At first glance, Vivekananda’s positions on the caste system, inequality, and social reform appear ambiguous. On the one hand, Vivekananda advocated for the eradication of caste hierarchy. On the other hand, he emphasized the importance of maintaining a cultural hierarchy and asserted that Brahmanical Hinduism represented the pinnacle of cultural development. For Vivekananda, however, there were no contradictions in his stance on inequality. Expounding on Hindu philosophy, he argued that forces of inequality and equality coexist, but in two different worlds. In the metaphysical realm, we are one with the ultimate divine principle, Brahman, and therefore equal. In the phenomenal world, characterized by differentiation, we can never be equal. Vivekananda equated culture, specifically Hinduism, with superior spiritual and philosophical ideas that helped the Hindus accept inequality and live together as one nation. According to some, Vivekananda’s belief in the superiority of Brahmanical Hinduism and its relevance for India’s unity makes him the founder of Hindu nationalism. Those who oppose the idea that Vivekananda advanced Hindu supremacism argue that Vivekananda’s views on Hinduism were a product of the nineteenth century and therefore not comparable to the twentieth and twenty-first-century Hindu nationalist perspectives. It may be unfair to judge the political implications of Vivekananda’s views on Hinduism and national unity retrospectively. However, the relationship between culture and inequality, upon which his position on Hinduism and India rests, is as instrumental in shaping society today as it was in the nineteenth century.