<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: On knowing what you are.
Review: Mr Dhruv S. Kaji - business management consultant and practising Vedantist - is a sincere and well-meaning person. He confesses that he started out as a confirmed skeptic, and that his initial study of Vedanta "was more of an intellectual game to confirm the facile prejudgement that Vedanta could only be one more sop for the weak or the mindless" (p.3). One is happy to hear, however, that what he discovered soon made him change his mind, and that his growing understanding of Vedanta led to a real improvement in the quality of his life. In this book he sets out to share some of his discoveries with us in the belief that a correct understanding of Vedanta could also enrich our lives. This is admirable. Anyone who sets out to bring a knowledge of Vedanta to the West certainly deserves our gratitude. Mr Kaji's book is aimed at the absolute beginner. If you have never read anything about India or Indian thought, and have no previous knowledge of great Asian thinkers such as Shankara but for some reason have become interested in Vedanta, his book may be just the book for you. In fact, you'll probably like it. The beginner will find much useful information in this book. Many misconceptions about Vedanta are patiently cleared away. The basics of Vedanta are carefully explained. There is a selection of relevant quotations from Vedantic sources. The author has also taken care to provide a useful annotated list of 'Some Interesting Books' for further reading (though the inclusion of publishers' addresses here would have been welcome). All in all, this is an interesting and useful book for the beginner, but for those who already have a certain amount of background I would suggest an alternate route to understanding. Mr Kaji points out that, when it comes to trying to acquire "knowledge of our own true self or knowledge of that knower within us" (pp.11-12), we are not going to get very far without the help of a teacher, and I would certainly agree with this. But what Mr Kaji might have made clearer is that, once having found the right teacher, all we then need is to be pointed in the right direction and given a slight push. We can do the rest by ourselves. For who has better access to your self than yourself? It isn't difficult to find out what you are. The truth has been staring you in the face all your life. It is closer to you than the tip of your own nose. The simple technique of "reversing the arrow of attention," a technique discovered while he was in India by an Englishman called Douglas Harding which can be learned from his 'On Having No Head,' or at one of his workshops or even at his website (...), will soon show you what you are, and it can be practised by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Make Douglas Harding your teacher. By means of his technique you will quickly see for yourself what Vedanta, and much else, is all about. Afterwards you will be able to turn to a work such as the 'Ashtavakra Gita,' a beautiful, ancient, short, simple and pure Advaita Vedanta text that Mr Kaji himself recommends, and be able to read it with full understanding. For "Advaita" means "Not-Two," and you will have clearly seen that that is what you are.
<< 1 >>
| 
