Streamling Our Religion (An Old and Rare Book)

About The Author Rajendra Behari Lai, born in 1907, had a brilliant academic career, and took his M Sc. degree in Physics in the first division from the University of Allahabad in 1929.

Standing first in an All-India Competitive Examination, he joined the Indian Railways as an Assistant Transportation Officer in 1936. He held various posts, such as Divisional Superintendent and Chief Operating Superintendent, and retired, as Additional Member, Railway Board, in 1963.

In 1969-70, he worked as a one-man Expert Committee on Railway Compensation Claims with the Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

He has been a strong advocate of efficiency in work and administration: Based on his vast studies and practical experience, he has written three books on these topics: Manasika Dakshata (Gita Press, Gorakhpur), The Art of Efficient Working (Sterling Publishers, New Delhi), and Human Engineering or the Art of Administration (Book Centre, Bombay).

The study of religion has been his life-long interest, specially its harmonization with science, the practical experience of mankind and the needs of the modern age. The fruits of his labours in this field have been published in many articles, and in three books, namely The Gita in the Light of Modern Science (Somaiya Publications, Bombay), Religion in the Light of Reason and Science (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay) and the present volume.

He is now writing a series of eight articles-cum-appeals under the general caption "The Call of Sri Krishna" bringing out an agreed and authoritative version of Hinduism with special stress on the secular duties which are badly neglected at present.

Foreword I have had the privilege of reading the twenty articles written by Shri R. B. Lal, which had already appeared serially in the Bhavan's Journal of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, under the title Streamlining Our Religion, and which are now being published in book form in the Bhavan's series. There should be no doubt that like his pre- published books, there will be a great demand for it also from the discerning public.

My own contact with Shri Lal is by now more than 40 years old and I have greatly benefited by the study of what he has written, as well as by the many personal discussions we have had during the period of our service in the Railways and after our retirement. His studies of the Gita and the related literature have been detailed, and in-formed with an insight replete with much original thinking.

I have myself read and re-read the Gita many times, but in a more customary and orthodox way, relying on the commentaries of Sankara, Shridhar, Tilak, Gyaneshwar and the explanations and elucidations offered by other devotees who, in essence, have preferred to tread the conventional path.

It was, therefore, somewhat of a novel experience to read the outpourings of Shri R. B. Lal's heart and intellect, which have so forcefully lashed against the bigotry, the rituals, and the disputes, to which have degenerated, as of today, the basic truths and the teachings of our lofty and eternal religion, originally expounded in the Vedas, the Vedanta and the Gita as the Sanatana Dharma. One may not necessarily agree, in all their details, with Shri Lal's interpretation of the relative importance of the various Paths of Yoga and the dharma and duties propounded in the Gita, and sometimes even with his logic, but the emphasis, quite rightly laid by him, upon the de-cadence that has permeated our current religious practices has not to be noted.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages