A look at India's major scriptures, translated and explained by Swami Prabhavananda.
- 374 pages US quality paperback
- 0-87481-035-3
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The Spiritual Heritage of India is a brief history of the philosophy of a country that never distinguished philosophy from religion. The account extends from centuries from which there is no historical record to the recent Sri Ramakrishna revival of the ancient Vedanta..
Included are selections and discussions on The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God, How To Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali, The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal. There are also chapters on the Vedas, Tantras, and other scriptures and accounts of some of the most important teachers of India.
"One of the most useful summaries in print of the tradition Toynbee saw as destined to figure prominently in the long range human future." -- Huston Smith, author of "The World's Religions"
Charming and Authoritative Book
"Swami Prabhavananda has written a charming and authoritative book on the spiritual heritage of India, by which he means that heritage in consonance with the Vedic tradition and its culmination in Vedanta" (p. 376).[4]
"Throughout the book breathes an air of relaxed simplicity and conviction.... I was particularly refreshed by the absence of attacks on science, materialism, naturalism, and other such means to spiritual fulfilment" (pp. 376–377.
Clear Indian View
The Spiritual Heritage of India offers a clear Indian view of a subject that currently suffers from too much Western commentary"
"Prabhavananda treats India's spiritual heritage in terms of 'immediate perception,' as opposed to abstract speculation.... his own translations, though limited in this volume, embody unusual poetic power"