Ways to Truth: A View of Hindu Tradition
Book Specification
Item Code: | IDK345 |
Author: | Ananda Wood |
Publisher: | D. K. Printworld Pvt. Ltd. |
Language: | English |
Edition: | 2008 |
ISBN: | 9788124604359 |
Pages: | 270 |
Cover: | Hardcover |
Other Details | 8.8" X 5.8" |
Weight | 530 gm |
Book Description
From the Jacket
In India, there has long been a tendency to emphasize the spoken word which is passed on alive from an individual teacher to each individual student. But, through the development of modern media, more use is now made of the written word which records information externally, in institutions that have been industrially, socially and culturally organized.
How then can we understand the Hindu tradition as alive today with its ancient emphasis upon the spoken word and the living individual? That is the question which this book investigates, Accordingly, it asks for a broader understanding of history, which would allow for a rightful accounting of the Vedas and of other oral learning.
Through its continued imphasis upon the living word, the Hindu tradition asks for a deeper understanding of reasoned inquiry. Such a reasoning does not work primarily through mechanical instruments in the restricted way that modern physics does. Instead, it works essentially through a reflective investigation of our living faculties, which are thus cultivated and clarified.
The goal of truth is not here sought through an institutional consensus; but rather as a common ground, which is approached quite differently through different personalities and institutions of culture.
About the Author
Ananda Wood, as his name suggests, is one of those people with a rather mixed background. He was born and brought up in India, studied mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, and went on to a Doctorate in Anthropology at the University of Chicago. After completing his university education, he returned to India, where he has now settled down to concentrate on a long-standing interest, in the modern interpretation of Advaita philosophy.
Preface
This book is one of many attempts to make some sense of Hinduism as a living tradition, which is now joining into a globalizing world. This particular attempt is centred on the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, so it provides only one of many points of view. Each view has its insights to contribute for a general audience, including those who might see things quite differently.
A general reader will notice that diacritical marks are often used, to transliterate words that come from Sanskrit. These marks show how to pronounce the Sanskrit letters, as indicated roughly in the footnote below. The reader need not worry too much about this, because English equivalents are provided repeatedly, to help avoid the need for Sanskrit terms.
In the end, it doesn't really matter whether Sanskrit terms are used or avoided. What matters is a willingness to investigate beliefs and assumptions that are taken blindly for granted, by force of unexamined habit, in one's own language and ideas and attitudes.
Preface | ix |
Part 1 Learning from the Past | |
HISTORY AND LEARNING AMONG HINDUS | |
Living History | 1 |
'Heard' and 'Remembered' Texts | 2 |
By Word of Mouth | 4 |
Traditional Authority | 6 |
An Individual Emphasis | 7 |
SOCIETY AND CASTE | |
Social Classes Jati and Varna | 9 |
Brahmins | 17 |
Ksatriyas | 19 |
Vaisyas | 20 |
Sudras | 21 |
Outcastes | 22 |
Renunciation | 25 |
CHANGING VIEWS OF EARLY INDIA | |
When and Where? | 28 |
Horses and Immigrations | 29 |
Knowledge and Travel | 30 |
Energy and Inner Light | 32 |
Vedic Texts and Archaeology | 33 |
The Current Immigration Picture | 35 |
Time-scales of History | 37 |
Another Picture, from Old Riverbeds | 39 |
Encoded Knowledge | 40 |
Uncertain Pictures | 42 |
History and Living Knowledge | 43 |
FOUR AIMS | |
Kama - Desire | 46 |
Artha - Wealth | 47 |
Dharma Well-founded Order | 47 |
Moksa - Freedom | 50 |
Part 2 Authority and Power | |
CREATION IN THE VEDAS | |
Subjective and Impersonal | 53 |
A Skeptical Creation Hymn | 55 |
Looking in | 61 |
REBIRTH AND DISSOLUTION | |
The Mantra 'Om' | |
Krama Srsti Cyclic Cosmology | 67 |
Karma Transmigration and Psychology | 71 |
Yugapat Srsti Creation All at Once | 75 |
Differing Accounts | 78 |
NATURE'S MANIFESTING LIFE | |
Personal Ego and Impartial Objectivity | 80 |
Illuminating Consciousness | 82 |
Knowing and Doing | 84 |
Expressive Energy | 88 |
Living Kinship | 90 |
The Self in Everyone | 93 |
THREE QUALITIES | |
Natural Activity | 96 |
Transcending Ground | 98 |
Arjuna's Fear | 101 |
FIVE LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE | |
The Traditional Five Elements | 103 |
A Comparison with Modern Physics | 106 |
Reflecting Back to Ground | 109 |
World and Personality | 111 |
YOGIC DISCIPLINE | |
Control of Mind | 116 |
Training of Character | 121 |
Altered States | 128 |
Undying Truth | 131 |
DETACHMENT FROM PERSONALITY | |
Karma Yoga | 133 |
Personality and Self | 136 |
Establishment in Truth | 141 |
Part 3 Learning and Enquiry | |
SOUND AND SEEING | |
The Sense of Sound | 149 |
Vibration and Light | 151 |
Shining Out | 154 |
Chanting and Enquiry | 156 |
Learning from Source | 159 |
LEVELS OF EXPRESSION | |
The Science of Language | 161 |
Differences and Knowledge | 164 |
Three Levels | 165 |
The Essence of Speech | 168 |
Levels and Ground | 170 |
LANGUAGE AND TRADITION | |
Natural Development | 172 |
Gifted by Seers | 174 |
Growth from Seed | 177 |
Elaboration over Time | 180 |
INTERPRETATION AND RETELLING | |
Freedoms of Choice | 184 |
Intensive Use | 186 |
Poetic Ambiguity | 188 |
Objective Analysis | 189 |
Reflective Questioning | 190 |
Changing Times | 198 |
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT | |
Sasana Traditional Instruction | 201 |
Vidyas Branches of Learning | 206 |
Darsanas World Views | 214 |
APPROACHING TRUTH | |
Sat - Existence | 223 |
Cit - Consciousness | 225 |
Ananda - Happiness | 228 |
An Afterword For a Globalizing World | |
TRADITION AND THE LIVIGN INDIVIDUAL | |
Individual Centering | 231 |
Reconciling Different Views | 233 |
Personal and Individual | 237 |
Ancient and Medieval Institutions | 240 |
Free-Thinking Individualism | 244 |
Academic Institutes and Living Knowledge | 247 |
Bibliographic References | 255 |
Index | |
General Index | 257 |
Index of Quoted Passages | 268 |