Religion of Love

Back of the Book:
This book incorporates some of the practical lectures on devotion delivered by Swami Vivekananda. Here he discusses the preparatory disciplines, the importance of the guru and how to choose one, the principles of ritual worship, the chosen ideal, and finally, the supreme love. This book differs from the Swami's "Bhakti Yoga" lectures, not in its subject-matter, but in his treatment of the subject here in an intensive, yet more easily appreciable form.

Preface to the Sixteenth Edition

This edition presents Swami Vivekananda's exposition of 'Addresses on Bhakti Yoga' and 'Bhakti or Devotion' exactly as found in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda with the addition of the footnotes of the previous edition.
March 1999 Publisher

Preface to the Fourteenth Edition

Till now this book had been a publication of Udbodhan Office, Calcutta. It has already undergone thirteen editions indicating its popularity among the readers. Since the copyright has been made over to us, it is our privilege to present it to the public from now onwards. The lectures that constitute the book are to be found in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume IV (1978), from page 3 to 51 (Addresses on Bhakti Yoga) and Volume II (1989) from page 38 to 53 (Bhakti or Devotion). A preface to the fourth edition of 1922 of the book shows that the whole text was then slightly revised and edited for better comprehension most probably by Swami Saradananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. We have retained in the present edition that edited language which slightly differs from the language as found in the Complete Works.
November 1992 Publisher

Preface to the Eleventh Edition

This edition is the same as the tenth edition which was carefully compared with the above edition and is also rid of certain mistakes that had crept in the intermediate edition.
September 1976 Publisher

Preface to the Fourth Edition

This collection incorporates some of the late Swami Vivekananda's discourses on the religion of love given partly in England and partly in the United States of America. It now reaches its fourth edition in this, with a slight revision of the whole text, principally in the matter of divesting it of its local colour and clearing up in places the somewhat elliptical nature of the language in which it was first couched by the Swami, as merely adventitious now, though necessitated then by the circumstances under which he spoke. This book differs from the Swami's 'Bhakti-Yoga' lectures, not in its subject-matter, which is common to both, but in his treatment of the subject here in an intensive, yet more easily appreciable form.
November 1922 Publisher

CONTENTS

The Preparation		9
The First Steps		21
The Teacher of Spirituality		33
The Need of Symbols		49
The Chief Symbols		58
The Ishta		72
Bhakti or Devotion		84