PREFACE This is a collection of papers which were written at different times for different occasions. They present reflections on the theme of Hinduism and how the Vedic knowledge which is greatly revered by Hinduism contains valuable bases for new discoveries, and which are relevant to the needs of our own times. Inevitably, some important ideas will be found repeated, but it is hoped that they will serve as reiterations. Hinduism is a non-dogmatic religion which acknowledges yogic science to be superior to religion. It has a capacity to renew itself and to invite adherents of other religions and even those who do not belong to any religion in a quest whereby religions can be

VEDIC IDEALS OF EDUCATION AND THEIR CONTEMPORARY RELEVANCE I. Our Contemporary Search The contemporary moment of human history is riddled with a number of dilemmas, and we find it extremely difficult to resolve them. We erect the ideal of truth, and our quest ends in probabilities filled with mixtures of truth and error; we erect the ideal of liberty; and our experiments oblige us to strangulate it in the interests of equality; we erect the ideal of equality and we find ourselves obliged to abandon it in the interests of liberty; we erect the Ideals of peace and unity but we seem to be incapable of fraternity; we erect huge edifices of the victorious an

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GODS IN THE VEDAS AND PURANAS History of Indian religion and spirituality has an inner continuity, even though forms and atmosphere have changed from time to time in the course of millennia. The Vedic beginning was so vast and so lofty, so comprehensive in its seed-form that the later developments could be considered to be growing forms necessitated by changing circumstances in terms of varying emphases on intellectuality, emotionality and sensuality as also by the boldness of experimental spirit that wanted to bring larger and larger sections of people, larger and larger gradations of people into the realm of experience of the secrets which were orig

ELEMENTS OF POETICS AND POETRY IN THE VEDA The very first thing that we may remark is that the Vedic Samhitas contain poetry of hundreds of poets, and even though they differ among themselves in style and power, they still share in common what may be called "algebraic notations", fund of images, figures, symbols, the adventurous climbing of the heights of visions and capability of infusing hue and colour, power and force, movement of rhythm and strength of substance in their poetry to such a great extent as to arrive at what may properly be called mantric power. That Vedic poetry is mystic and symbolic can be noticed at once by taking a numb

BHAGAVADGITA AND CONTEMPORARY CRISIS Bhagavadgita has this uniqueness that, unlike other great religious books of the world, it does not stand apart as a work by itself. It is given as an episode in an epic history of India and of a great war fought in it. This episode focuses on a critical moment in the soul of one of the leading personages of this epic history, Mahabharata. It is also a moment of the crowning action of his life, where he faces a work which is terrible, violent and sanguinary. And he is confronted with a critical choice when he must either recoil from it altogether or carry it through to its inexorable execution. The criticality of th

THE VEDA IN THE LIGHT OF SRI AUROBINDO The Veda or at least the Samhita of the Rigveda appears to be the earliest literary composition of humanity. There might have been earlier or contemporaneous compositions but they seem to have been lost in the tides and ebbs of time and we do not know what thoughts and aspirations they might have expressed. Considering, however, that there was, in the earlier stages, a remarkable tradition of mysteries, Orphic and Eleusinian in Greece, of occult lore and magic in Egypt and Chaldea, of Magi in Persia, and of the Rishis in India, there might have been in them something common but what could have been their conten

INDIAN CULTURE AND ITS MESSAGE The exact dates of the antiquity of Indian history are difficult to determine, but the earliest records of this history are surprisingly available to us with almost the same precision as they were composed in those ancient times. And these records are voluminous and consist of four anthologies or collections. Their generic name is Veda, which literally means "Book of Knowledge”. These four Vedas are: Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, and Atharvaveda. This is not an occasion to dwell. upon the contents of these anthologies, but if we want to give a quintessential idea, it can be summed up by stating that it insists on the quest

LANDMARKS OF HINDUISM I. The Vedic Age To understand the significance of the development of Hinduism, it is necessary to go back to the Veda, which can be regarded as the luminous seed of the huge banyan tree of what in course of time came to be known as Hinduism. (It may be noted that the ancient Indian Religion that was developed from the Veda was known as Sanatana Dharma or Arya Dharma. The word Hinduism came to be used at a later stage when foreigners referred to the religion practised by the people of India.) In the eyes of the Rishis, who composed the Veda, the physical and the psychical worlds were a manifestation and twofold and diverse and yet c

VEDIC TRADITION AND CONTEMPORARY CRISIS The Vedic tradition has a powerful message for contemporary humanity which is gripped with a crisis, the nature of which is difficult to be described in the ordinary and familiar terms of sociology, economics and polity. But this message can be discerned only if we consent to look upon the Vedic tradition not merely in its outer religious import but in its deeper pursuit of knowledge relating to what the Vedas call Prithvi, the earth, Antariksha, subtle levels of existence between matter and mind, Dyau, the plane of the higher mind, Svah, the world of light, and Surya, the world of everlasting day or of the