of all, it takes refuge in the converse doctrine of a constant becoming, springing up, arising, coming to light out of darkness, out of the…
Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Idea
States what Neo-Vedanta is; the author is tied to Neo-Vedanta in the knowledge graph.
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Transcendentalists, 516. Truth of religion, how to be tested, 377; what it is, 509; mystical perception of, 380, 410. “Twice‐born,” type, 166, 363, 488. “Unconscious cerebration,” 207. Unification of Self, 183, 349. Union with God, 408, 418, 425, 451, 509 ff. See lectures on Conversion, passim. Unity of universe, 131. Unreality, sense of, 63. Unseen realities, Lecture III, passim. Upanishads, 419. Utopias, 360…
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience
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