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On 11 September 1893, at the opening of the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, a thirty-year-old monk from Calcutta began his speech with the words “Sisters and brothers of America”. Over the next three years he lectured across the United States and in London, and in December 1895 his supporters in New York hired a stenographer, Joseph Josiah Goodwin, to take down what he said. Goodwin’s shorthand became Karma Yoga and Raja Yoga in 1896, and most of the books that followed. Vivekananda died in 1902, aged thirty-nine, and much of his work reached print only afterwards. This guide covers every book in order, where to start, and how a body of spoken teaching became nine volumes of Complete Works.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 key books · 1896–1997 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
This guide lists 10 key books by Swami Vivekananda, from Karma Yoga (1896) to Inspired Talks (1908), and 5 more: collected editions, letters and single lectures. Most are transcribed lectures; two are essays he wrote in Bengali, and only some appeared before his death in 1902. Because so much was edited after his lifetime, it helps to know where each book came from before choosing one.
Where to Start with Swami Vivekananda
If you want one short book
→ Karma Yoga (1896).
If you came for meditation and yoga
→ Raja Yoga (1896).
If you want the man behind the teaching
→ My Master (1901).
If you prefer conversation to lectures
→ Inspired Talks (1908).
If you want the philosophy at full depth
→ Jnana Yoga (1902).
10 Key Swami Vivekananda Books, in Order
Karma Yoga
Eight lectures on work and duty, given from December 1895 to January 1896 in the rooms he rented at 228 West 39th Street in New York. They were taken down in shorthand by Joseph Josiah Goodwin, a professional stenographer his supporters had hired that December, and published in New York in February 1896. Chapters such as “The Secret of Work”, “What is Duty?” and “Non-attachment is complete self-abnegation” argue that ordinary work, done without attachment to its results, is itself a spiritual path. A second edition appeared from Baker & Taylor in New York in 1901.
Raja Yoga
Published in London by Longmans, Green in July 1896 under the title Yoga Philosophy: Lectures Delivered in New York, Winter of 1895–6. The first half is his talks on concentration, breathing and meditation; the second is a free translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras with his commentary, built mainly on the eight limbs of the Sadhana Pada. It sold quickly, and the historian Elizabeth De Michelis has called its publication the starting point of modern yoga in the West.
The Vedanta Philosophy
On 25 March 1896 he spoke to the Graduate Philosophical Society at Harvard; the lecture and the discussion that followed were taken down by a stenographer and printed the same year, with an introduction by the Harvard theologian C. C. Everett. Everett’s introduction notes that he had first come to America to represent his tradition at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. After the lecture Harvard offered him a chair of Eastern Philosophy, which he declined.
Lectures from Colombo to Almora
He landed in Colombo on 15 January 1897 after nearly four years in the West, and spoke the next day; over the following months he lectured his way north through Jaffna, Rameswaram, Madurai, Madras and Calcutta, ending at Almora in the Himalayan foothills in July. Goodwin took the talks down, and the Vyjayanti Press in Madras published them the same year as From Colombo to Almora, with an introductory note by Henrietta Müller. Later editions added speeches from Sialkot, Lahore, Khetri and Dhaka.
Modern India
Written in Bengali and first printed in March 1899 in Udbodhan, the magazine of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, as Bartaman Bharat. It reads Indian history as a cycle of power passing from priests to warrior rulers to merchants, and predicts that the Shudras, the labouring class at the bottom, will rise to rule next. It came out as a book from Udbodhan in 1905 with a preface by Swami Saradananda; the English translation is known as Modern India.
The East and the West
Another essay written in Bengali for Udbodhan, where it ran in 1900–01 as Prachya o Paschatya. Drawing on what he had seen in America and Europe, it sets the culture and social customs of India beside those of the West. An English version was published by the Vedanta Society in New York in 1909.
Bhakti Yoga
His account of bhakti, the path of love and devotion to God, from the need for a teacher to para-bhakti, the “supreme devotion” in which the devotee loves without asking anything in return. A single New York lecture on the subject had been printed as a pamphlet in 1896; an edition of the full text from the Udbodhan press in Calcutta is dated 1901. It now stands in the third volume of The Complete Works.
My Master
Two lectures about his teacher Ramakrishna, given in New York and in England and published together by the Baker & Taylor Company in New York in 1901. He describes the religious life of India that Ramakrishna grew out of, then follows him from his birth in the village of Kamarpukur in 1836 as Gadadhar Chattopadhyay. The book carries an extract by the Brahmo leader Protap Chunder Mozoomdar from the Theistic Quarterly Review.
