Spiritual Heritage of India

The Spiritual Heritage of India. By Swami Prabhavananda with foreword by Huston Smith. Hollywood, Calif.: Vedanta Press, 1979 (1963). Paperback, 374 pages. ISBN 0874810353 Swami Prabhavananda's book is a lucid, comprehensive, non-technical and extremely well-written survey of the scriptures, systems of thought, and main thinkers of the Indian tradition. Rich in quotations from the scriptures, it can be read with ease by anyone and will provide all the background one needs before pursuing topics of particular interest in greater depth. The book is organized as follows: BOOK I: THE VEDAS AND THE UPANISHADS - Samhitas, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads. BOOK II: THE AUXILIARY SCRIPTURES - Ramayana, Yoga-Vasistha, Mahabharata, Bhagavad Gita, Smritis, Puranas, Tantras. BOOK III: JAINISM AND BUDDHISM. BOOK IV: THE SIX SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT - Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya, Yoga System of Patanjali, Purva Mimamsa, Uttara-Mimamsa (or the Vedanta Sutras). BOOK V: VEDANTA AND ITS GREAT EXPONENTS - Gaudapada, Shankara, Bhaskara, Yamuna, Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Madhwa, Vallabha, Sri Caitanya, Sri Ramakrishna. The book is rounded out with a useful Bibliography and Index. It is well-printed on quality paper, has a flexible thermoplastic spine, is bound in sturdy paper wrappers and is ,in short, a well-produced book that will not (like many books today) self-destruct after minumum use. My one quibble with the book is that Swami Prabhavananda, in describing the Yoga Vasistha as a "subordinate derivative Ramayana" (p.86), has not done justice to it at all. Personally I find it to be an amazing and fascinating work and, as the main scripture of the Ajatavada school of Vedanta, quite different from the Ramayana in aim and scope. Readers might care to take a look at the large number of enthusiastic reviews it has received at Vasistha's Yoga. And for the Ajatavada theory see my Listmania list: 'Advaita and Physics agree - The universe does not exist'.

Briefly written, with lucidity, this book, in a single volume, summarises the development of Hindu philosophy and theology giving attention to the lives of great masters ,acharyas who founded different sects,the Bhakti [devotion] cult leaders with deep insight..a must-have book for all students of Hinduism,much deeper than many books of later authors.

The six Hindu darshanas are presented here. This is a topic of many books and they vary by there emphasis on either of the systems or by their location on the spectrum between spirituality and science. Here we have an advaita emphasis and a very spiritual approach. Prabhavananda, as a leading Swami of the Ramakrishna order, which he used to be, stands on the side of practical vedanta. Therefore those darshanas (=systems) are dealt with extensively and well. But Nyaya-Vaisheshika falls short. The book is easy to read and does provide valuable information about Hinduism. Other authors who dealt with the indian systems are, e.g: Hiriyanna, Glasenapp, Heinrich Zimmer, Dasgupta, Mahadevan, and so forth.