The word as revelation: names of Gods

Description

• Foreword by Dawid Frawley ( Vamadeva Shastri )

About the Book : 

Most people, including Hindus, have never looked into what Hinduism really is. If you ask people about Hinduism, most Westerners will have quick answers about its polytheism, idolatry or castism, but if you ask them about the Upanishads or the Gita, about Atman and Brahman, they will have little to say. Most Western textbooks define Hinduism as a conglomeration, an ethnic religion, a castist creed, or a worship of many gods. Such people need to read Ram Swarup to really know what they are dealing with in what is called Hinduism. He will not let them get away with such a sloppy and superficial approach to what is perhaps humanity’s oldest heritage of spiritual knowledge.

Hinduism, perhaps more so than any religion, has always formulated itself as a Sanatana Dharma, an eternal and universal tradition of truth and natural law. While its formulation may be imperfect and worn by time, it is hardly dead or out of date. It is like a great Banyan tree, with many roots and branches, growing into the air as well as into the earth, accommodating a great variety of creatures and reducible to no pattern or conclusion.

Out of its background in the twentieth century have come such great saints and sages as Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Ramana Maharshi, and Anandamayi Ma to mention but a few. These great souls were not conscious of themselves as sectarian Hindus opposed to other religious beliefs but as part of Sanatana Dharma and its great lineages and approaches. Ram Swarup unfolds this Sanatana Dharma with both a panoramic vision and a pinpoint accuracy so that it comes alive to the reader as an internal force of consciousness and light.

For those who really want to understand the heart and soul of Hindu Dharma, the work of Ram Swarup is perhaps the best place to start. His expression is lucid, modern and concise, but firmly rooted in ancient traditions and a yogic understanding. He is aware of the many misconceptions and systematically works to remove them to arrive at the underlying truth that is helpful to all.

For those who want to understand the Hindu religion as a whole, Ram Swarup’s work is perhaps the best available guide. He is not speaking in terms of any particular guru or sampradâya but about the essence of the entire tradition, which pervades all of its multifarious manifestations. He is going back to an older, perhaps more rigorous but more honest presentation of this greater tradition which is beyond time and person, and which stands fearless in itself, not bowing down to any inferior creeds.

ISBN : 978-8185990682; Publisher : Voice of India