Jnana Yoga
Lectures on the path of knowledge, the non-dualist teaching that the self and the absolute are one, given mainly in London and New York and recorded by Goodwin, who became his disciple. The Vedanta Society in New York published them as Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures on Jnana Yoga, a book of 357 pages. A second volume of seven New York lectures from early 1896 followed in 1907; its editor explained they had been held back because their “purely philosophical character” might not appeal to the general public.
Inspired Talks
From mid-June to early August 1895 he taught a few chosen students at Thousand Island Park on Wellesley Island, in New York State. One of them, Sara Ellen Waldo, later known as Haridasi, wrote down what he said day by day, and the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras published her notes after his death. Unlike the lecture books, which were taken down from public talks, it is a disciple’s record of private teaching.
How Many Books Has Swami Vivekananda Written?
There is no single number, because almost everything he published was a talk that someone took down and that editors later regrouped. Ten books stand out, but The Complete Works gathers all of it, along with letters, poems and notes, into nine volumes.
- The yoga lectures — Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga Read the entries →
- Lectures and addresses — The Vedanta Philosophy, Lectures from Colombo to Almora, My Master Read the entries →
- Written in Bengali — Modern India, The East and the West Read the entries →
- Notes and collections after his death — Inspired Talks, The Complete Works, Chicago Addresses, letters See the list →
In What Order to Read Swami Vivekananda
The four yoga books belong together: Karma Yoga (work), Bhakti Yoga (devotion), Raja Yoga (meditation) and Jnana Yoga (knowledge) describe four paths that, in his teaching, lead to the same end, and they can be read in any order. Karma Yoga is the shortest and the most practical; Jnana Yoga is the most philosophical.
Read in order of publication, the books follow his life: the New York lectures of 1895–96, the Harvard address, the return to India in Lectures from Colombo to Almora, and the Bengali essays he wrote for Udbodhan after he came home. My Master and Inspired Talks fill in the person behind the lectures.
A reading path
1. Karma Yoga (1896), eight lectures on work and duty
2. Raja Yoga (1896), meditation, with Patanjali’s sutras
3. Inspired Talks (1908), the informal teaching of summer 1895
4. My Master (1901), who Ramakrishna was
5. Lectures from Colombo to Almora (1897), his message to India
6. Jnana Yoga (1902)
Everything Else Swami Vivekananda Published: The Full List
Beyond the 10 key books: 5 more titles, grouped by form.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Collected works, letters and speeches
3
3 books · 1908–1925
- 1915Chicago Addresseshis speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions in September 1893, issued as a small book by the Advaita Ashrama
- by 1908The Complete Works of Swami Vivekanandathe Mayavati Memorial Edition, printed in parts at the Advaita Ashrama’s Prabuddha Bharata Press; now nine volumes, the ninth published in 1997
- 1925Epistles: First Seriesthe first collection of his letters, published by the Advaita Ashrama
Shorter lectures in print
2
2 books · 1896–1900
- 1896The Ideal of a Universal Religiona single lecture printed as a pamphlet
- 1900Christ, the Messengera lecture on Jesus, printed by the Vedanta Centre
Quick facts about Swami Vivekananda
- Born
- Narendranath Datta, 12 January 1863, Calcutta (now Kolkata)
- Died
- 4 July 1902, Belur Math, near Calcutta, aged 39
- Teacher
- Ramakrishna, whom he first met at Dakshineswar in November 1881
- Chicago
- Spoke at the World’s Parliament of Religions, opening on 11 September 1893
- Known for
- He was one of the first Indian teachers to present Vedanta and yoga to Western audiences, and his lectures shaped how both were understood in the West and in modern India.
- Founded
- The Vedanta Society of New York (1894) and the Ramakrishna Mission (1 May 1897)
- Stenographer
- Joseph Josiah Goodwin, who took down most of his lectures from December 1895 until his death in 1898
- Remembered
- His birthday, 12 January, has been National Youth Day in India since 1985
How Swami Vivekananda Taught: Talks Taken Down in Shorthand
Vivekananda’s lectures were largely impromptu, and very little of his work began on paper. In December 1895 his New York supporters advertised for a stenographer and hired Joseph Josiah Goodwin, a young Englishman who took the lectures down in shorthand, typed them up and sent them to newspapers and to the Madras journal Brahmavadin. Goodwin followed him to London and to India, and is thought to have saved most of what survives; he died of fever at Ootacamund in June 1898, aged twenty-seven. The few things Vivekananda wrote himself, such as Bartaman Bharat and Prachya o Paschatya, were written in Bengali for the magazine Udbodhan.
