Published Paper Details:

Religion, in its true sense, aims to connect man to the divine or the source. However, this idea is missing when one looks or assesses the various religions in the world. Why is it so? Has it been like this right from the time religion was practised by man? It is in this context that I have attempted to look or assess the meaning of religion as understood by philosophers of the recent past with special emphasis on Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda has shown the way through his understanding of religion as spirituality and his call for a combined knowledge that is spiritual as well as secular. He also recognized the need for the most important ingredients of spirituality, namely, LOVE and SEVA (loosely translated as service). Thus, these recent philosopher have given a new dimension (or brought back the real meaning of the term religion in consonance with its latin origin). Man exhibits the nature of animality and humanity wherein these recent thinkers have emphasised on the other nature, that is, the DIVINITY. This is in accordance with the Vedantic appraisal of manifestation of the real (that is the brahman). The great impact of reassessing religion in terms of spirituality is not merely to take it a transcendent level but also drive home the existential need of being grounded in the society as suggested by Swami Vivekananda or Saint Ramalingam of Tamil Nadu. This is where the transformation of man into the Divine gains significance. Answer to the question how this can be done is given in the paper.