Life and Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda (Hardbound - 2021)

Swami Vivekananda’s own speeches and writings as well as accounts left by his disciples are many, but a comprehensive, objective and critical study by a non-devotee is not extant. This book is an endeavour to supply the need. Not only does it bring out his superb powers and achievements but it also discusses a few oddities like his defence of animal sacrifice and indifference to widow remarriage. In more than forty chapters the book covers the life, personality, ideas, social service and the hitherto unexplored aspects of the poetry and prose of this intellectual giant.

Gopal Shrinivas Banhatti (born 12 February 1929), son of the well-known Sahitya Akademi Marathi award winner late S.N. Banhatti and nephew of former Chief Justice late P.B. Gajendragadkar, won a gold medal for standing first in first class at M.A. (1952), did his M.A. in Pali, M.A., Ph.D. in English and retired as the principal of a senior college on 1st March, 1989.

His publications which reveal a variety of interests include:

William Congreve, a study of the 17th century British dramatist, Kitab Mahal, Delhi 6, 1961; From Frolic to Philosophy: A Study of Somerset Maugham’s Plays, Parimal, Aurangabad, 1985.

His birth centenary tribute in English to Swami Vivekananda in 1963 was widely acclaimed in India, England and America.

The Marathi rendering of the above was published in 1964. He has published over fifty articles on topics of literary and social interests and over twenty skits and stories in English. His Marathi publications include four plays (one a first-prize winner), over fifty articles, serious and light, and a first-ever study in an Indian language of the problem of public cleanliness in our country.

He has been an active social worker, a Rotary president, and has been advocating the cause of one script for all our languages as a measure for promoting national integration through articles and speeches. He has travelled to the U.S. the U.K., Finland, Sweden and Norway.