The same ideas run through all of it: that the self in every person is divine, that the religions of the world are different paths to one truth, and that work, devotion, meditation and philosophical inquiry are four yogas suited to different temperaments. The Ramakrishna Mission he founded in 1897 put the same ideas into practice by joining monastic life to social service.
Raja Yoga sold quickly and shaped how the West came to understand yoga, though scholars have since questioned how traditional it was: Elizabeth De Michelis argues that it blends Patanjali with Western science, idealism and the occultism of the period, including mesmerism, and that the Brahmo Samaj shaped him more than Ramakrishna did, a reading the scholar-monk Swami Medhananda disputes. Others, such as James Madaio, warn against calling him a “Neo-Vedantin”, since much of what is credited to him appears in earlier Advaita texts. Because most of his books were edited after his death, the wording of the texts in The Complete Works is often an editor’s, built on Goodwin’s transcripts.
Frequently asked questions about Swami Vivekananda’s books
How many books did Swami Vivekananda write?
Most of his books are transcribed lectures rather than books he wrote. The ten best known are Karma Yoga (1896), Raja Yoga (1896), The Vedanta Philosophy (1896), Lectures from Colombo to Almora (1897), Modern India (1899), The East and the West (1900–01), Bhakti Yoga, My Master (1901), Jnana Yoga and Inspired Talks. Everything is gathered in The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, published by the Advaita Ashrama in nine volumes.
What was Swami Vivekananda’s first book?
Karma Yoga, eight lectures given in New York in December 1895 and January 1896 and published there in February 1896. Raja Yoga followed in July 1896, published in London by Longmans, Green.
What was the last book published in his lifetime?
Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures on Jnana Yoga, issued by the Vedanta Society in New York around 1902, the year he died. Inspired Talks, the second volume of Jnana Yoga and the English edition of The East and the West followed after his death on 4 July 1902.
What is Swami Vivekananda’s most famous book?
Raja Yoga (1896), his lectures on meditation together with a translation of and commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. It was one of the first books to present yoga to a broad Western readership, and scholars such as Elizabeth De Michelis treat it as the starting point of modern yoga.
In what order should I read Swami Vivekananda’s books?
Start with Karma Yoga, the shortest and most practical of the four yoga books, then Raja Yoga. Inspired Talks and My Master show the teacher and his own teacher, Ramakrishna; Jnana Yoga is the most philosophical and is best read last.
What did Swami Vivekananda say in Chicago in 1893?
At the opening of the World’s Parliament of Religions on 11 September 1893 he began with “Sisters and brothers of America”, spoke of a religion that accepts all religions as true, and condemned sectarianism, bigotry and fanaticism. His speeches at the Parliament are collected as Chicago Addresses and in the first volume of The Complete Works.
Who was Swami Vivekananda?
A Hindu monk, born Narendranath Datta in Calcutta on 12 January 1863, and the chief disciple of the mystic Ramakrishna. After speaking at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 he taught Vedanta and yoga in America and Britain, founded the Vedanta Society of New York in 1894 and the Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May 1897, and died at Belur Math on 4 July 1902, aged 39. India marks his birthday as National Youth Day.
Footnotes
- Swami Vivekananda — Belur Math (Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission)
- Vivekananda — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Swami Vivekananda — Wikipedia
- Online books by Swami Vivekananda — The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania
- Karma Yoga (book) — Wikipedia
- Raja Yoga (book) — Wikipedia
- Yoga Philosophy (Longmans, Green, 1896) — Wellcome Collection
- Vedanta Philosophy: Eight Lectures on Karma Yoga, 2nd ed. 1901 — New York Public Library
- The Vedanta Philosophy, introduction by C. C. Everett — selfdefinition.org
- Lectures from Colombo to Almora — Wikipedia
- Bartaman Bharat — Wikipedia
- Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures on Jnana Yoga — Mandala Collections, University of Virginia
- Jnana Yoga, Part II: Seven Lectures (1907) — Project Gutenberg
- Inspired Talks — Wikipedia
- J. J. Goodwin — Wikipedia
- Response to Welcome, Chicago, 11 September 1893 — Complete Works, Volume 1
Bibliography last verified 7 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth.”
— Swami Vivekananda, Response to Welcome, World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11 September 1893
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