He is a man with astounding oratorical skills – Swami Vivekananda. The legendary Chicago speech still makes a thrill run down my spine. He is the man who has, through his immortal words, inspired millions.

The copy I read is a reproduction of a book published before 1923, the original. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages and errant marks. But this book despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Inspired Talks by Swami Vivekananda was constructed from notes taken by a Miss S.E. Waldo from New York, who from the early days of the Swami's American mission served him with unremitting devotion and she could put his thoughts onto paper.

Very rightly mentioned in the book, Swami is known all over the world as the greatest and most powerful exponent of the Vedanta in modem times. Many have felt the irresistible charm of his eloquence in India and abroad. In the present case Swami did not stand before a vast and critical audience to conquer them by his irrefutable arguments based upon sound logic, his bewitching personality and his rare gifts of explaining the most abstruse subjects in a most perspicuous manner accompanied by his cyclonic eloquence, but he was sitting before a few of his already conquered chosen disciples who had begun to see in him their only guide to take them beyond the ocean of ignorance and misery. There he sat in the glory of his own all-illumining realisation, diffusing all about him, the balmy rays of his inner light by means of his sweet and musical voice, softly raising and opening the lotus buds of the hearts of his ardent devotees. Peace reigned all around him. Blessed indeed were those few fortunate souls who had the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of such a great sage and Guru.

An enlightening and fascinating read, this book is recommended for inclusion on the bookshelf of any admirer of Swami Vivekananda. Many of these earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive.