Vedanta for the Western World: A Symposium on Vedanta

Disclaimer: I didn't read every essay in the book. I picked and chose, and read the half of the essays (those that appealed to me). Fortunately, this book allows you to do just that. This is a book about modern Hindu thought as it relates to spirituality and religion by a group of Western and Indian writers. Like many Vedanta books aimed at a Western audience, Christian ideas serve as reference points rather frequently. Much of this I think has to do with Ramakrishna's ventures into both Islam and Christianity, his return to Hinduism, and his message that one could find spiritual value in any of the religions. There are many elements of the book that I found challenging and am not sure if I accept, but I also think that one reads a book like this to provide food for contemplation and thought, not to provide answers to questions that we accept without question. In particular the question of celibacy strikes me as inconsistent with how I look at religion and spirituality, in part because my view of concepts analogous to Brahman and Maya differ in fundamental ways from the contemporary Hindu approach. This isn't to say one side is right and the other wrong. They may well both be correct from limited perspectives. On the other hand, I found many essays in the book to be quite interesting. Gerald Heard's essay "Return to Ritual" was quite striking and I found it resonated with me a great deal, and the general description of what drives folks from modernism towards Vedanta and other religions echoed elsewhere seems as valid today as when it was written.

For thirty years I have read and inquired about the major religious traditions in the world, studying them like the historical linguist I was, trying to find the common threads that would reveal to me the basic truths of the universe. I read history by Trevor Ling, theory by Bhagavan Das, practice by Tarthang Tulku and Lama Govinda, commentaries and scriptures in translation. This collection of essays gathered by Christopher Isherwood is by far the most lucid commentary on the common currents between Christianity and the writings that form the basis of both Hinduism and Buddhism that I have ever found. The essays are short, mostly, only three to five pages and easy to digest in a short sitting. This is not a book that needs to be read cover to cover, but you will be tempted to do just that. Then you will want to read it again, but more slowly.Mr. Isherwood, in a wonderfully written introduction asks the question, how does one achieve the divinity we are taught is already ours? The answer -- by ceasing to be oneself -- is not one commonly taught in church. (I was raised a Protestant). A rather spirited imaginary dialogue follows this answer, and it is supported not only by the Eastern teachers represented here, but also by the Christians, who illuminate areas of our familiar religion that we seldom explore. I can't begin to do justice to this work. Just trust me. If you're looking for enlightenment, this is a good place to begin.