Akhilananda

From Philosopedia.org

Akhilananda [Swami] (20th Century)

Swami Akhilananda, of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Massachusetts, reviewed in The Humanist the translation by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood of Bhagavad-Gita (1954).

A popularization of the teachings of the Upanishads, the work is one of the basic sources of Hindu religion and philosophy. In it, Krishna gives equal place to unselfish humanitarian work, the path of love, and the path of rationalism, meditation, or knowledge. He also tells that only immature persons make a differentiation among these paths or methods, as every one of them can lead to the realization of the ultimate Truth or Reality.

In this respect Buddhism, which is regarded as ethical idealism, shows also that if anyone lives according to the Eightfold Path of right living, et cetera, he can know “the Truth.” Saying the Gita has a non-sectarian attitude which emphasizes that any kind of worship, unselfish work, or any other method can lead one to the state of illumination, the swami adds that a person can have “peace of mind and abiding happiness, whether he is a humanist, agnostic, dualist, qualified monist, or monist.”