Jody is right on the mark. Yes, I, author of Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment (1997), did intend to bring out the authentic humanity of the much celebrated Hindu religious prophet. Please re-read my Preface and Conclusion. My final sentence in the study reads: "Swami Vivekananda emerges from a century-old gilded cage of myth and mystification not as the herald of a brave new world of spiritualism but as a tragic figure whose brief but tumultuous public life was spent contending with multiple tensions and conflicts--much less attractive but probably more authentic, and eminently human." This is not denigration of the person but a historian's assessment of his odyssey. Thank you. digger May 28, 2013
