The most wonderful books a beginner can read on Swami Vivekananda, are those that encapsulate fascinating incidents from his life. The top 3 books that do this are:
- Vivekananda a Biography by Swami Nikhilananda
- The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples (2 Volume Set)
- Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda
All these books are available at the Advaita Ashrama’s online bookstore. After finishing these, one should also read the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volumes 1-9. These contain Swami Vivekananda’s direct words, within which his spiritual force is embedded. The words of rishis are not empty like ours. They carry embedded within them a powerful spiritual force which acts on us when we read their books.
If we do not get in touch with this spiritual force then we miss a terrific opportunity to uplift our consciousness. This is a huge travesty, as we do not know when we shall have this kind of an opportunity again in another lifetime. So make sure you embed Swami Vivekananda’s powerful teachings into your mind. Knowledge is the wealth we can take with us after we die. And the best kind of knowledge is spiritual knowledge because it guides us in the form of samskaras in future lifetimes as well.
